Two years ago I gave up working out for a while. Before I started my hiatus, I wrote up a little post explaining my thoughts and why I was doing it, Why A Trainer Is Giving Up Working Out. After a couple months I resumed working out, feeling much better off both mentally and physically after the break. It was just what I needed to help manage becoming a father of three.

Fast forward a bit. With baby number 4 cooking and due in a little over a month, it’s time to start prepping for life management and prioritizing my time and energy. I realize that life is about to get a little (more) crazy and I will need to have as much in reserve as possible to be the best dad and husband I can be. Similar to last time, when I look at my life, the biggest energy expense I can eliminate is exercise. I enjoy working out but as someone in good shape I don’t really need to “exercise”. Working out, unless it serves a purpose, is really just wasting energy and requires a lot from the body, particularly in the form of recovery. This extra stress on my body isn’t worth it when it comes to surviving the addition of a new baby and the demands that entails. If anything has to give in my life it should be the most trivial thing I do: working out.

To clarify a bit: I still need to move my body and be active, which I don’t plan on giving up. I still want to train for next year’s American Ninja Warrior and I don’t plan on giving that up either. What I plan on giving up is the time and energy spent exercising that doesn’t contribute to my goals in the upcoming months. I will keep movement, play and activity in my life and I will keep my simple ninja training but everything else will go. In essence, I’m going to streamline my movement time. The last year and a half I have been moving, training and working out. The next few months, I’m dropping the “working out” and saving that energy for the rest of life.

This is probably what most of us should do anyway. Move our bodies and train for what’s important to us. Working out just for the sake of working out (what most people do) is likely as much of an unnecessary energy drain as it is a benefit. In this world of over stressed and energy drained people it’s probably reasonable for us to be smart about wasting energy. So that’s what I plan to do: save it for the things that really matter.

Thanks for reading, have a great day!