Dotted all over this website there are going to be ways to measure fitness. It may be based on recovery. Or speed. Endurance perhaps. Any way, there's going to be lots of them. And they all amount to a hill of beans in the grand scheme of things. They are nothing more than carrots that personal trainers like myself have created to keep our pea sized brains engaged with physical exercise. And in defense of that statement, it works!

But I am the type of person who likes to take life as it happens on a daily basis and make my decisions based upon those happenings. Somewhere along the line I'll spend some time talking about my year and a half sabbatical where I ran around America for charity. Why did I do that? Because of the bombing of the World Trade Center and a very close friend became a quadriplegic. It was a reaction to life.

My journey as a personal trainer and this website is also reactionary. This time it's because of hurricane Katrina. I watched in sadness as so many people found themselves completely and utterly useless because of the circumstances they found themselves in. I replay that national disaster everywhere I go. And I see the exact same results.

Whether it's at the grocery store or the mall. A high school football game or Denny's. Each time I see a population of overweight and unhealthy people who, if they found themselves in a time of disaster, I see a group who would be unable to look after themselves of those around them. And the kicker in that last statement was œthose around them.?

I know that if something happened here in Charleston tomorrow, my wife, her parents and all of our friends would be safe. Because if they couldn't look after themselves, it would be left up to me. And I am fit and strong enough for lots of people. You won't see me standing (more likely sitting or laying because of deconditioning) around waiting for somebody to bail me out of the mess. And I don't care how the mess occurred. I'll run, walk, ride to a location where I'll lift, push, pull or drag whatever I have to so my loved ones can survive.

The question I throw out to anybody and everybody is, what about you? Are you going to weasel your way out of this by saying it'll never happen to you? Ask those people in New York or New Orleans if that's how they perceived their life. Or is it more like œI'll cross that bridge when I get to it?? Guess what my friend. The bridge is out! The only way to get to the other side where food and salvation is readily available is by getting yourself across the river by your skills and fitness.

So if you're just browsing, I urge you to sign up right now. It's going to be the first step towards getting your head out of the sand.