Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Summary
On episode 553 of 40+ Fitness, Coach Allan sits down with Art Trapotsis, founder and president of Keep It Tight Athletics, a Boston-based cycling club, a certified USA Cycling coach and member of Team USA’s sprint triathlon team, and author of The Everyday Athlete: How to Balance Work, Family, and Fitness for Life.
Art’s research found that work, family, and fitness are not three separate buckets: without fitness, it is hard to succeed in the other two, because exercise changes how your brain functions, not just your body.
The conversation covers why calling yourself an athlete changes your daily choices, the value of an off season, and how communication, not willpower, is what actually makes room for fitness inside a busy family life.
Links
- https://arttrapotsis.com
Key Takeaways
- Fitness is not a fourth bucket, it’s the thing that makes the other three work. Art’s research kept surfacing the same theme: without fitness, people struggle to succeed at work and with family, because fitness is interconnected with everything else rather than something you put on hold.
- Exercise creates a ripple effect in the brain, not just the body. Art cites research (referenced in the book Spark) showing that a short walk or workout during the day boosts engagement and productivity afterward, which is why he built a gym into his own company’s office.
- Thinking of yourself as an athlete changes your daily decisions. Art says once you identify as an athlete training for something, small choices shift automatically, like going to bed earlier or skipping the extra dessert, because fitness becomes part of your identity instead of a chore on a list.
- Take an off season on purpose. Using the concept of periodization, Art explains that after you peak for an event you need real recovery time, sometimes a full month of scaled-back training, which resets you mentally and physically for the next push.
- Balance runs on communication, not on grabbing time for yourself. Art’s fix for family friction over training time is telling your household what you value and asking what the family wants to accomplish, rather than announcing your workout plans and leaving everyone else to fill the gaps.
- Group training lowers the barrier to entry. Art says the motivation of knowing people are waiting for you gets people off the couch, and structured “no drop” rides, where the group waits at the top of every hill, keep newcomers from ever feeling left behind.
- The no-drop mentality applies to your mindset, too. Art and Allan agree the real competition is not the other riders, it’s comparing yourself to who you were yesterday and committing to be a little better tomorrow.
- You do not have to have been an athlete before to become one now. Art has coached many people who started intimidated and years later became stronger than he is, proof that the athlete in you is always there, waiting to be brought out.
- Art’s three strategies to get and stay well: consistency, doing some form of activity at least five times a week; sleep, so you’re ready to go the next day; and the ability to disconnect completely from work and your phone to let your mind recharge.
“Every single person I interviewed, no matter how successful they appear on the outside or how successful they appear as far as athletic prowess, everyone struggles. Everyone.”
Art Trapotsis