The Levels Letter
Levels 2026 05: Wellness Fanaticism
The Copenhagen sun had decided to come out of its temporary hiatus which I welcomed with open arms. It had been “Fhack it’s cold” weather since we’d been there. The clothes I packed just simply lacked the minerals to keep me wee bones warm. Meghan and I already had to stock up on Uni Qlo long johns, which kept us warm enough when outside but inside our pants were quite literally on fire.
The previous day on a walk through the city I stumbled upon a sauna on the banks of the water with a little dipping hole. I asked the very nice Danish man if I could hop in, he kindly told me it was a private club but if I was around tomorrow morning at 9 I could reserve a slot, so I did. The morning sun bode well for me as I was already a nervous boy because if you know me I loathe the cold plunge. I did enough of them from my baseball days to last a lifetime. I think they should only be done when you actually need something to recover from. Apart from a brewery tour of Carlsberg I was tip top.
So as the clock approached nine I walked in the now slushy snow to the sauna, there were no locker rooms and people were stripping down to how they entered the world. No one batted an eye and dick jokes are understood in all languages and there were plenty being thrown around.
Reluctantly I dipped my lil toe in the water and got in the briny seawater. On my initial mad dash to the sauna, the door had locked itself and the volunteer working to make sure none of us plunged to our demise forgot the code to the door. Meghan giggled as I began to grow icicles, eventually the door opened and I was safely in the warmth.
Inside the sauna there were four Copenhagen firefighters, two young corporate office workers and an American couple. The firefighters were having a whale of a time, one of them from what little Dansk I speak lost a bet and had to go in the water and break up the ice. He did it no problem and started swimming around like an otter. The other three made another dick joke when he got back in. The two corporate boys asked me where I was from and then told me they hoped they didn’t get fired today as they would be late for work. One of them was named August and talked me into going fully under the icy water. The American couple sat as far away from everyone and sat hand in hand and I overheard them say things like “Let’s be very intentional” “Give the morning gratitude” yet they looked kinda miserable. They didn’t speak to any of the others and were the first to leave. It was a big example of what is going on a lot in America. As we enter further into our “Wellness Fanaticism” era. The Danes got in the water and when they got out they didn’t act like superheroes. No one came back in and talked about discipline or doing hard things and suffering. They talked amongst their friends, they asked me questions and we talked about life in Charleston and Copenhagen.
I respected that. The firemen went to work, the corporate boys put on their gilets (vests) and walked to the office and the American couple left without saying bye to anyone. They might have got in their gratitude and were intentional but they lost the plot, My G.
Well then what about the Professionals?
A couple Thursdays ago in the weight room there was combined 275 games pitched in the big leagues, 797 innings and 43 games won. And about $10m collectively in contracts. That is just at the big league level, there were several other minor leaguers there as well.
It was the last session before the final bullpens before everyone breaks for camp, some are headed to Florida and some are headed to Arizona. It had been a long offseason and this was the culmination of a deep body of work, this last bullpen was an important one. It’s going to set the tone for how they feel going into Spring Training, so needless to say this last day was going to be a serious and vital training session. I’ll break down the lift for you:
We played with a soccer ball for 45 minutes.
You read it right. The eight of us formed a circle and played keep me ups, the ball couldn’t touch the ground and if you messed up, you got a strike, this time two and you’re out. We did this till everyone was a sweaty mess. There was strategy, deliberate attacks on players to try to eliminate them early and proper banter. It was a healthy substitution for the original plan of tempo belt squats and landmine rotations. It all stemmed from when two of them said “I just really want my body to feel good so I can have a feel on the mound tomorrow”
Weird. Baseball players wanting to be good at baseball and not good at working out.
So I scrapped the workout plan, everyone got a good sweat and competition breeds culture so it was a fun day in the weight room. To the outsider it just looked like we fucked off in the weight room, yes but no.
I put the numbers at the beginning for a reason, you don’t get to that level without knowing your body and being self aware. A result of this is you know when, how and what to train. They have always politely reminded me that I am there for “Accountability and to make sure my forms not fucked”
These are athletes that are at the pinnacle of their sport, you literally cannot play baseball any higher than the MLB and yet they recognize some days you gotta just kick a ball around with the boys. One of the players is known for taking his paddle board out on the Potomac River before games, notably not on his third ice bath and breath work cycle of the hour.
Often my “regular” clients ask me what the baseball boys do for recovery. They are usually disappointed by my answer:
“They sleep”
Granted I know that they have earned that luxury, they don’t need to rise before the rooster to get in the weight room before work. Most people can’t do this if they want to get their daily exercise but it really sometimes is just that simple. Want to feel better and not burnt out? Sleep!
Sometimes it just really isn’t that deep.
I understand that not everything in black and white makes sense but also things don’t always have to be complicated, optimized, deliberate, impactful and profound.
Balance My G:
I don’t mean work life balance because “I think work-life balance – does that really exist? Or is it all life? I think if you’re miserable in your work and you need to balance and call the other thing life, for me, that kind of doesn’t work.” - Toto Wolff
I think the true meaning of this phrase is knowing when and where to come off the throttle. There will be times in everyones life when they need to put their nose to the grindstone and only come up for air to eat. There will be moments of down time when you just need to shut up and enjoy the silence.
I’m just telling you what I see as a trainer in a gym that has all walks of life. The compare and contrast culture of American fitness is getting to everyone’s brain. You simply cannot do and be everything at once. Just because someone you know is running a marathon doesn’t mean you have to, especially if you haven’t been running! There are 5k, 10k, halfs and free pieces of pavement you can trudge on to earn your stripes.
To those that are out there running, Hyroxing, plunging I do applaud you, you’re doing something. But it does not define you.
Just make sure you stop and smell the roses from time to time and have a little feel. Stop making fitness corporate America.
Work out to feel good, stop acting like professional athletes and heroes when you’re not. We can learn a ton from them, just like they can about us regular folk.
The fitness world, Substack to a degree, Tik Tok and Instagram are just a series of mediums telling people how to be people and it’s caused people to be less human. Let us all stop that.
Also the Kid Rock and RFK video was very strange, why work out in jeans? I digress.
Keep going people, the world is yours for the taking but you gotta go get it.
-Jackson