What if living life made you healthy? Just imagine a world where everyday life pulled you and your closest friends towards frequent physical activity. You’d run, jump, swim, climb, push, and pull without having to plan time and without ever feeling compelled to track how many calories you were burning.

This is how it has been for most of human history and not just because there wasn’t a McDonalds on every corner or Pop Tarts in every home. In a world where screens weren’t in our pocket and on our walls, where threats weren’t policed by professionals, and where food wasn’t bought in grocery stores, humans bonded together to fill all their needs for protection, food, and even entertainment.

Today, rather than uniting to physically ensure our own survival, we are able to sit safely inside our comfortable homes, drive to our air-conditioned jobs, and complete a days work without having to stand up or, often, even talk to anyone if we don’t want to. As an introvert, I often relish these days of isolated hyper-productivity. But of course, these are only enjoyable because they offer such stark contrast from my normal world and because I know I’ll be able to come home to a loving family. Even among the most introverted humans, there is a deep need for connection. 

An abundance of comfort, convenience, and junk food, along with the absence of any need to ensure our own survival has been devastating to our collective physical health. Global obesity now kills more people than car crashes and most other things we spend our time fearing. Yet the physical costs don’t fully capture the extent of our modern crisis. Our safe, highly efficient world encourages populations to become isolated and deeply self-serving. We have no idea where all the things we rely on come from and no cause demanding that we bind together behind a common mission. Immersed in entertainment and lacking a community purpose, mental health has grown consistently worse. Today, suicide, drug overdoses, and school shootings are all at peaks never seen before in recorded history.

Despite our comfort and staggeringly high standard of living, our bodies and minds are dying rapidly. We have more, but we are not more. While it is wonderful that billions can go to sleep without worrying if physical violence, hunger, or the elements will end them soon, there are also costs that traditional education has somehow neglected to illuminate us about. Few understand the environment their biology expected and the human needs that evolved from that environment. When we don’t have to collectively invest in our own survival we tend to wither away physically and emotionally.

Despite technological improvements, societies usually filled this contribution void because they still depended on the efforts of all people to meet its needs—whether in the form of wars, food production, or a town’s local tradesman—people felt a sense of duty and bonded together behind mutual values. The society demanded their competency and, though this required hard physical work, they were better for having a reason to contribute. For a variety of reasons, from a changing legal mindset to a burgeoning entertainment/advertising industry, this narrative of mutual values and mutual dependency has eroded quickly in the last 50 years.

The Death of Youth Sports

Consider the modern youth sports climate. Athletics have always been the grand microcosm of life, teaching the hard lessons while implanting our most cherished values like courage, toughness, sacrifice, and discipline. We all recognized that this feature, along with physical literacy and appreciation for exercise, was their most significant purpose of youth sports. Everyone understood that sacrifice was required and welcomed the inevitable lessons. You may be the team’s best shortstop, your preferred position, but if you are also the team’s best option at catcher and the second option at shortstop is better than the second option at catcher, you’ll be behind home plate. Team first was more than just simple rhetoric.

Similarly, we understood how the more talented player didn’t always improve the team most. 1+1+3 could be five, but it could also be four or six, depending on the character of the athlete and what they brought out in their teammates. We learned how to win and lose gracefully and accepted that if we didn’t like an outcome, be it playing performance or playing time, the burden of responsibility would lie on us to put forth greater effort.

Parents today are more likely to disregard the lessons of sports in pursuit of its glorious outcomes, most notably, the vaunted college scholarship. The youth sports culture is now characterized by four-hour banquets, participation trophies, illogically large all-conference teams, personal gurus, weekly recruiting showcases across the country, and the headlong quest for self-promotion. Coaches spend hours meeting bereaved parents that have convinced themselves that their child’s lack of playing time, recruiting attention, selection for the varsity, or solidarity with teammates must indicate an epic injustice. Community teams have lost their appeal, traded in for the ever-abundant supply of “elite” select teams eager to sell themselves to parents as the best route for their child’s self-promotion. When they don’t meet a parent’s delusional expectations, the parents will simply choose a new team that is eager to get in and make a sale. It is not uncommon for high-school athletes to move towns or jump from public to private school, and vice-versa, driven only by the headlong quest for individual sports glory.

