🏋️‍♀️Outlift a Runner, 🏃‍♂️Outrun a Lifter

Good morning. I hope this newsletter finds you thriving 🕺 

If you’re feeling anything less than that, I hope you welcome it, feel it, act on it if necessary, and can find joy today.

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“Outlift a runner, outrun a lifter.”

This is a quote I heard in a CrossFit class probably 8–9 years ago and I’ve never forgotten it.

There’s CrossFit as a group fitness class, and then there’s CrossFit as a competitive sport. Most people just want the exercise and health benefits. They’ll definitely get pretty fit if they stick with it. But the actual CrossFit “athletes,” who compete in the sport every year, are absolute beasts.

They can deadlift 315 for reps between 7-minute miles. They can do 20 pull-ups in 30 seconds then go ham on an assault bike for a full minute, 10 times over. They can handstand walk across the gym and back, then jump on chest-height boxes until the clock strikes 9:00 or 20:00 or 45:00.

• Taking this moment to shout out some of my favorites like Alec Smith, Marcus Filly (former CrossFitter), Brent Fikowski, and even my friend Austin Nelson. Like I said, beasts 🦁 

Pick any average runner off the street, and at least 9 times out of 10, a good CrossFitter can outlift them.

Pick any average lifter in the gym, and 9 times out of 10, a good CrossFitter can outrun them.

If modern day exercise was about survival of the fittest, you better watch out. There’s a reason the annual CrossFit Games champions are crowned “Fittest on Earth.” Because they’re also some of the most versatile athletes.

You don’t have to be the fittest on earth to run well and lift well, though. In fact, you can be pretty average. You can be just a hair above average, and live up to a mantra that has inspired my personal fitness for the better part of a decade: Outlift (most of) the runners; outrun (most of) the lifters.

CrossFit was born out of the “functional fitness” movement. Beyond basic aerobics like running or 90s VHS tapes of men with more hair than leotard fabric. Beyond the bulky, stiff, red-faced gym bros whose lifts don’t count if they don’t scream across the gym. A true “Renaissance man” of fitness was born: the CrossFitter.

CrossFit was crafted to enable people to build massive metabolic capacities in a wide array of movement patterns. To move heavy, far, fast, repetitively, and well.

The good news? You don’t even have to belong to a CrossFit gym to adopt these principles.

Don’t be the slowest zebra, and don’t be the weakest lion.

CrossFitters proved that you can be fast and strong—and sustain either or both for much longer than anyone else. Turns out, the health benefits of well-rounded, robust fitness are quite spectacular as well. If you want to live a long, healthy, functional life, you need everything from muscle mass to strength to power to speed to aerobic capacity.

Life isn’t one-dimensional. We don’t only walk long distances with a child on our backs every day. We don’t only scale cliffs and climb trees. We don’t only pick up heavy things and move them over there (couch going up three flights of stairs, I’m looking at you). 🛋️ 

Life requires us to move in all kinds of ways, at all kinds of speeds, in all ranges of motion, with all kinds of weights.

We encounter all sorts of demands in our lives. The more versatile our fitness is, the more we can respond to anything that comes our way. God forbid, if you were to find yourself or someone else in danger, if you can move quickly and with strength, you’re far more likely to be able to help than if you were unable to move well.

Personally, for as long as I possibly can, even if I don’t have to, I want to be able to respond in any emergency situation that requires physicality so I can be of service and/or protection to others. Many of the first responders of our world know this reality all too well.

I won’t go into much detail today about how to lift or how to run. Incorporate a variety of movement into your life, and most importantly, find some that you enjoy. Some suggestions:

My encouragement to you today is to get out there and try cardio or weight training—or even better—both.

If you have a competitive bone in your body, imagine a runner you know (famous or friend) and push yourself to get strong enough to hypothetically outlift them. Imagine a lifter you know and push yourself to outrun what you think they could do.

(If comparing yourself to others typically results in more negativity than positivity for you, don’t worry about others. Read this earlier post. Then get to work outrunning and outlifting your yesterday’s self.)

When I’ve been going hard on the weights, I try to find a way to push myself aerobically. When I’ve been crushing the cardio, I go make sure I can still lift heavy things and maintain muscle mass.

Do the same, and you’ll never be the slowest zebra or the weakest lion. But you just might end up being the oldest.

✅ Take Action

Every newsletter's Take Action section will invite you to take small steps to improve your health. Recognizing that we all have different capabilities, I'll offer three different levels of action you can choose to take.

Level 1: If you’re more used to lifting, go do some cardio. If you’re more used to cardio, go lift some weights. Simple as that.

Level 2: Be sure to exercise both resistance training and cardio every week. They can be during the same session (cardio at the end), different times of day, on different days, or even intertwined throughout one workout (finding ways to keep your heart rate up while lifting).

Level 3: Get competitive. Pick a good runner, and see if you can match their running and outlift them. Pick a good lifter, and see if you can match their lifting and outrun them. Should be fun :)

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✍️ Drew's Picks:

• Article: Every self-help book ever, boiled down to 11 simple rules. Honestly, if we could all really digest these themes and incorporate them into our lives, I think the world would be a lot better off.

• Song: This “song” is basically four minutes of bodybuilder Ronnie Coleman screaming motivation over an epic cinematic track. It’s… probably not for everyone, but boy has it helped me power through a couple tough sets this week!

If you enjoyed today’s newsletter, click the link below, copy the website, and text it to a friend. It’d mean more than water break during an August football practice 🏈 

Lots of great things to celebrate this month: good fathers, LGBTQ+ resilience and rights, Juneteenth, the official start of summer… Go celebrate and love people! 🥳 

Keep moving,

Drew

The content in Move to Improve is meant to be informative in nature, but it should not be taken as medical advice. It is always a good idea to consult with a trusted health professional before making any major lifestyle changes that could have a significant impact on your health. This is not a medical resource, and any opinions and articles are not intended for use as diagnosis, prevention, and/or treatment of health problems. They are not substitutes for consulting a qualified medical professional. Please think critically and take what I say with a grain of salt (aka don’t sue me).