The Quiet Side of Toughness

We're answering a listener's question about staying consistent with training during a temporary stretch of long commutes and packed days.Instead of forcing early wake-ups or risking sleep to hit normal training volume, we explore how to build awareness around what's actually controllable, intention around shorter, focused sessions, and action that still moves us toward a life of health, happiness, and purpose - even when the season makes consistency harder.The confidence to temporarily do less, done well, keeps us moving forward instead of drifting into giving up altogether.Keep Going🐾 Start your Free Trial of the ChaseTracker App❤️‍🔥 Free Newsletter & the Chase ClubReach Out✋🏼 What questions do you have for us?💬 Got feedback? Send Patrick a DM.About the HostsPatrick Cummings is the author of two kids' books and has been building and making things inside the health and fitness world for two decades. Find him on Instagram.Ben Bergeron is the founder of CompTrain, a longtime gym owner and coach, and the author of the bestselling book, Chasing Excellence. Find him on Instagram.About the ShowChasing Excellence is a show dedicated to the daily pursuit of health, happiness, and living with our hearts on fire. Episodes drop Monday through Friday.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

We're exploring how to replace vague dissatisfaction with real clarity - naming not just who we're becoming, but who we refuse to become, and the values that guide the thousands of small decisions in between.Writing it down turns awareness into direction: once vision, anti-vision, and values are on paper, every day gives us something to measure our choices against, instead of drifting toward a life we never consciously chose.We're building a practice that trades busyness and drift for intention and action, one small decision at a time, on the way to a life of health, happiness, and a heart that's on fire.Read the original essay here.Keep Going🐾 Start your Free Trial of the ChaseTracker App❤️‍🔥 Free Newsletter & the Chase ClubReach Out✋🏼 What questions do you have for us?💬 Got feedback? Send Patrick a DM.About the HostsPatrick Cummings is the author of two kids' books and has been building and making things inside the health and fitness world for two decades. Find him on Instagram.Ben Bergeron is the founder of CompTrain, a longtime gym owner and coach, and the author of the bestselling book, Chasing Excellence. Find him on Instagram.About the ShowChasing Excellence is a show dedicated to the daily pursuit of health, happiness, and living with our hearts on fire. Episodes drop Monday through Friday.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

We're digging into a listener question about why mobility and maintenance work is so easy to skip and so hard to prioritize.By treating joint and soft tissue care as something we fold into time we already have - not time we have to find - we build the awareness to spot missed opportunities, the intention to make mobility a daily default, and the action that keeps us moving well and out ahead of the drift, stiffness, and breakdown that come with neglect.Keep Going🐾 Start your Free Trial of the ChaseTracker App❤️‍🔥 Free Newsletter & the Chase ClubReach Out✋🏼 What questions do you have for us?💬 Got feedback? Send Patrick a DM.About the HostsPatrick Cummings is the author of two kids' books and has been building and making things inside the health and fitness world for two decades. Find him on Instagram.Ben Bergeron is the founder of CompTrain, a longtime gym owner and coach, and the author of the bestselling book, Chasing Excellence. Find him on Instagram.About the ShowChasing Excellence is a show dedicated to the daily pursuit of health, happiness, and living with our hearts on fire. Episodes drop Monday through Friday.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

We're exploring how real toughness isn't always about how much pain we can absorb - it's sometimes about restraint, facing down our own instincts instead of giving in to them.With longtime weightlifting coach and author Sean Waxman, we build awareness around the small, unglamorous choices - going to bed on time, making the bed, having the hard conversation - that quietly decide the direction of our lives.Naming that choice is what moves us from drift toward intention and action, and toward a life of health, happiness, and purpose.Keep Going🐾 Start your Free Trial of the ChaseTracker App❤️‍🔥 Free Newsletter & the Chase ClubReach Out✋🏼 What questions do you have for us?💬 Got feedback? Send Patrick a DM.About the HostsPatrick Cummings is the author of two kids' books and has been building and making things inside the health and fitness world for two decades. Find him on Instagram.Ben Bergeron is the founder of CompTrain, a longtime gym owner and coach, and the author of the bestselling book, Chasing Excellence. Find him on Instagram.About the ShowChasing Excellence is a show dedicated to the daily pursuit of health, happiness, and living with our hearts on fire. Episodes drop Monday through Friday.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

We're answering a question from a Chase Club member about returning to CrossFit after a serious wrist injury, three months away from training, and at 72 years old.We explore why the goal isn't to get back to where you were, but to start building your next level of fitness - meeting today's body, today's pain, and today's limitations with patience instead of judgment.This is about choosing awareness over comparison, intention over rushing, and action that meets you where you actually are, rather than where you used to be.Keep Going🐾 Start your Free Trial of the ChaseTracker App❤️‍🔥 Free Newsletter & the Chase ClubReach Out✋🏼 What questions do you have for us?💬Got feedback? Send Patrick a DM.About the HostsPatrick Cummings is the author of two kids’ books and has been building and making things inside the health and fitness world for two decades. Find him on Instagram.Ben Bergeron is the founder of CompTrain, a longtime gym owner and coach, and the author of the bestselling book, Chasing Excellence. Find him on Instagram.About the ShowChasing Excellence is a show dedicated to the daily pursuit of health, happiness, and living with our hearts on fire. Episodes drop Monday through Friday.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

