A Man's Fitness Part One: Laying the Foundation

In today's modern world, fitness may not seem all that important. Sure, you'll probably never have to run down a deer in order to eat, or repeatedly lift a heavy club to defend your home, but that does not mean that fitness is irrelevant in a man's life. On the contrary, fitness is just as relevant in today's world as it was thousands of years ago. Heavy items still need to be lifted, women need to be carried over thresholds, and long distances need to be traveled on foot. A lot of people say that intelligence is more important than fitness, because it has a higher likelihood of earning the average person more money over time whilst also allowing them to navigate social situations with deft skill. Yet, think about this; what good is intelligence if you are in such poor health you have trouble doing even the most simple of physical tasks? Fitness correlates to health, and health usually correlates to a longer life.

Not only will you live longer, but you will feel better about yourself. Show me a man in great physical shape, and I will show you a man who is confident about himself. And to be clear, great physical shape does not mean marathon-runner thin or bulging biceps. It means being able to move your body weight through space, being able to run a couple miles, being able to perform a repetitive physical task such as splitting firewood, and being able to lift moderately heavy weights with ease. A man should be able to do these things, because they are necessary in our world, modern or not. Splitting firewood with an axe is a much more efficient way of generating firewood and cheaper as well than modern hydraulic firewood splitters. Why not buy your firewood? Because you're a man, dammit. And you should be able to do it for a half-hour with relative ease. There are things in this world that most men will want to do, such as summit a mountain, or swim the English Channel, or ride a dirt-bike, or run with the bulls, or play a sport. All these things require certain physiological fitness levels to do, and are dangerous if one does not meet the physiological fitness levels.

And even if your physiological aspirations are less lofty, a higher level of fitness equals less pain due to enhanced strength, enhanced bone density, and enhanced tendon and ligament strength. Your body will be able to handle the stresses of life with greater ease and therefore, you will not feel the stress as much or at all. And even if you have no physiological aspirations, studies show that exercising makes one smarter. Also, more attractive people have a higher chance of earning a higher income. Guess what makes anyone more attractive? Being in shape and looking like you're in shape.

Every man should be able to do the following physiological items:

• 100 body-weight squats
• 20 pull-ups
• 20 dips
• 50 push-ups
• 50 horizontal rows
• 5 handstand push-ups
• 25 jump squats
• Run 2 miles
• Sprint 100 meters
• Climb a 50 foot rope
• Swim one mile
• Deadlift 225#

If you can do all of these, you are in-shape and hopefully you don't stop there; always set higher and higher fitness goals and continue to try to improve. A man who stops trying to improve himself, stops being a man.

A Man's Appearance Part One: Facial Hair

Facial hair and manliness go hand and hand; it is something that only men (and a few unfortunate women) can grow. In preparation for this post, I asked most of the women that I know whether or not they preferred a man with facial hair or a man to be clean shaven. While the results did vary quite a bit and a few were on the fence, overall, it appears that women prefer men with facial hair.

Some preferred a five o'clock shadow, while others stated that it scratched their faces and they preferred a longer-length beard. Some liked a goatee while others liked a bit of scruff. But the one main factor linking all of the facial hair styles is that the women always preferred the facial hair maintained. Letting your facial hair grow and not keeping it neat makes you look, in one word, ridiculous. The women that I talked to did not even consider taking a man who had messy facial hair seriously, because if he couldn't even maintain his facial hair, how could he maintain a relationship?

I'm not writing this post to tell men that they should grow facial hair or should comply with what their significant other wants. The point of this post is that, in the end, it is your face and therefore your hair. You have absolute control over it. Do whatever you think will look best on you. Do not be afraid to seek out the opinions of women you know, but do not just blindly follow their advice. If they prefer you clean shaven, but you like the way you look with a beard, go with the beard. It is your happiness and satisfaction that you should be worried about. A word of warning: a man will always look manlier with well-maintained facial hair (barring mustaches of the pedophile or Hitler variety). It is evolutionary and indisputable.

Appearance is one of the first things that can give or take away confidence in men. Without confidence, a man isn't really a true man. In order to be a man, you need to be confident in your decisions and your actions. Will you approach it with a confident surety, or will you hesitate from uncertainty? So grow that facial hair and keep it well-maintained gentlemen. I guarantee you will feel more manly and more sure of yourself. It may feel strange at first, and some people may not like it, but who cares about those people. You are a man, dammit, and men grow facial hair. Life is coming for us all; how will you greet it?

A Man's Skills Part One: Foreign Language

Language is what separates humans from other animals. While other animals do communicate, they lack our ability to speak. This ability has allowed humans to create a wealth of languages throughout the ages. While most are not in use today, in 1996 there were 6,703 languages still in use. A large majority of people around the world only speak one or two languages. There are factors that determine how many languages someone will speak. The main one would be location. For example, if you grew up in Belgium, you would have to know how to speak French, but they also speak Dutch in part of the country, and German in another part of the country. Therefore, there is a good chance that you would be exposed to these three languages at an early age and would learn them. Another example is the Caribbean island of Aruba. The official language that is taught is Dutch. However, they are also taught English, are exposed to Spanish and Portuguese, and have their own bastard language that is composed of the previous four languages. Therefore, the average Arubian speaks four or five languages. Are they any different than you or I? No, not really. They just had the benefit of growing up in a place that was exposed to a multitude of cultures.

A man should always strive to better himself, and part of that means learning a language other than your native one. Fluency is not the priority; basic conversational competence is. When traveling in another country, a man should always try to use the native language as much as possible. Yes most people in other countries speak English, but that is not the point. When someone attempts to speak someone else's language, it is a sign of respect to them, their culture, and their country.

You don't need a lot; a simple hello or an excuse me in a foreign language is enough to cause the native to warm to you very quickly. As an example, I was in Aruba this past summer, and their native language is Papiamento. In the hotel were a few guidebooks with the most common sayings. Things like hello, good bye, thank you, no, yes, good night, and so on. It took less than ten minutes to learn all the words. So for the entire vacation, I would say "danke" instead of thank you, or "bon nochi" instead of good night. The locals were thrilled and instantly smiled and showed me gratitude for acknowledging their culture. This in turn, made me want to use the language more and to eventually learn it some day.

However, if you aren't traveling any time soon, start to learn a foreign language anyways. French or Dutch are both good languages to start with as they are very similar to English, but if you have been wanting to learn Mandarin, choose that instead. You will get out of it what you put in, so choose a language you're enthusiastic about. After learning a second language, subsequent languages will be easier to learn. Choosing languages based on how many people you can communicate with can be a very efficient method. But choosing which language would be most beneficial for you personally would probably be the wisest choice, unless you think you can competently learn more than one language at a time, which I advise against if you're just starting out learning a second language.

Speaking a foreign language isn't just about being able to get where you want to go in a foreign landscape. It's not about being sure that you're ordering the right thing at a restaurant. And it is not about casually having a conversation with a local. Speaking a foreign language is about knowing and learning a culture and a way of life that is different from yours. It will change your perspective of life and allow you to learn things about the country you're visiting that you would not have learned had you not known any of the native language. And in the grand scheme of things, knowledge is the most vital tool in a man's life. So before you travel to a country where they speak a language other than your own native one, take a month or so and get to know the language and the culture; your travels will be that much better because of it, and maybe you'll learn a little about yourself in the process. In the end, knowing who we are is what is most important in life.