Sports were once raw and honest. In a very real sense, they mimicked the conditions of our primal heritage. Today we’ve bastardized our sports leagues to fit our own images. Ironically, these efforts to stoke a generation’s self-esteem, shower them with adoration, and indoctrinate them in self-promotion have only hurt our youth’s physical and emotional health. In training a generation to be narcissists, we embed all the pathologies of narcissism. Youth sports participation is way down, as parents simply opt out of the madness. Many miss out on the community, the physical activity, and the discipline because parents have, understandably, determined that avoiding the maze of money, time, and self-promotion is the healthier decision.

This same formula now plays out in every arena of life as our communities increasingly become collections of overwhelmed people rushing through their increasingly busy, distracted lives. Social media and smartphones only fan the flames as immense social pressure pulls people to curate their life highlight reels. Today, most people spend the majority of their waking hours looking at a screen.

There are bright spots, notably within the fitness industry. The CrossFit model has been unbelievably successful, largely because of its honest personality and knack for community building. They are who they are and they know if you commit, you’ll find a supportive group bonded through common experience and who even shares a long list of shared rites of passage. Outside of CrossFit, many other boutique style gyms, like Sean Griffin’s Chicago Primal, offer a similarly impressive community experience.

Communities must be bonded by more than location and legal code. We need shared values that tend to be fostered through shared experience and a shared sense of duty. It is wonderful that we have rights, but rights inherently come with responsibility. It is the absence of a sense of duty and the absence of shared work that breeds our fractured communities.

Leave It Better Than Before

I bike as my primary means of transportation. Every day on my five-mile commute to work, I pass boatloads of discarded trash—fast food bags, cups, beer cans, boxes, discarded stuffed animals, you name it. As a rule, I pick up trash when I see it, but I’ve made peace with the fact that this twenty-minute ride would probably eclipse an hour if I stopped for every piece of litter. It is time I did something.

We will be more fulfilled if we get out and nature and move on behalf of a good cause. In fact, we’ll be much healthier. Dan Buettner’s phenomenal book, Blue Zones, has found that the communities around the globe where people live longest follow similar patterns.

“The world’s longest-lived people don’t pump iron, run marathons, or join gyms. Instead, they live in environments that constantly nudge them into moving without thinking about it. They grow gardens and don’t have mechanical conveniences for house and yard work.”

Dan Buettner

My hunch is that these communities also don’t have much litter. They put shopping carts up, walk to find a trash can, and whenever they see it, they pick litter up. People need more physical movement, more time in nature, and more connection. Picking up litter is an obvious, easy place to start.

The Leave It Better Campaign

This coming Independence Day Weekend, Inspired Human Development (IHD) will be organizing a Leave it Better campaign. It is simple. Our lives should leave the world a better place. That ethos will make us happier. On July 5th, I’ll be organizing a litter pick-up in Mansfield, Texas. We’ll meet at 8 am at Katherine Rose Park, 303 N Walnut Creek Drive, Mansfield, TX 76063. I’ll have a few previously selected places of emphasis to choose from and we will set out to walk them and eliminate any litter. The litter clean-up will take no more than an hour and then anyone who likes is welcome to return to the park at 9:30 am for an hour of games. We’ll work together and then play together.

My partner Justin Lind, will organize a similar event in Telluride, Colorado for Saturday, July 6th. If you cannot make it to either of these places I would love for you to do something similar in your local community. There is no barrier to entry and no money is required. People just have to show up with water and trash bags and invest themselves on behalf of a shared cause. Your physical presence and effort make your part of something bigger than yourself and that is an essential human need.

Looking for a new training shoe? The Rock has you covered.

On Thursday, Dwayne Johnson posted an Instagram video of the PR2s (Project Rock Twos), his latest collaboration with Under Armour. They're the first training shoes made with HOVR technology, a mesh fabric that delivers strong energy return.

Listen to DJ tout the shoe in the video below:

Of course he’s a little biased, but Johnson promises the PR2s are the best training shoes you’ll ever put your feet into. “Personally designed and put to the hardcore test by me,” he wrote.

If you’re looking to try them out, act fast. The in-ear headphones he released in conjunction with UA sold out in five days and are now only available for pre-order through Under Armour’s app.

The training shoes come in blood orange/halo gray, and go up to a size 14 for $140 per pair. Want yours? Click here.

It’s no secret that working out regularly is the key to a healthier, longer life—but a new study proves that it's never too late to start doing so.

