I go to the theater to watch a movie almost every Friday around lunch time. You can find me at Oakley Cinemark, Esquire or Mariemont Theatre. It’s a longstanding tradition that can mostly be attributed to the fact that clients hardly ever want to train on Friday afternoons. Go figure.
Over the years, I’ve realized there are a surprising number of fitness lessons from movies. Great films are full of themes like discipline, patience, preparation, resilience, and knowing when to push the pace. Sound familiar?
One of my long-term goals is to give my daughter good taste in movies. I’m basically your stereotypical Core Millennial movie dork, and Heatis one of my favorites of all time. My daughter and I were watching it recently (okay, admittedly, she was a sleeping infant), and I couldn’t help but notice just how many fitness lessons from movies can be found in this one film in particular.
Without further ado, here are 4 Fitness Lessons from Heat:
1. “For me the action is the juice.” – Michael Cheritto
You need to learn to love the process. That is where the juice is! That is the action. We have a tendency to want to fast forward to the score, but the planning, cooking, eating, prepping, walking, running and lifting… that is where the juice is. That’s where progress is made and that is where all our time and effort goes. Focus on the action, and the juice will be well worth the squeeze
2. Don’t be a Waingro.
Obviously, we don’t want to be a criminal murderer like Waingro, but more importantly, we don’t want to have the self-sabotage, lack of control and lack of discipline that Waingro has. Control and discipline are trainable qualities, they take practice, we don’t just wake up one day and have total mastery of our workout routines, plans, schedule, meal prepping, etc.
We must slowly build these skills and slowly mold our environment to support our goals and efforts. When these skills and environments are built up and we utilize our support systems… your partner is just wanting to help the way Trejo is always wanting to help and support Neil McCauley. With your support systems in place, your consistent practices and environment lined up… there is no way you will become a Waingro.
3. “I say what I mean, and I do what I say.” – Vincent Hannah
Keep your promises to yourself. Everybody runs into various hurdles. But if you want to improve your fitness, strength, body composition, mobility, and performance, you are the only one who can truly keep your word to yourself for your progress.
4. “Don’t let yourself get attached to anything you are not willing to walk out on in 30 seconds flat. If you feel the heat around the corner, that’s the discipline” – Neil McCauley
30 seconds or less is the rule that Neil McCauley lives by… until he needs to get revenge and run away with Eady.
His 30 second rule worked for a long while, he had a very successful career as a career criminal and ran some epic heists. Unfortunately, it wasn’t sustainable. Most people do too much and don’t fuel their body. They are too restrictive, and they don’t prioritize the proper things needed to truly build their bodies, mind and habits. Sometimes people burn out quickly, going 0-100, sometimes people burn the candle at both ends and pay the price later in life with injuries and issues.
We need to have a balance – we need to be disciplined and great at what we do like Neil McCauley… but too much will get us burned. Shift your focus to what really builds you up and what you can do and what you NEED to do for a long time.
From Pacino to PRs
Bonus points for those of you who now go out and watch Michael Mann’s 1995 LA Crime Thriller Heat. If you are watching it for your first or your 10th time, you are in for quite a ride!
For those of you who indulged me in this nonsense… Can you think of some more fitness lessons from movies? Send your replies here.
If chatting about movies, hanging out, and training sounds like a good time to you, we’d love to have you check out Trilogy! Click here for our free trial offer.
Apply what you’ve discovered on our blog inside the gym. Schedule your free intro today to meet a coach, build a plan, and take the first step toward your goals.
