RPG Fitness – An Excerpt

Discuss this post:
On the forums!
On Reddit!

Hey guys!  We’ve got a special blog post for today.  We’re not starting our next character yet because I’m working really hard at finishing up “How to Be a Game Character,” as well as beginning a solid site redesign.  Back in December, I quit my job to begin working on the blog full time.  At the time, I announced the first official Be a Game Character book, “How to Be a Game Character.”  I also announced a completely unrealistic release timeline for said book, and the smaller “chunks” that it consists of.

Well, after several months of hard work, that book is just about done.  I’ve got some polishing and writing left to do, but you should be seeing it very very soon.  To whet your appetite between now and then, here’s the intro and part of the first chapter of the fourth and final part, “RPG Fitness.”

Fitness as a Role Playing Game

If you’re like me, video games have been a big part of your life.  If you’re like me, you grew up playing them every day, salivating for new games and sequels, and arguing with your friends about which console was better.  If you’re like me, you’ve always kind of look up to, and been inspired by the characters you play as (or maybe the villains they fight against).

This is the fitness book for you.

Gamers have been maligned as being out-of-shape, pale, stuck in the basement nerds for just about as long as games have existed.  In fact, even though the “gamer” demographic is so large now that the majority of people alive today play some form of video, mobile, or computer game, that stereotype still seems to exist!  I’m here to change that.

Games are fun because they offer an escape, and a form of artificial progression.  In platformers, you get better at the skills that you’re given, and progress through harder and harder levels.  In shooters, you get better guns and gear as you move on in missions.  In role playing games, you gain new skills and abilities and levels based upon experience points.

Very often people don’t succeed in their fitness goals because they have the motivation to start, but lack the determination and continuous rewards necessary to see things through to the end.  Let’s be honest, here, wellness is a long term goal, and you’re not always going to see significant progress every day (sometimes even every week!)  This book is going to change that.  We’re going to work with a real-life leveling “system” to help track your progress, keep you motivated, and enable you to accomplish your goals.

This book, of course, is just part of a larger whole.  If you bought the full “How to Be a Game Character,” you already have the other parts, so you’re good!  If you did not buy the full volume, I cannot recommend enough that you at least invest in “The Care and Feeding of You.”  If you’re looking to get in shape, you NEED to consider your diet and lifestyle just as much (if not more) than your workout regimen!  This book can get you strong, but if you’re shooting to lose or gain weight, diet and lifestyle will play a much bigger part in your journey than working out ever will.

The other two volumes, while not essential, are also extremely helpful.  Choose Your Class is there to help you decide which class and archetype (we’ll get into those later) fits you best.  It also helps you focus and mold your mindset to the characters you want to be.  Potions and Power-Ups  REALLY helps you push to that next level, by giving you a solid overview of the world of fitness supplements, and offering some greats blends and stacks to give yourself the edge in your workout and recovery regimen.

Enough about them, let’s talk about you.  You are beginning a journey with this book.  We’re going to start by talking about the principles of working out.  There’s different kinds of strength and fitness to consider, as well as the mechanisms that power your body and muscles.  After that, we’re going to head into some workout terminology and notations you’ll need to know to understand the rest of the book.  I promise, I won’t unload too much jargon on you, but you definitely need to know the basics. We’ll also talk about types of workouts, and their pros and cons.

After that comes one of the main components of the RPG fitness plan, and one of the things that sets this book apart from other volumes being hawked by various well-muscled fitness type people:  your character sheet.  Other books encourage a workout log, we’re going to take that one step further by turning you into an actual video game character.  Get excited, this is gonna be really cool.

At this point, we’ll have our framework built.  It’s time to throw everything together with the workout programs!  Each class get their own specialized workout plan, designed to plug perfectly into your character sheet.  These go above and beyond anything you’ve seen on the blog, and if you follow them, they will take you to elite levels of fitness.  Additionally, there will be instructions on how to incorporate workouts from the site, so you can still work on being that particular character that brought you to Be a Game Character in the first place.  These workouts are not intended to replace that character, but rather to borrow from their strength and build upon it!  In fact, you may even recognize some elements from your favorite character of choice…

After the workouts, we’re going to wrap up the book with a discussion about recovery, results, and relentless forward progress.  You’ll also have a glossary of exercises (with diagrams) to help you out with anything you’re unsure of.

This book, in my opinion, is the crown jewel of How to Be a Game Character.  I’ve been writing the blog for four years, now, and in my opinion, this is the best writing I’ve done, hands down.  If you follow this guide, you will amaze yourself with your progress.  Getting fit is more than just a physical transformation, it’s a mental one as well.  This book will help you become a bolder, stronger, and most importantly, more awesome version of yourself.

Let’s begin.

The Principles of Fitness

In “The Care and Feeding of You” I outlined two physical principles of your body.  One is “shape,” and the other is “fitness.”  I defined “shape” as literally the way your body appears, physically, and “fitness” as your physical capability to perform tasks.  While the two terms are definitely interrelated, the separation can help us with mental classification of different things, and how they relate to accomplishing our goals.

Just to throw out a few examples, you can have someone who is really fit(able to run a 5k or 10k in a respectable time, or deadlift 400 pounds), who may not be in the shape they want (low body fat percentage, or small muscle mass).  Similarly, someone can look completely ripped (low body fat percentage, good muscle size), but they can’t deadlift their own body weight, or run a mile without heaving and wheezing.

Altering your shape is mostly the domain of diet, so that is mostly covered in “The Care and Feeding of You.”  In this book, we’re going to be addressing increasing your physical capabilities (your fitness).  Yes, aesthetics do rely on exercise (especially if you’re looking to gain muscle mass), but for the most part, exercise has more to do with making you more physically than anything else.  So, without further ado, let’s get into the nitty gritty of how your body works…

Tada!  Yup, that’s all you get for now.  I’m SUPER excited about this book, because I feel like the system I’m developing here (along with the other books) is a really revolutionary way for people to approach fitness and wellness, and I think it will really help a lot of people change their lives for the better.   The full book will be available very soon, and once it’s released, I’ll be focusing full-time on a site redesign (because holy crap this site is looking dated).  After the site redesign?  Well, we’ve got some pretty awesome stuff waiting in the wings…

But look at me, still jawing when I should be hard at work!  =P  As always, remember to live boldly, change the world, and continue to be awesome.

Dan “DaRatmastah” Wallace