Middle-aged adults, and even senior citizens, can increase their longevity by becoming more physically active, even if they never previously exercised on a regular basis, according to researchers at the University of Cambridge. 

A longer life span was even seen in older adults who had heart disease or cancer, the study found. Scientists predicted that 46 percent of deaths associated with inactivity could be prevented if adults met the minimum standard for exercise, defined by the World Health Organization as two and a half hours of moderate to intense physical activity per week.

The study included close to 14,600 middle-aged and senior citizens, 3,148 of whom died during the course of the study (950 of heart disease, and 1,091 of cancer). Researchers predicted that if all the subjects remained inactive, an additional 24 percent would’ve died.

Not surprisingly, according to the study, the more people worked out, the lower their mortality rate was. The researchers urged public health officials to not only encourage people to exercise, but to keep up the intensity as much as possible as they age.

Martin Tye is strong as hell, and he’s only getting stronger—despite only being able to walk a few yards.

Tye, who won the World’s Strongest Disabled Man competition in 2018, uses a wheelchair due to injuries he sustained in 2009 while serving in the UK’s Royal Logistic Corps. During a tour in Kabul, Afghanistan, a suicide bomber drove into Tye’s vehicle and detonated a 500-pound bomb.

Among his injuries were severe nerve damage, blast injuries to his lungs, bilateral knee injuries, shrapnel damage all over his body, partial deafness, burns on his body and face, and a mild traumatic brain injury. His clavicle was also shattered, and he sustained smaller muscle tears and ruptures from the blast. He was flown home on life support, and had to be revived en route after going into cardiac arrest.

Tye wasn’t paralyzed by the blast—he can still walk a few yards at a time—but he can’t feel his legs and suffers from serious pain and nerve damage that have left him wheelchair-bound. And his injuries were as taxing mentally as they were physically.

“The incident caused me to lose all confidence, shut myself away, and not interact with people,” Tye told us. “My military background, along with an amazing family network, has helped me to work through my mental challenges and face the world head on.”

Tye was medically discharged from the UK military in 2011, and it took some time for him to get back into training. His injuries presented serious obstacles, and he had to find ways around them.

“Training began in 2014, where it was slow progress to start. But once I got the feel of it again, I was soon back to training several hours each day," Tye said. He credits the progress he made to Headley Court, a medical rehabilitation center for the British Armed Forces, which introduced him to athletics post-injury.

Once he got back in the gym, he didn’t slow down. Sports became a way for Tye to work through his demons, and he’s since competed at the Invictus Games, a multi-sport event created by Prince Harry, multiple times. In 2018, he won gold for indoor rowing and powerlifting. He also won the World’s Strongest Disabled Man competition in 2018.

He placed fourth at the 2019 WSDM competition, suffering a torn pec, but he set a huge milestone in the process: a new seated deadlift world record. He lifted 520kg (1,146 pounds) at the competition, breaking the 500-kg (1,102-pound) world record he set just a month earlier.

    View this post on Instagram         

Here is my seated deadlift to take the win. Nice gentle 520kg, the biggest lift ever and smashing my previous world record. Was a a great evenings competition and looking forward to tomorrow events. #musclefooduk #disabledstrongman #invictus #strongman #strengthtraining #military #invictusgames #powerlifting #strengthtraining #benchpress #sbdapparel #bridgeroadbarbell #healthynfit #trainlikeahero #thinkdirtyeatclean #sponsorship #arnoldclassic #Rawpowerlifter #Motivation #gobigorgohome #cleaneating #wsm #camberleychiropractic #Writeyourown #teamprophecy @prophecyLtd @musclefoodUK @fuzion100uk @sbdapparel @nssm2019 @gym-professor @thegym @get_strongfit @strongmancorporation

A post shared by MartinTye #TEAMTYE ♿️ (@strongmantye) on Jun 7, 2019 at 8:50pm PDT

    View this post on Instagram         

This is the outcome of pushing your body to the limit. This is two days after my monster 520kg seated deadlift. It looks like I’ve got a small tear in my peck now. Back to the drawing board, train harder and try and smash my record again. I have set my mind to hit 550kg, which I think will be achievable with the right training and conditioning. I know this is not going to come straight away, but if I put the work in it will pay off. Hopefully I will get to achieve this on a national platform #musclefooduk #disabledstrongman #invictus #strongman #strengthtraining #military #invictusgames #powerlifting #strengthtraining #benchpress #sbdapparel #bridgeroadbarbell #healthynfit #trainlikeahero #thinkdirtyeatclean #sponsorship #arnoldclassic #Rawpowerlifter #Motivation #gobigorgohome #cleaneating #wsm #camberleychiropractic #Writeyourown #teamprophecy @prophecyLtd @musclefoodUK @fuzion100uk @sbdapparel @nssm2019 @gym-professor @thegym @get-strongfit @wsdm @atxfitness

