Performance Over Looks

Somewhere along the way, fitness turned into photography.

"Fitness" became simply how you look.

It doesn't matter how strong you are, what your aerobic fitness is like, your mobility, your flexibility.

Just whether or not you have abs and veins everywhere.

Progress is measured in the mirror, confirmed by the phone, and compared to people you see online.

I think that's backward.

Sure, you should care how you look and you should take pride in your appearance, but that should not be your sole health and fitness focus.

Lots of times, people who train with physique being the main focus are quietly dissatisfied or unhappy at best, and miserable, depressed, and severely body dysmorphic at worst.

You Can't PR Your Reflection

Here's the problem with looks as the goal: there's no finish line and no objective scoreboard.

The mirror tells you something different depending on the lighting, the pump, what you ate yesterday, and what mood you're in.

Ask anyone who's done a cut for a bodybuilding show how they felt at their leanest.

Usually weak, tired, cold, and still finding flaws.

And you're really not able to see yourself the way others see you.

I'm proof of this.

Every time I do a cut and get lean, I think, "I could lose a few more pounds and tighten up these love handles. I could have some more veins on my abs."

Then I come out of it, gain 5 or 10 lbs back, settle at a training weight I can comfortably maintain, and look back at the pictures.

Every time: "Wow, I was way leaner and more ripped than I realized."

Performance doesn't have that problem.

A 5K time is a 5K time.

A deadlift either goes up or it doesn't.

You slept well, you have energy for your kids at 7pm, you carried all the groceries in one trip.

Performance Builds The Look Anyway

Diet and other factors matter too, but if you get to the point where you can run, say, a sub-20 5K and deadlift 450 lbs, you're going to have a pretty decent physique.

Look at the physiques of pro athletes in positions that reward high levels of aerobic fitness and speed.

Wide receivers, soccer players, mid-distance track guys, sprinters, high jumpers, long jumpers, decathletes.

By no means am I saying they're all clean and not on drugs.

But their physiques are far closer to what's attainable for most people than the drug-fueled physiques of 5'5" roided-out lifters posing on Instagram with perfect lighting and a pump.

Keep in mind, most of those guys you think look really good:

1. Don't look like that year round.
2. Feel like shit most of the time.
3. Are on a ton of PEDs that make it not only possible, but tolerable, to stay that lean.

What To Prioritize Instead

I'm not saying you shouldn't care about your physique or how you look. Everybody cares, and should care (to a point).

I'm saying you should prioritize:

All of those matter more than how vascular your arms are or how defined your six-pack is.

I want to be strong and fast well into my 40s, 50s, and beyond.

Energy, health, and the ability to say yes to physical stuff without thinking about it.

The physique that comes with training like that is a nice side effect, but it's not the main goal.

Capacity Training, the app I've spent the last several months building, is built entirely around this.

Performance first: your lifts and your runs, progressing together.

It's in private testing right now. Get on the waitlist for first access when it opens.

Want in sooner? I'm still adding beta testers.

Reply "beta" (iPhone only) and I'll send you the details.

Mike