Fitness Habits with Wild Gym
Blending high tech gear with primal strategies
It’s about this time of year when most people start to abandon their new year’s resolutions. Look at this discouraging stat from YouGov.com.
43% of all people expect to fail before February, and almost one out of four quit within the first week of setting their New Year’s resolution. Most people quit before the end of January, and only 9% see their resolutions through until succession.
Astounding right? Why is it so difficult for most of us to continue with these habits that we believe will really improve our lives? And not surprisingly, a majority of these resolutions are fitness related. What can we do to increase the likelihood of sticking with our health goals? Well, everyone will have their own unique set of circumstances, but I thought it’d be helpful to share a little bit about what has worked for me over the past few years.
Running
My default fitness activity of choice is running. I’ve been consistently running since I joined the high school cross country team some twenty years ago. At this point, running is really engrained in my lifestyle. I enjoy both the physical and mental benefits of it. When I go too many days without running, I just don’t feel right. My body feels restless and my mind feels anxious. You probably notice similar feelings when your physical exertion of choice dips below required levels.
While I’m grateful for my running habit, I’ve always struggled with other forms of strength training. I’ve had plenty of gym memberships that didn’t see enough activity. There were many Januaries where I was eager to start a new routine at the gym, only to abandon it within a few weeks. But I haven’t set foot in a gym for several years, even before the pandemic. I’ve relied on another fitness habit that has been great for me. You may have seem me mention it before. It’s doing strength workouts with the help of equipment from a company called Wild Gym (formerly known as monkii.co).
Just to be clear, I’m not paid or incentivized to mention these products in any way, shape, or form. I was just recently thinking about how this style of training has really worked for me and I thought it was worth sharing. Like many aspects of my life, it really is the perfect balance between modern technology and the primal needs of our ancestors.
The early days of monkii
How did I first learn about monkii workouts? I have no idea. My guess was that it was mentioned on some blog or something about minimal outdoor workouts? It also could have been a suggested Kickstarter project to back after I had backed something else. I do recall when it happened though. I was living in a tiny apartment in the Mission District of San Francisco. I had ordered my first set of OG monkii bars. These things were rad. They were made out of real wood. There was something really organic about them. They felt more like an ancient artifact than a fitness fad.
The only tricky thing was learning how to use the darn things. They had a twine-like string tucked inside of the bars along with a pulley/carabiner thing. I don't even have the words to properly name the objects included here. Maybe that's the first sign that it was a little bit too complicated to setup.
You had to go outside and find a tree branch or basketball hoop or horizontal pole of some sort where you could anchor your monkii bars. It was actually really difficult to find a suitable location. I would go out on runs with these bars in my pocket or tucked under my arm like some sort of relay race baton. As a side note, I used to love running relay races with a baton, so I didn't mind this at all.
Eventually, I got the hang of it though. I found my trees that I would return to time after time. The motions started to feel more natural for me. And lo and behold, I started to develop a strength training habit outside of a gym. I loved it. No more sweaty, stinky, indoor workouts for this guy. I was now wild and ready to workout whenever the perfect tree branch presented itself.
More monkii products
Maybe I was brainwashed or just hooked into the monkii ecosystem, but I really wanted to keep supporting the small company based out of Colorado. They launched a few more Kickstarter projects and I eagerly backed each of them getting as early a discount as I could. At their suggested retail prices, the products may not have been worth it. But I thought of it as a regular donation each year to a cause I really believed in. Outdoor workouts were fun and something that I thought everyone needed. I was happy to lend my monetary support to each subsequent release.
And the releases were steady. There was the original monkii bars. Then of course they had to launch a monkii bars 2 that were lighter, more sleek and far easier to setup. Then when they thought the monkii bars were just a little too big for comfort, they launched pocket monkii. It was a smaller version that was far more portable and great to take on runs or hikes to stake out the perfect outdoor workout spot.
