I have been strength training pretty religiously for the last 25 years.

It started at Sportsite at age 16, in my hometown of Sandwich, MA (which changed my life).

And 3-4 times per week, every week, for the next 19 years, I was never without a gym membership. Fitness was my highest priority, always working towards specific goals (get bigger and stronger, or faster, or leaner, etc.).

I tracked every workout. I tracked my meals. I took measurements weekly. I loved seeing all the numbers going in the right direction.

Which makes sense: I own a fitness company called Nerd Fitness! Nerds love leveling up.

I also felt like it was important to look like a guy who owns a fitness company. I wanted to show that I practiced what I preached: a strong Steve is a healthy Steve, getting strong builds confidence, being healthy makes the rest of life easier, etc.

For the last six years though, I haven’t been a member of a real gym.

Not only that, but I’ve done something I never thought I would do:

I half-assed some workouts. I often skipped others.

I’m actually really proud of this. Let’s talk about it.

Pandemics and lopsided floors and community centers, oh my!

When I moved to Nashville in the early days of the pandemic, there were no gyms open.

A friend loaned me a barbell and some weights to stick in my new slanted, lopsided, dark basement. Unsurprisingly, my workouts were less than inspired during these years. I still trained, but I couldn’t chase personal bests and often found myself nursing the occasional repetitive-use injury.

I did the best I could, but fitness was no longer a top priority for me.

I was pretty burned out with work and life (like many insecure overachieving millennials), and shifted my priorities: life happened outside of the gym. I was also working through a lot personal stuff (thanks therapy!). I started playing golf again too (after 20 years away), and fell back in love with the game.

So, after rarely missing a workout for two decades, I missed plenty of workouts, and half-assed many others.

Shockingly, I discovered the world didn’t end.

Sure, I might no longer have been Captain-America-fit, but I was still pretty dang fit! And for a few years, hitting most of my workouts, most of the time, was good enough.

When life took a left turn in 2024, I moved to a different part of town. I didn’t have a basement or a home gym, but I discovered a community center near me. It has some weights, a squat rack, and seemed like a decent stopgap while I was sorting out my new life.

For the last few years, fitness moved even further down my priority.

I was halfway through writing a book, traveling much more than usual, and thinking deeply about what I wanted my my new life to look like. I wasn’t trying to build more muscle. I wasn’t chasing a specific goal. Fitness was like brushing my teeth or showering: I knew it was good for me, and I did it to maintain some level of fitness/strength hygiene.

It also forced me out of my house!

Whenever I could get to the community center, I did some exercises and skipped most of the others. My energy levels were so low that I often just did one exercise and left. I often lifted less weight than the week before. I wasn’t making any progress on anything health or fitness related.

This all flies in the face of how I trained from the previous 23 years.

It also kept me afloat.

“All or nothing” becomes “All, then nothing”

I’ve been writing full-time about helping nerds get fit since 2009.

My essays have been read by tens of millions of people. Team Nerd Fitness has trained 20,000 clients, which has given us an inside look at everybody’s biggest challenges and struggles with getting fit.

Across all ages and genders and demographics, there’s one pattern we’ve identified that’s harder to break than any other:

The “all or nothing” mentality.

Everybody gets so excited for their first three weeks of a new workout routine or training, and then life gets in the way. A kid gets sick, a work trip goes awry, we find ourselves caring for an aging parent.

In other words: life happens.

And the tiny voice in our heads steps in:

• “If I can’t do ALL my workouts this week, why bother?”
• “I’m really busy. I’ll take a break until things slow down.”
• “I don’t have time for my full workout today. No workout it is!”

The problem with “All or Nothing” is that it becomes “all, then nothing.”

We forget that “Some” is a perfectly acceptable amount!

Not only that, but the “all” is a completely arbitrary amount of exercise that we’ve chosen. Our expectations are out of whack.

Missing a workout isn’t “game over.” It’s when we let one missed workout become a missed week which leads to a missed month and so on. And the longer we wait for things to “slow down,” the more inertia we have to overcome when we eventually start back up again.

