MABA and Michael Phelps

The all-time Olympic great on perseverance, links in a chain and the power of habits

Sign up for MABA here. Log your burpees here. Forward this to friends. SYITG.

            Welcome to the F3 Make America Burpee Again newsletter. You are getting this because you signed up to do 3,100 burpees in January, you nutjob. Through this occasional newsletter we will share our whys with each other. I hope we will inspire each other, make each other laugh, remind each other why we do Completely Stupid and Utterly Pointless things.

            Send your why, or your inspiration, or the PAX who keeps you going to Matt Crossman (F3 Ralph) at mcrossman98@gmail.com.

Three days in. 300 burpees (at least). Good for you! You’re 10 percent done.

            In the weeks since we started planning this, I’ve come up with a foolproof way to survive 3,100 burpees in 31 days.
            1. Eat well/hydrate properly.

            2. Get plenty of sleep.

            3. Be 20 years younger.

Michael Phelps on persistence 

            I love you and hate to put it this way, but YOU don’t got this. WE do. We will suffer and persist together. We will want to quit. We won’t.

I’m a freelance magazine writer. A couple weeks ago, I interviewed Michael Phelps, winner of 28 Olympic medals, 23 of them gold. If anybody knows how to grind, it’s him.

We talked about the mental strength required to put in the work day after day. I told him my mantra during long hikes and long bike rides is “one more mile, I can do one more mile.” I asked him if he uses a mental trick like that. He said he thinks of his habits as links in a chain. It takes patience to build a long one.

            “My grand scheme of things throughout my career, I wanted to do something that nobody had ever done before in the sport,” he said. “I couldn’t do that in a day; I had to do that over time. It was one day at a time, one practice at a time, where I was able to take small steps forward.”

            Now, in life outside of the pool, he uses the same mindset: The more links he strings together, the longer and stronger his chain will be. “A chain is together for a reason. I’m a process guy. If you take one step forward, that’s another link going onto your chain. I’ve always tried to take little steps forward, make sure I cross my Ts and dot my Is. I’m somebody that’s very attention-to-detail oriented. The smallest details in the world, to me, mean everything. That’s something I’ve done in the pool. I’m trying to make that transition onto dry land now. It’s been a struggle for the last few years. But it’s a learning process. I pick up small things here and there.”

Two Whys

            I asked why you’re doing this. Here are some answers. Please keep sending them to mcrossman98@gmail.com.

            “To remind myself I can do hard things, and that I can make time for things that are important to me.” —Randy Dinnison (F3 Armstrong, Dayton, Ohio)

            “I am 48, 6 ft 1 inches and 250 lbs and been doing F3 for 1 year. I have lost 40 lbs and looking to jump start 2021 an additional 40 this year after coming off covid-19 infection over the holidays.   

            “Just as I was starting to feel sorry for myself this came along and exactly what I needed....and I am two days in now!! Life can knock you down but it is how many times you get up off the mat that counts! Go get some!”— Steve Halloran (F3 Wasted, Jacksonville)

Coming up

            In the next newsletter: F3 co-founder Dredd on shared suffering and a was/now photo from St. Louis that will inspire the ever-loving crap out of you.