I’m guessing many of you don’t know this, but I wrote a book.
Actually, I’ve written two books.
The second of which is called “Bad Ass Arms” which is, as you may have guessed, an arm specialization program. Certain colleagues and clients - I will not name names - love to make fun of me for the title of this book but I see no problem with it.
No shortage of people out in the world who want “bad ass arms” even though they may be too ashamed to admit it. I’m happy to be on the front lines of fighting this stigma.
But much to their dismay, I did not come up with that title. When you write a book and have no clout - as much as you, loyal reader, absolutely love my writing I’m not exactly David Foster Wallace or Maya Angelou - you don’t get final approval on much, title included.
Which leads me to my first book which is titled “High Intensity 300”.
HI300 was initially conceived by my publisher (not the same one as my second book) as a year long training program where you worked out every day, every workout was under 30 minutes and every workout featured a different exercise.
I pushed back on the 365 days of workouts (rest days are important!) and the constant variety (I’m probably the last person who could or would even want to come up with 365 different exercises) and we ended up with three hundred short strength and conditioning workouts laid out in a periodized manner (there was a “hypertrophy” section, a “strength” section, etc.).
I wanted to call the book “Every Damn Day” (yes, rest days still count!) but my publisher in their infinite wisdom and a concerning level of fear about blow back they may get from bible belters from using the word “Damn” insisted on “High Intensity 300”.
Whacha gonna do?
The experience on the second book was a delight. I worked with a higher end publisher, my editor was a well-established industry professional who really pitched in and left me to simply come up with the workouts.
High Intensity 300 was a different story altogether. The people at the publishers were absolutely lovely but, besides a few emails asking why I was behind schedule and when they could expect some chapters, they were hands off.
Perhaps not surprisingly, the book opportunity came at a pretty good time in my career and a rather busy time in my life.
My dance card was filled with personal training clients and I was training anywhere from six to ten sessions per day.
The week I committed to the book deal was the same week that my wife gave birth to our son.
(I actually took the call that finalized the deal as we were coming home from our final doctor appointment).
I was also doing a lot of writing for the fitness magazines and websites at the time and that same week (actually the morning before my son was born) I had my first article published on T-Nation which, at the time, was essentially Mecca on the internet for meatheads like me.
I was on a hot streak. I was on a roll. I was excited. I was exhausted.
All of these opportunities felt like a dream-come-true for me. I hadn’t been in the fitness industry very long but, somehow, I managed to go from unpaid intern to Director of Training at what was widely considered the best gym in New York City.
I sat on the advisory board and was featured on the pages of Men’s Fitness magazine.
I was surrounded by incredible trainers, well-known celebrities and the highest of high powered New Yorkers.
I was writing for the website that was my go-to when I first started learning about real strength training.
And now I was going to write a book which was going to seal my “legacy” as something that would stand the test of time.
It took me over 2 years to finish the book.
A lot of it was written between training client sessions. I would dedicate a few hours each weekend in the basement of my local Starbucks to coming up with workout after workout in order to fill up the quota.
After everything was complete and submitted and revised and submitted again. After photo shoots and acknowledgement pages and author headshots were provided the book eventually came out.
I will say this, there is a very real and palpable excitement when a box of complimentary copies of your book arrives at your door, you carefully cut it open and you see your name on the cover for the first time.
I felt like George McFly at the end of Back To The Future when in this new, revised timeline the now demure Biff brings in the box carrying the first copies of his book.
“If you put your mind to it, you can accomplish anything,” George tells Marty as he hands him a copy.
But as memorable as that massive hit of dopamine was when I first popped the box was, I often wonder if writing that book was a mistake. Perhaps the biggest of my career.
Because while it is nice to say that I’m two-time author Dan Trink, the effort required to make the book a reality took me away from many of the other things that I was working on. Executing someone else’s ideas rather than exploring my own. Spending time in a coffee shop basement instead of with my infant son.
I don’t regret the decision, per se. I thought it was a great opportunity and I do believe that you regret the shots you don’t take much more than the ones you do. But I do often find myself wondering how things may have turned out if I decided to turn the book down.
The book has been out for almost 10 years. It’s been translated into various languages. The biggest seller currently, believe it or not, is the edition translated to basic Chinese.
You can still buy it (the English version) on Amazon if you’d like (4.6 stars on 64 reviews)!
Like I said, I am very proud to have written books. And even though it wasn’t that long ago, at that time being an author carried more cache. But I do sometimes wonder how things would have gone differently if I had turned it down.
Would I have worked on different, more exciting projects? Would I be more well known?
Would I have become a fitness influencer?
On second thought, maybe it’s better that things went the way that they did.
Do you have any fitness books you love? Can you recommend any books that really changed they way you thought about things? How about a book that helped you succeed in health or fitness or business?
I'm always looking for good recommendations so send them my way. If I get enough good ones I'll put together a reading list with some summaries and send it out to everyone here.