Which is why “some” can be a perfectly acceptable amount, especially if it’s enough to keep us afloat.

Steve treads water, then starts swimming again

For the last six years, my fitness goals have been to “tread water.”

I wasn’t swimming hard in one direction, nor was I letting myself give up completely. I was strategically treading water, staying afloat, with no expectation other than “I’m going to tread water today so that I can give myself a chance to tread water tomorrow.”

I wasn’t making progress, but I wasn’t falling behind either.

Every day spent treading water was a reminder to myself that I was still trying.

Some weeks, I worked out once per week. Some weeks, I did two half-assed workouts. I never beat myself up for not making progress. Compared to giving up completely, treading water was a massive win.

Now that my book is done, I can turn a bit more attention over to my physical fitness and get to work on prepping my body for the next 25 years of training.

Which is why after six years, I rejoined a real gym.

I also have a very different mentality than my previous 25 years of training.

Instead of “get as big and strong as possible,” I’m working hard to check my ego at the door. This gym is full of young cool kids in cool clothes who are MUCH bigger and stronger than me. I am now the old timer, and it’s a bit humbling.

It’s also fun and different and challenging.

At 41, I’m not the same twentysomething who started Nerd Fitness all those years ago. I have a few repetitive stress injuries, a bum shoulder (coming up on 15 years), and my spondylolisthesis (two of my lower vertebrae don’t line up) has created some persistent lower body challenges.

Which means my strength training will be accompanied by humbling mobility and core work.

I attended my first yoga class in over a decade, and felt like the Tin Man trying to stretch. I was pretty self-conscious before, but quickly reminded myself that I was there to do the work and enjoyed the experience.

Also, for the first time in six years, I have a specific goal I’m working towards.

This summer, I’m headed to Ireland for a golf trip as a celebration of my book coming out. I’ll be playing six rounds of golf in seven days, walking probably 10 miles a day, and I swing violently (which is also something I’m trying to work on!)

To help me stay on track and protect my back from six days of violent twisting, I’ve actually recruited Coach Matt (GM of Team Nerd Fitness) to coach me with Nerd Fitness Coaching!

I’m excited to leverage his expertise and experience to bulletproof my body for the coming decades, help me accept my limitations and train around/with my injuries, and see what we results we can find along the way.

(I’ll be sharing more of my experience in the future!)

With my book coming out 7 weeks from today (holy crap), I have a busy busy few months ahead. But I also have a goal and some focus, and exercise is once again serving as a good foundational practice to keep me sane.

I’m excited to go down this path and see what comes of it. I can always fall back on my “tread water” workouts during busy weeks, and then make progress other weeks.

I remind myself constantly that life is VERY rarely ALL or nothing.

“Some” is a perfectly acceptable amount.

A half-assed workout is better than no workout. Imperfectly written words are better than a “perfect” essay that resides only in my head. Doing something semi-regularly or occasionally is so much better than waiting for a future “right time” that never comes.

“Some” can keep us afloat for a very long time.

How to Try Again Corner – 7 Weeks from Launch!

This concept of “treading water” plays a role in a chapter of How to Try Again, which also includes a jaw-dropping story about one poor man’s worst. vacation. ever.

(People who pre-order the book can read that chapter today! Learn how here.)

“Not making progress” might be the best we can do right now, especially when the alternative is “I give up.”

A few weeks from now, I’m going to be officially kicking off the “pre-launch party” for my book coming in June. I have some really fun news to share about the book, more pre-order bonuses coming, and exciting early buzz.

I have a busy few months ahead (trying to get people to buy and read books in 2026 is quite the challenge!) but I’m so excited to share my work with the world. It’s been a journey getting this book to bookshelves, and I’m so proud of it.

I’ll be treading water when things get hectic. I hope you give yourself permission to do the same.

-Steve

PS: Discuss this post over on Substack and share with somebody else who might need to tread water right now.

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