We're sitting down with author Calum Marsh to trace the untold, complicated story behind CrossFit's rise - from Greg Glassman's fifteen quiet years before anyone noticed to the open-source meritocracy that quietly hardened into something closer to a religion.We dig into how a genuinely brilliant idea can be undone by the very people a leader keeps closest, and we revisit the line that gave this show its name - chase excellence and the money follows; chase the money and you lose both.By holding up CrossFit's full story, the good and the ugly, we build the awareness to spot our own blind spots, the intention to protect the people willing to tell us the truth, and the action to keep choosing excellence over drift in our own lives.Keep Going🐾 Start your Free Trial of the ChaseTracker App❤️‍🔥 Free Newsletter & the Chase ClubReach Out✋🏼 What questions do you have for us?💬 Got feedback? Send Patrick a DM.About the HostsPatrick Cummings is the author of two kids' books and has been building and making things inside the health and fitness world for two decades. Find him on Instagram.Ben Bergeron is the founder of CompTrain, a longtime gym owner and coach, and the author of the bestselling book, Chasing Excellence. Find him on Instagram.About the ShowChasing Excellence is a show dedicated to the daily pursuit of health, happiness, and living with our hearts on fire. Episodes drop Monday through Friday.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

We're revisiting the difference between doing health and being healthy - the gap between the supplements, gadgets, and biohacks we chase and the simple, sustainable fundamentals that actually move the needle.By naming that distraction out loud, we build awareness around what's essential versus what's just noise, intention around sleep, food, training, mindset, and relationships, and action that turns a few degrees of change into a completely different life - one built on health, happiness, and purpose instead of drift, dissatisfaction, and disease.Keep Going🐾 Start your Free Trial of the ChaseTracker App❤️‍🔥 Free Newsletter & the Chase ClubReach Out✋🏼 What questions do you have for us?📧 Got feedback? Send Patrick an email.About the HostsPatrick Cummings is the author of two kids’ books and has been building and making things inside the health and fitness world for two decades. Find him on Instagram.Ben Bergeron is the founder of CompTrain, a longtime gym owner and coach, and the author of the bestselling book, Chasing Excellence. Find him on Instagram.About the ShowChasing Excellence is a show dedicated to the daily pursuit of health, happiness, and living with our hearts on fire. Episodes drop Monday through Friday.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

We're talking about Greg McKeown’s concept of Essentialism, exploring how choosing one clear focus over a dozen scattered priorities creates outsized results.Trade-offs aren't something to escape — they're how we build awareness of what matters most, set intention around where our limited energy goes, and take action that compounds instead of dilutes.This isn't about emptying the calendar or chasing balance for its own sake - it's about filling our days with the few things we're truly unwilling to sacrifice, on the way to a life of health, happiness, and a heart that's on fire.🎯 Learn more about our Focus Challenge here!Keep Going🐾 Start your Free Trial of the ChaseTracker App❤️‍🔥 Free Newsletter & the Chase ClubReach Out✋🏼 What questions do you have for us?💬 Got feedback? Send Patrick a DM.About the HostsPatrick Cummings is the author of two kids' books and has been building and making things inside the health and fitness world for two decades. Find him on Instagram.Ben Bergeron is the founder of CompTrain, a longtime gym owner and coach, and the author of the bestselling book, Chasing Excellence. Find him on Instagram.About the ShowChasing Excellence is a show dedicated to the daily pursuit of health, happiness, and living with our hearts on fire. Episodes drop Monday through Friday.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

We're revisiting a conversation with best-selling author Cal Newport on cognitive health and exploring what happens when we treat our attention like an all-you-can-eat buffet of ultra-processed content.We build awareness around the gap between casual scrolling and true cognitive exercise, intention around cutting out what Cal calls "ultra-processed content," and action toward deep reading and focused thinking that build a life of health, happiness, and purpose - instead of the drift and mental fatigue that comes from consuming whatever the algorithm serves up.🎯 Learn more about our Focus Challenge here!Keep Going🐾 Start your Free Trial of the ChaseTracker App❤️‍🔥 Free Newsletter & the Chase ClubReach Out✋🏼 What questions do you have for us?💬Got feedback? Send Patrick a DM.About the HostsPatrick Cummings is the author of two kids' books and has been building and making things inside the health and fitness world for two decades. Find him on Instagram.Ben Bergeron is the founder of CompTrain, a longtime gym owner and coach, and the author of the bestselling book, Chasing Excellence. Find him on Instagram.About the ShowChasing Excellence is a show dedicated to the daily pursuit of health, happiness, and living with our hearts on fire. Episodes drop Monday through Friday.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

We're exploring why counting how many times we pick up our phone each day matters more than tracking total screen time.By paying attention to that one number — and setting a realistic weekly limit instead of chasing zero — we build awareness of where our time, energy, attention, and money actually go, and we take action toward investing our focus in a life of health, happiness, and purpose, rather than letting it drift away one pickup at a time.🎯 Learn more about our Focus Challenge here!Keep Going🐾 Start your Free Trial of the ChaseTracker App❤️‍🔥 Free Newsletter & the Chase ClubReach Out✋🏼 What questions do you have for us?💬 Got feedback? Send Patrick a DM.About the HostsPatrick Cummings is the author of two kids' books and has been building and making things inside the health and fitness world for two decades. Find him on Instagram.Ben Bergeron is the founder of CompTrain, a longtime gym owner and coach, and the author of the bestselling book, Chasing Excellence. Find him on Instagram.About the ShowChasing Excellence is a show dedicated to the daily pursuit of health, happiness, and living with our hearts on fire. Episodes drop Monday through Friday.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.