Fitness Is The Ultimate “Timelessness”
I have mentioned a few times over the past weeks the importance of fitness for fathers.
And while I think a lot of guys understand on some level that it’s important to be in capable shape, they sometimes don’t really realize how important fitness is for being stylish.
Unfortunately, some men even use style as a way to keep from being fit or to ignore their physical fitness altogether. They think that because they know menswear and can dress well, that it somehow makes up for their lack of physical fitness.
Since many of us are interested in menswear, we often gravitate toward classic styles that are largely impervious to trends. We know to shoot for middle-of-the-road proportions. We know to keep our clothes free from logos. We know how to spot quality. We can recognize when the pendulum of fashion is swinging this way or that and not get caught up in what the pendulum indicates we “should” be wearing at any given time (since we know it won’t last).
We are all aiming for “timelessness”, aren’t we?
In my opinion, fitness is the ultimate “timelessness” when it comes to style.
Whenever we look at stylish men of the past, the one constant is that they are all in passably good shape. Note, I say “passably good shape”. Their level of fitness was attainable for normal guys.
Cary Grant was an athlete, sure, but not a bodybuilder or anything.
Jimmy Stewart was a soldier, but he always hovered around 140 pounds at six-feet-four inches tall.
Humphrey Bogart could throw Audrey Hepburn over his shoulder and carry her up a flight of stairs, but he was still fairly slight (and being a heavy smoker certainly didn’t help).
Gregory Peck had a reputation for being prodigiously strong, but like Grant, he wasn’t some freak of nature. He was a normal guy who happened to be strong.
Even someone like Clark Gable, whose bare chest caused audiences to swoon in 1934, was built like a pretty regular “fit guy”. He just looks like he enjoys being active.
What I’m saying is that some of the most stylish men of all time were relatively “normal” looking even though they were all relatively fit, which makes it seem achievable for regular guys like us to attain their level of fitness.
But their fitness was the starting point for their great style. If they didn’t have a baseline of fitness, we wouldn’t be talking about their great style, we would be talking about how stylish they were IN SPITE of how they looked.
Yes, Sydney Greenstreet, Alfred Hitchcock, and Sebastian Cabot were incredibly stylish men, but whenever we talk about them, we talk about how good they looked DESPITE their apparent lack of physical fitness. Their physical condition was a handicap on their style.
Whether we like it or not, the way someone’s body looks always factors into how stylish we think they are.
Sometimes otherwise stylish men will think, “Well, people should judge me for my great sense of style. They shouldn’t judge me for being out-of-shape.”
But… don’t we always point out the problem when others when they say things like, “People should judge me for my personality, not my clothes.”?
It’s the same thing.
The world makes snap judgements based on how people look. In the clothing world, we are ok with this because we have taken steps to put ourselves ahead in that game. I love that people judge me on my clothes, because it’s an area in which I have skill.
But it’s the same with fitness. Unfortunately some men don’t want to be judged on that because they HAVEN’T taken steps to put themselves ahead in that game (like they have with clothes).
So, don’t get all bent out of shape when I say that you aren’t as stylish as you could be if you were fit.
But again, what KIND of “fit” are we talking about?
Well, remember how I said in my last article that the EFFORT was what is important? It’s the same with fitness. You don’t have to be a triathlete, you just have to make exercise a priority in your life. Get a good sweat going a few times a week. Work towards doing a certain number of pull-ups or push-ups or running a certain number of miles. Do some yardwork and take the kids on a hike on the weekend. You don’t have to go crazy or upend your lifestyle.
Menswear guys like us will always gravitate to things like tweed jackets or high-rise trousers or oxford-shirts or cashmere sweaters since they are timeless. They ALWAYS look good. We usually try to fill our closets with these “timeless” staples. But too often we neglect the one major thing that is the most timeless of all… our personal physical fitness.
Everything looks better on a fit body. And everything feels better when your body is fit. Fitness begets confidence and confidence is usually the missing ingredient in so many outfits.
If you have ever wondered why you can’t “pull something off” or feel confident in a certain outfit, it might be because you don’t have a baseline of physical fitness.
I have a few “stretch” items (as in, items that are a little outside my normal style wheelhouse) in my closet that take a little bit of swagger to wear well. Things like my leather biker jacket or my straw boater hat. The fitter I am, the more comfortable I am wearing those things.
Here’s a weird thing that sprang to mind while I was writing this article…
Like most menswear weirdos, I love the fall and winter partly because of all the great clothes I get to wear. I love jackets and sport coats and boots and hats and sweaters of all kinds. The more layers the better! In the colder months, I feel confident in my style.
But then the warm weather rolls around and I suddenly feel a little self-conscious. A little more unsure of myself and the way I look.
In the cold weather, I can cover up any perceived bodily imperfections. In the cold weather I always look like I have a strong, fit body because my clothes do a lot of that visual heavy-lifting. In the spring and summer, though, I can no longer hide behind layers of wool and oxford-cloth. So, I have discovered that I need to maintain my fitness in order to feel happy and confident regardless of what I am wearing.
Is it hard to start exercising? Yes. But there is no way around it. Your life will never be less busy. All of the obstacles and excuses will always be there, so there’s no point in waiting for a “better time” to start getting your fitness in order.
And it will always feel hard when you’re doing it. Because in order to continue getting better, you need to continue pushing yourself. All of that is normal.
But the payoff is so worth it.
Don’t you want your kids to think that they have a strong dad? Don’t you want “Daddy is strong” to be the truth in your family, alongside the usual truths like “Mommy’s a great cook” and “Grandma always brings gifts”?
In closing, I will leave you with a little anecdote that illustrates my point about the importance of physical fitness for dads…
Earlier in the summer, we took the boys to one of those historical villages that has people in costumes doing old-timey things like making baskets and stuff. During the blacksmith’s presentation, he showed us some huge iron apparatus that was apparently used on ships to secure the ropes. The thing was about the size of a large pumpkin with a two-foot column sticking out the top.
The blacksmith wanted us to get a sense of how heavy these things were so he said to me “Here Dad, give that a try”, as in “Try to pick this up because it’s really heavy”.
Now, I don’t think he was implying there was no way I could have lifted it, but if I couldn’t, it would have proven his point.
Fortunately, lots of wood-chopping and pull-ups have given me a pretty strong grip, so even though it was definitely heavy, I was able to quite easily lift the thing off the ground.
It made me feel good that I was able to demonstrate my physical fitness in front of my kids. And later on in the trip I certainly felt more confident and stylish (especially in my bathing suit!) and it undoubtedly showed!
We are always told that the father’s level of physical fitness is one of the biggest indicators of how fit the children will be throughout their lives. But fitness also is inseparable from our style journey! And while we are trying to impart the importance of taking style seriously to our kids, we sometimes forget how closely woven our style is with our fitness level.
Those two things are so often looked at separately when they are really two sides of the same coin.
