I started working on my third book, the title is going to be The Tao of Garage Gym Life and I have no idea when it’s going to be out. I literally wrote the introduction and the first chapter this morning so I’m in the early stages right now.
I’ll give you a teaser from the Introduction because it also explains a certain hashtag that we’ve been using on Instagram for the past few months.
What is the Tao of Garage Gym Life?
Tao (pronounced Da-oh) means way. It’s not necessarily a religious expression although the way most Westerners have encountered the word is through the Buddhist concept of the Tao. If you’re into martial arts, you may have heard of the late Bruce Lee’s book, The Tao of Jeet Kune Do which can be translated as The Way of the Intercepting Fist. So the Tao of Garage Gym Life is the way we do things as a brand at Garage Gym Life. It also means the way you do things as a home gym owner, compared to how you might behave if you worked out in a public gym.
About that Hashtag
The #taoofgaragegymlife gets tacked on to at least one or two of the posts we make each week on Instagram and in the description of our how to videos on YouTube because those videos are about the way that the home gym life is lived. Not the way I live it, or the way that any of our contributors live it specifically, but the way we all live it, regardless of where we are in the world as home gym owners.
Home gym owners don’t often think the way that the rest of the general fitness population does. We train at odd hours to stay on track with our program but think nothing of interrupting a workout to make a sandwich for our kids or help carry in groceries then going back for a squat PR. We like gym banners and are particular about which one hangs where. We’ll cheerfully drive hours to save money on rusted weights and then dedicate another day or two cleaning them up and repainting them to match our squat rack but think nothing of working out in flannel PJs that don’t quite match our favorite deadlift T-shirt.
Speaking of shirts, no shoes, no shirt, no problem is a thing. Teaching kids to bench press and squat as soon as they can walk is too. Pets are always allowed but we’re all about finding ways to keep mosquitoes outside where they belong.
We’ll spend $500 or more on a barbell because it has more or less whip than the one we already have but devote hours to a DIY hack that saves us from buying a $100 piece of equipment.
I can talk about horse stall mats with home gym owners from Singapore to Connecticut and how they’re superior to other forms of flooring. We can talk about the advantages of mosquito screens vs fogging during the summer months and hash out the best heating options based on local ordinances then switch immediately to whether you need a lifting platform if you use rubber plates without ever getting tired of the conversation.
I’ve debated the best kind of mosquito screen for an outdoor vs a garage gym with home gym owners in India and how smaller garages affect the kind of squat rack you should get with home gym owners in the U.K. I’ve got a friend in Norway who desperately needs a wood burning stove for his shed gym but who gets by with wearing layers while my brother in Tennessee has a chiminea that he feeds scrap wood to when he needs to heat his backyard gym. Both of them laugh when I talk about the cold in my garage gym as I turn on my kerosene heater, but we can all relate to each other’s stories.
If you’re reading this and you’re a home gym owner, you’ve nodded at least once. Because you get it. Because all of that’s the Tao of Garage Gym Life.
In this book, you’ll see the lessons we’ve learned along the way as we’ve gone from a simple blog to where we are now and in the process, I hope you’ll be inspired to find your own way as you pursue your God given dreams. Because inspiring others to succeed in their goals is also the Tao of Garage Gym Life.