The Perfect Plan-Ship

Last night, Judy and I met up with some of my old college buds, who were in town for the weekend.  Jim and Mary were the Peter Pan and Wendy of the Lost Boys that were our college rowing crew.  Twenty years later, they’re still the warmest, funniest couple you could ever meet.  We spent hours doing the old where-are-they-now, catching up on our former teammates, talking and laughing, reminiscing and wacking philosophical about life.  It was a fantastic time.

“We were such a bunch of clowns,” I mused at one point, “it’s amazing we could even get the boat down the course.”

“But you know,” Jim countered, “we actually did okay.  Surprisingly, we had some solid wins in there.”

All of which has me thinking about the secret sauce of winning in athletics and life: friendship.  (Yeah, we’re going cheesy today.)  Over the course of just a few years, the guys on my crew somehow went from an assortment of goofballs, to teammates, to lifelong friends.  

Kermit and Robin swim laps with their cetacean buddies.

When Judy and I moved here nine years ago, we didn’t know anyone. She signed up for a women’s running group, and quickly found a great social circle to go along with her great workout.  Her success in becoming a badass runner through 5K’s, 10K’s and even half-marathons, inspired me to give rowing another go, even after my 15-year hiatus.  I’m so glad I did, because I now consider my rowing buddies to be my closest friends in the world.  

Daniel Brown captures the effect beautifully in The Boys in the Boat (great book, by the way): “What mattered more than how hard a man rowed was how well everything he did in the boat harmonized with what the other fellows were doing. And a man couldn’t harmonize with his crewmates unless he opened his heart to them. He had to care about his crew.”

People think I’m crazy disciplined (or perhaps just crazy) to wake up early on a weekday to go work out.  But in truth, when my alarm goes off at 4:48 am, I hop out of the bed and head straight out the door — no snooze, no hesitation.  Why?  Not because of my awesome low-carb diet, and not because of my innate love of rowing (though both certainly help).  It’s because I know that, after going out on the water and getting a good sweat on, I'll hit Starbucks with my boys, where we’ll spend a few minutes talking and cracking jokes before heading to work.  I call this my “Blue Zone time,”after the book by Dan Buettner, and there’s more and more research showing that such post-workout socialization can lead to better performance, health, and longevity.  

For years, I fell into the trap that so many Americans do: equating “exercise” with “working out” — alone, at a big box gym.  It was a boring and solitary experience that, for some strange reason, I was never able to stick with for very long.  Now exercise is a major part of my life.  

And it’s not just me. My sister-in-law Pawee has become a fitness fiend overnight, posting gorgeous, inspirational selfies of her latest iron-pumping accomplishments.  And in most of her pics, she’s smiling and having fun with her girlfriends.  Programs like hers have it figured out: if you want people to keep coming back, get them together.  In an era when loneliness is reaching epidemic proportions, and having real, long term consequences for our health, this is not just fluffy stuff.  It matters.  

Want to get healthy?  Want to find a way to stick to your workout routine?  My advice is this: find a form of exercise that you like, and do it with people you get along with.  Before you know it, you’ll love both your exercise and your new friends.  You’ll find yourself opening your heart and strengthening it all at once, and living a fuller, happier life.  A-la-da dig dig dig!

Note: The ramblings published on this blog are the opinions of the author alone and shared for entertainment purposes only.  The author is an English major with no medical or scientific background; thus, his words should never be taken as medical advice.  Consult with your doctor or medical professional before undertaking any diet or exercise program.