You can be exercising and having fun

I’m going to tell you something a gym owner probably shouldn’t say.

I hate the gym.

When I go to the gym, I’m bored. I lose focus. I watch the clock, I count reps, I wait for it to be over.

But at Jiu Jitsu? I was the last person training. Twenty years in, I still am. Class ends and I look up and I’m still on the mat.

That’s the secret nobody tells you. You can be exercising and having fun. At the same time.

Most of what we call fitness is built on gritting your teeth through something you’d rather not be doing. Jiu Jitsu is different. It’s a puzzle you solve with your whole body, with another person, and an hour disappears before you ever think the word “workout.”

Over the next five posts, I’m going to give you the five things I wish somebody had told me on day one. None of them are techniques. They’re the things that decide whether you’re still training in year three or gone by month two.

Start with the first one: tap early, tap often.

Or come feel it for yourself: Book your first class — no commitment, no pressure.