Why You Should “Play the Long Game” In Your Fitness Pursuits

This morning as I was finalizing a kettlebell order for TNT members’ home use, I was struck by an observation: people ordered a lot of big bells.

Since I’m kind of a “math guy”, I calculated some numbers excluding the few kettlebells that I’m buying for the gym:

• 53% of the kettlebells were 24 kg (53 lb) or heavier
• Of the remainder that were less than 24 kg, 62% fell into the 16-20 kg (35-44 lb) range
• The heaviest kettlebell was 48 kg (106 lb)
• Three different people ordered 40 kg bells
• The average size was 23.6 kg (52 lb)
• Four of the 24-kg-or-heavier kettlebells were ordered by women

Why is any of that significant?

Because it reminded me of the importance of playing the long game.

Let me add a little more context to explain.

You see, the sizes of the bells that people ordered got me thinking back to the early days of TNT in late 2008 and early 2009.

In my first big order to stock the gym, I bought a bunch of the common kettlebell sizes. There were a handful of 8s, 12s, and 20s, a ton of 16s and 24s (because those were the standard sizes used at the certification by women and men, respectively), a few 32s, two 40s, and a 48 (all in kilograms).

If you’ve seen the price of kettlebells and the cost to ship them, you can probably guess that it wasn’t an inexpensive purchase. Of course, I was excited to introduce people to this awesome cannonball-with-a-handle tool that had changed my life. So that, along with the fact that I was starting a business, made me happy to do it.

But over the course of the next 6-12 months, I remember hoping multiple times that I hadn’t wasted a bunch of money because barely anyone even touched the 40s, much less the 48. In fact, the 32s were also rarely used, and I had an overabundance of 24s and 16s too.

Now there were certainly a number of reasons for all of that, not the least of which were my levels of experience as a business owner and a strength coach.

And in the years since, everything has changed. Take, for example, the 28 gentlemen^† who have done a get-up with 48 kg or more and the 15 ladies^† who have done so with 32 kg or more (five of whom have done it with 36 kg), not to mention the hundreds of others who have progressed well beyond their starting points in the get-up, other lifts, and a variety of practical outside-the-gym ways.

But back in 2009 I couldn’t say for certain that’s what would happen.

What I could do (and did) was to have a little faith that something of the sort could happen as long as I continued learning and showing up: iterating workout programming methods, connecting with more people, and doing what I could to inspire those people to reach for more challenging goals.

Which brings me back to this most recent kettlebell order.

In this single order, TNT members purchased more kettlebells larger than 24 kg for their individual home use than the number of kettlebells larger than 24 kg that I initially purchased for the gym.

I think that’s not only super cool, but also that it wouldn’t have happened if I had been more focused on playing the common fitness short game of simply making every workout an ass-kicker.

Putting it into practice

In a series of prior tips, I also discussed using a structural as opposed to transactional approach to cardio training, which is more of a long-game approach than a short one. While there’s nothing wrong with occasionally playing the short game in cardio, strength, flexibility, athletic skill, nutrition, finances, business, or anything else, playing the long game in any specific endeavor usually leads to better long-term results.

This week, consider where you’ve been playing the short game. How long have you been playing it? What have been your results? What might the long game look like? If your results have so far been underwhelming, might it be worth taking a different approach?

If your answer to the last question was “yes”, start small… but get to it! Your ten-years-in-the-future self will thank you.

(And if you have no idea where to start, we can help—as long as your goal is related to mindset, fitness, or nutrition anyway!)