When I picked up my CrossFit WOD Bible Wednesday, I just happened to open a page where I’d completed a workout on the same day one year earlier.

3 Rounds For Time

20 Burpees

30 Squats

40 Sit-ups

A year ago, it took me 27:03.

For the majority of 2019, I was pretty diligent about exercise, and it’s no exaggeration to say that I reached a higher level of fitness than ever before.

I read and studied fitness and nutrition books, and, from that, I learned that pretty much my entire life, I’d been doing it wrong.

Wasting my time.

I used to belong to a big box gym. I went five days a week for about an hour and did the usual circuit training, cardio machines, weight machines & free weights. Between the drive to and from the gym and the workout itself, I’d spend around 90 minutes each day.

For that privilege, I’d pay $50 each month.

After most workouts, I’d buy a $5 calorie-laden sugar bomb the girl at the smoothie counter called a “post-workout recovery drink.”

Cha-ching, add another $100 a month to my fitness bill, and, ignoring the gas I was burning, I’m at $150/month.

The result? I did get “in shape,” but I was far from being “fit.” I was thin and had big biceps, but if you asked me to help you move, I would struggle with the big furniture.

My muscles were good at isolated movements - curls, presses, extensions, etc. - but that didn’t translate well to moving heavy objects in the real world.

The truth is those big box gyms are not designed to build optimal fitness for the members. They are designed to build optimal cash flow for the owners who know that people will pay their money and not show up.

Here in January, the gyms are full.

By April, it will be crickets because, for most people, the gym is too boring and takes too much time.

In 2019 my workouts averaged 30 minutes per day, and I did them either at home or in the basement below my office.

Were they easy? Hell no.

I’ve got 15-minute routines that I promise will bring a gym rat to his knees. Later this morning, I’ll sweat more in 20 minutes than I ever did in an hour at a gym.

But the results are undeniable.

On Wednesday, I finished that workout from a year ago in 19:55.

26% faster.

Never, in all my years of big box gyms, did I make a 26% improvement in one year.

There were 21,900 hours in 2019, of which I spent only 182 exercising — just 30 minutes per day with no driving and hardly any equipment, whereas, during a typical year at a big-box gym, I’d be pushing 400 hours.

That's more than twice as much time with not so much as half the results.

If your New Year’s resolution is getting in shape, skip the gym for a couple of months and pick up a copy of the Bodyweight Cross Training WOD Bible on Amazon.

It’s probably the best $10 I’ve ever spent.