When they tired of the bar format, they branched out to other things. The Isocore and Isocore X were fun little gadgets that let you isolate muscles in a slower, more controlled way. They were the predecessors to the larger monkii 360. It’s like a medicine ball attached to a bungee tether. It’s probably the most unique and innovative product that Wild Gym makes. I’m not sure I’ve seen anything else on the market that’s similar. And the monkii 360 fortunately arrived just before the pandemic hit in 2020. It helped me get through a challenging time and cemented a strength training habit that didn’t previously exist.
The monkii 360 had a lot of accessories. There were different bungees of varying resistance. And then you also had the option to insert weights called "masscores" to make the workouts even tougher. But when you are quarantined, all of the variety was perfect to keep me in shape.
Just three more products to mention! The Stoic standing mat has been a daily companion of my standing desk setup. I don’t consider it to be a piece of workout gear but it’s amazing. Everyone with a standing desk should own one.
Yes, they did make a Pocket Monkii 2. It’s vastly superior to the original. Out of all these products, the original Pocket Monkii was probably the only one that didn’t quite live up to the hype. Glad they fixed the issues in the second version.
And last but not least is the Neon Buffalo. It’s a sandbag style weight training system that allows for a variety of exercises similar to a kettle bell. I just received this product this week so can’t really give it a proper review just yet. But I’ll share more when I have feedback.
As I stated earlier, these products combine high tech solutions with very simple movements that our ancestors did before the term “working out” was even a vague idea. Pushing, pulling, lifting, jumping. These were the primal movements of our ancestors and this gear has replicated things in a more comfortable, portable way. Do you need any of this equipment? No, not really. In fact, the folks at Wild Gym always offer a DIY option for their products. If you think any of their projects are overpriced or superfluous, they’ll give you instructions on how to make your own version for free using items that you already have on hand. How cool is that?
And all of your workouts can be tracked in the monkii app for iOS or Android. You can follow along with specific programs that keep you motivated each month. This has really been the secret to my consistency. I can map out my fitness goals for the rest of the year. I know exactly which program I want to tackle. When it’s time to workout, I can just open up the app and see what I have planned for that day. No guesswork. No wasted time figuring out what type of workout I should do that day. You can even see videos and animations to make sure you’re using the proper form for each move. I know that fitness apps aren’t all that novel these days, but it’s the perfect way to bring together all of the disparate workout equipment into one easy to follow interface.
Building the habit
As you can see, I’ve backed a lot of monkki/Wild Gym gear. And I still use most of the equipment on a daily basis. There is a corner of my garage where I can find the exact piece of gear for whichever workout I'm doing that day. I often take the items out on runs with me or in my backyard to really get the full outdoor workout experience. I still use the monkii app on my phone almost daily to guide me through different workout programs.
I'm not sure I'd ever stick with a program if it were not for the easy way that the folks at Wild Gym blend technology with the primitive sensation of physical exertion outdoors. This was the key for building the habit for me personally. If this didn’t click for me, I’d just have an expensive pile of equipment that got no use.
So I’m not telling you to go buy all of this gear. I’m just telling you that the only way you’ll stick with a new year’s resolution (fitness related or otherwise) is to figure out what will motivate you. I know for me that is a 3-step process.
It should be a high tech solution (apps and space-age looking fitness gear)
It can be used outdoors (fresh air and sunshine give me energy).
I can do it at any time, anywhere, with solitude and focus (no noisy gyms packed with people, I can bring the gear on my runs which are already an engrained habit!)
So thanks for coming along on my fitness journey. What are the things that can help you find that perfect balance to stick with your positive habits this year? Maybe some gear from Wild Gym could work for you too!
Thanks for reading, I’ll see you next week!
P.S. - Hey, it’s a new year! Could you use some help reviewing what worked for you last year and what could be better for 2023? Need some help building positive habits or ditching negative ones? Iterating on a new business idea and need some guidance? Or maybe you just want to say hello and pick my brain for a bit, that’s fine too! If you’d like to chat, feel free to book some time with me here!