A post shared by MartinTye #TEAMTYE ♿️ (@strongmantye) on Jun 10, 2019 at 8:08am PDT

Tye’s long-term goal is to hit a 550-kg (1,212-pound) seated deadlift and break other strongman records, like the Atlas stone load. In the short-term, he just wants to train hard and stay injury-free. It goes without saying that he’s had to train like a beast to find success in the variety of sports he competes in.

“Throughout my professional sporting career, I have had to learn to deconflict my training schedule,” Tye explained. ”I would train for rowing five times a week in the morning and five times a week in the afternoon for strength training.” He would also be eating more than a typical endurance athlete, but had to take in enough calories to be the best he could in Strongman.

Tye doesn’t have a trainer, but he trains two to three hours a day, five days a week, breaking it down into individual muscle groups. He adapts each exercise around his disabilities. His favorite moves are the bench press and dumbbell bench press.

“Sport has had a positive impact on my life since injury,” Tye said. “Before sport, I would only focus on my weaknesses. However, the Invictus Games and Disabled Strongman have taught me to focus on my strengths and push myself.”

With feats like a 520-kg deadlift already in the rearview, it’ll be exciting to see what else he can pull off. His success is a testament to the power of a positive outlook, and he’s living proof that those with disabilities are no less strong.

“We might be disabled, but we are just as strong,” Tye said. “Disability has no limit and you can push yourself as hard as your body allows.”

Follow Tye on Instagram at @martintye, and keep an eye out for more records from the UK Strongman.

Despite being told late last year that he may never walk again, eight-time Mr. Olympia Ronnie Coleman is hitting the gym and on a mission to get back into the figure that made him one of bodybuilding's biggest legends. 

Coleman recently uploaded an Instagram video of him on the leg press, and while it's unclear how much weight he's pushing it's got to be a lot judging by the veins protruding form his neck. Take a look here: 

As we mentioned, Coleman has no reason to go so hard in the gym. The 55-year-old had one of the best careers in bodybuilding, locking down 26 IFBB Pro League wins. But he's also had 12 spinal surgeries, and was told by doctors he could become paralyzed. Against medical advice, he's consistently hit the gym in an effort to prevent his massive muscles from atrophying.  

Coleman said he has every intention of getting back into shape, and looking as if he's still ready to walk onto the Mr. Olympia stage—even if it kills him. "God knows I don't want to die in the gym but if that happens, God Bless me," he wrote. "Once again it's on like a marijuana bong." 

Even after going through everything he has, Coleman looks better in the gym than most people. We're sure that killer strength and his positive mindset will power him to success. 

"I know I got nothing to prove," Coleman wrote on Instagram. "But like I said, I wanna look good, I wanna be in great shape, I wanna look like I still compete, I wanna walk again." 

In what sounds like news straight from the Attitude Era, Paul Heyman and Eric Bischoff have been named executive directors of Raw and SmackDown Live, respectively. They will oversee the creative development of the promotion’s top shows, according to a statement from the company, and ensure integration across all platforms.

Both have decades of experience in the wrestling industry, and have been on-air personalities for the WWE and other promotions. Heyman, who is now managing his client, Brock Lesnar, was president of the original ECW from 1993 to 2001. During that time, he secured pay-per-view and television deals that turned the Philadelphia-based promotion into a nationwide cult phenomenon.

When Bischoff made his WWE debut in 2002, it shocked millions. After all, he tried to sink Vince McMahon’s wrestling empire as president of World Championship Wrestling, bringing the likes of Hulk Hogan, Bret Hart, and more to the company during the 1990s. This time, he might be fighting yet another wrestling war as All Elite Wrestling continues to build its promotion into a potential challenger to the WWE.

Bischoff was Raw's on-air general manager from 2002 to 2005, and later had a short stint with Total Nonstop Action (yet again teaming up with Hulk Hogan). He’s also a producer of an upcoming Hulk Hogan biopic, which will star Chris Hemsworth as "The Immortal One."