May is National Physical Fitness and Sports Month, but let’s be honest, this conversation should never be limited to just one month or just one group of people.
For a long time, we’ve treated physical fitness like it only belongs to athletes or people chasing a certain body type. But what I’ve learned through years of training, injuries, wins, losses, and transitions is that movement is about so much more than muscles or medals. It’s about who you become when you commit to showing up for yourself, over and over again.
Why Physical Fitness Really Matters
When I think about the role fitness has played in my life, the first word that comes to mind isn’t strength. It’s stability.
Physical activity has always been my anchor. During the highs of my NBA career, movement was part of the rhythm that kept me grounded. And after retirement, it became a tool for navigating change—mentally, emotionally, and physically.
We often talk about working out to improve how we look. But what about how we feel? How we think? How we show up in our relationships, our leadership, and our daily decisions?
Research continues to back this up: Regular movement improves mental clarity, reduces anxiety, sharpens focus, and even increases resilience. In other words, the more consistently we move, the better we function across every domain of life.
What Sports Really Taught Me
The moments that shaped me most weren’t always the ones under the bright lights on the court, they were the early mornings in the gym, the late nights reviewing plays, and the discipline of sticking to a plan when no one was watching.
Sports taught me how to push through discomfort, how to trust the process, and how to stay focused when things didn’t go my way.
And, perhaps most importantly, how to recover, because setbacks are inevitable in both sports and life.
These aren’t lessons exclusive to professional athletes. They’re available to anyone who’s ever laced up a pair of sneakers and chosen to keep going.
Health Is a Long Game
In today’s culture, it’s easy to fall for the quick-fix mentality: 30-day challenges, overnight transformations, the idea that if you’re not going hard, you’re not doing it right.
But health doesn’t work like that.
Real fitness is built one day at a time. It’s the small decisions—what you eat, how you move, when you rest—that add up over time.
It’s about creating a relationship with your body that you can sustain.
Simple Ways to Start That Actually Stick
If you’re looking to reconnect with physical activity, my advice is this: Start simple.
You don’t need a gym membership or a personal trainer to begin. Try this:
- Take a 10-minute walk in the morning—consistency matters more than intensity.
- Listen to an audiobook or podcast while moving your body. Make it something you look forward to.
- Stretch before bed—a small way to care for yourself after a long day.
- Fuel your body like you’d fuel your goals. You don’t put low-grade gas in a high-performance car.
- Rest. Sleep, recovery, and downtime are part of peak performance.
As we recognize National Physical Fitness and Sports Month, I invite you to rethink your own relationship with movement. Not as punishment or pressure, but as an act of respect for your future self.
Fitness isn’t about chasing who you were at 25. It’s about being present, energized, and capable, now and later.
So here’s my question to you:
What does physical fitness mean to you… beyond the gym?
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