The Real Game Is Life.
And you better be training for it.
“‘What are you training for, Ray?’
I’m training for the ability to authentically lead & train my kids.
That’s my sport.
You can be lazy slob with a whistle if you want, but don’t act surprised when you just ‘can’t seem to get buy-in.’
They know you ain’t about it, bro.”
-Ray Zingler on X
After my Faith, Family, and obligations to them as a provider, training is the 3rd priority in my life.
And I’ll tell you why.
It’s not because I want to compete in some goofy ass hyrox or any other flavor of the month event where you wear douchey head bands, while trying to be the best at exercise.
It’s not because I’m looking to squat 1,000 pounds.
Or have a shredded 6-pack, either.
And no, I’m not trying to relive my “glory days”.
I’m training for the most important game there is:
Life.
As a soon to be father of 4, running multiple businesses, and being on the go every day, it is critical for me to be able to GO.
Especially when I “don’t feel like it.”
While most athletes only put their jerseys on a couple times per week, I am putting that mother fucker on every day.
And as I much love training, or really, the concept of self-induced struggle and the benefits that come with it, I’m not doing it for me.
I’m doing it for my wife because I know she needs a capable husband.
I’m doing it for my son, who training him, alone, in this heat is infinitely harder than “my workout”.
When my daughter wants to “do her workout” at 9pm after being on my feet for 15 hours, having sweated through 4 outfits on that day alone, I’m fucking going. I’m ready.
I train the way I do for those kids I train and their families.
I am going to ask them to work hard and then not do it myself?
I wouldn’t be able to sleep a wink at night, asking them to pay the man, if I was unwilling to pay. Not one wink.
It wouldn’t make me “feel” like a fraud.
It’d make me a fraud.
A loser.
A taker.
But that’s exactly what you see on every ball field in America.
Fat slobs exclaiming “do as I say, not as I do.”
And then they wonder why they don’t get any buy-in.
Because they know what you’re asking them to do, you ain’t doing.
They see through your façade and lack of personal accountability.
That’s why I train on purpose.