The Everyday Athlete: How to Balance Work, Family, and Fitness for Life

by Art Trapotsis

Put fitness into practice with this balance-driven guide from cyclist, CEO, and coach Art Trapotsis.
Do the demands of your career, family, and life constantly sabotage your efforts to improve your fitness? Exercise is vitally important for good health, but it usually takes a back seat when life becomes busy. You might prioritize your work and family relationships out of what seems like necessity, but before you realize it, your fitness goals are pushed aside and you feel stressed out and unbalanced. The bright side? It doesn't have to be that way.
In The Everyday Athlete, Art Trapotsis—father, husband, CEO, and endurance athlete—shares:
• How fitness is the most important—and often overlooked—ingredient to finding balance in life
• How to develop and nourish a fitness mindset and make exercise a consistent part of your routine
• Methods and best practices to get fitter without jeopardizing your relationships or career
Current, former, and future athletes of all kinds, from seasoned competitors to weekend warriors, will find useful tools for improving fitness along with work-life balance. The included “KIT Quiz” offers a gut check on your current balance and tips for how you can improve it. Whether you’re training for a major event, reviving your fitness routine, or starting fresh, you’ll find motivation and inspiration from the author’s personal stories and unique approach for squeezing fitness into a busy life, thereby creating balance. Everyone can be an athlete, every day.

Genres: Nonfiction, Fitness, Self Help

147 pages, Kindle Edition

Published June 7, 2022

Reviews

[Alicia Bayer · Rating 2 out of 5]

I sadly didn't get a lot out of this book. I had hoped to since I need inspiration to get myself being more active on a daily basis, but I just felt throughout the book like I wasn't the target demographic. That's a shame, since the premise is supposed to be that everybody can be an athlete just by being active and taking part in athletic activities.

Right off the bat, Trapotsis says he's writing for four types of people. These include young people just starting out in life and work, parents of young kids, people who are sedentary or work hard all week and then do lots of athletics on the weekend, and people who used to be really athletic and are no longer. I'm not any of those. I hoped that he didn't mean the book was just for those groups, but the rest of the book seemed to bear that out.

What the book is good for -- Telling you that you can be an athlete and call yourself that even if you're not professional or hard core, encouraging you to do things like hire a babysitter so you can go do athletics or pay for a membership to the Y or for home gym equipment, giving suggestions for ways to be active while being social like starting a bike riding club or inviting friends over every Friday night for pizza and social time (I'm not sure why this is athletic but he recommends it).

Where it is lacking -- There is absolutely nothing here for people who are disabled, poor, single parents, struggling with issues like depression, etc. It's shockingly tone deaf towards groups like this, actually. For instance, he talks a lot about how people should take athletics breaks during work and that employers should just accept this because it's good for productivity. He says things like you can tell your boss you'll be a little late a couple of days a week because of athletics and bosses should be okay with this because athletic workers are better workers. Can you imagine the average factory worker, ER nurse, McDonald's worker or teacher saying "I'm just going to be a little late some days and take long lunch breaks because I need to prioritize athletics"? Likewise, he assumes that the reader is middle to upper class, married and with children. There's no word anywhere on how to start being athletic if you never have been or if you have a disability or work multiple jobs or don't have money for babysitters or equipment, or even what athletics people should do. It's all just sort of generic encouragement -- you can make time for athletics and it can be what you want. It's that for a whole (short) book. No specifics. No troubleshooting. No concrete information.

Ultimately, it didn't provide me with anything to help me get inspired for more fitness activities. I'll keep looking and keep working on it on my own.

There are so many people who will also be left out of this book that I can't really give it a blanket recommendation. It will be good for those who are middle to upper class, already used to athletics, and are just looking for a pep talk.

Two stars for it was okay.

I read a digital ARC of this book via Net Galley.

[Ilaria 🌸 · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book helps you get o put yourself in the right mind set the one athlete have
The writing is gook and I add a bit boring.
It helped me to gain and nantain motivation
Good job
Thanks NetGalley for the ARC

[Ilaria 🌸 · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book helps you get o put yourself in the right mind set the one athlete have
The writing is gook and I add a bit boring.
It helped me to gain and nantain motivation
Good job
Thanks NetGalley for the ARC

[Katie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I started reading this ARC the day after I talked to a friend about needing motivation to start working out again now that my son is two months old - WOW, what perfect timing. This book is well organized, motivating for the everyday person, and so easy to read. It was exactly what I needed, and might be exactly what you need too. ⁠
⁠
Some things I loved: ⁠
▪️ No matter your fitness level, you can call yourself an athlete ⁠
▪️ There is a chapter specifically for parents of young children ⁠
▪️ Non-judgmental. In fact, extremely encouraging

⁠Highly recommend!

[Angel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Motivational

This book has really given me the motivation to start moving and to prioritize my fitness. I plan on going through this book again, especially when I'm feeling less motivated to do anything. Just opening this book gets me pumped and ready to get a workout in.

[Suvi Lambson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Okay, first of all, this book is not for everyone. The author makes the argument that everyone can be an athlete, but the strategies in this book are for people with privilege and disposable income and no health problems or other limiting factors. That being said, I read it at the right time and am in a position to apply what he wrote about. The author argued that everyone can view themselves as an athlete, and by doing so, it changes how you approach fitness. I like that shift in mindset and at the moment am trying to figure out how to balance family and jobs during a move. I ran a marathon last year and then just kind of stopped running. I miss running but have been so overwhelmed with life that it’s fallen off. Reading this book got me into the right headspace to try to make more space/take advantage of the space I have for exercise- and not just exercise but sports and other active activities. It reminded me that maybe I could deal better with this overwhelm and anxiety if I had that outlet. It’s a quick read, which I appreciated. Over the few days I read it, while swimming with my kids I decided to try to swim across the lake while my husband stayed with the kids, did a 20 minute yoga video while my kids did screens, and took the kids on a 2 mile hike (bonus workout since I got to carry both the 3 year old and six year old for portions of it). Earth shattering book? No. But solidly motivating if you are in the right demographic.

[Prashant Deshmukh · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have completed reading the book *THE EVERYDAY ATHLETE How to balance work,family and fitness for life*
This guide put fitness into practice with this balance-driven guide from cyclist, CEO, and coach Art Trapotsis.
Do the demands of your career, family, and life constantly sabotage your efforts to improve your fitness? Exercise is vitally important for good health, but it usually takes a back seat when life becomes busy. You might prioritize your work and family relationships out of what seems like necessity, but before you realize it, your fitness goals are pushed aside and you feel stressed out and unbalanced. The bright side? It doesn't have to be that way.
In The Everyday Athlete, Art Trapotsis—father, husband, CEO, and endurance athlete—shares:
• How fitness is the most important—and often overlooked—ingredient to finding balance in life
• How to develop and nourish a fitness mindset and make exercise a consistent part of your routine
• Methods and best practices to get fitter without jeopardizing your relationships or career
Current, former, and future athletes of all kinds, from seasoned competitors to weekend warriors, will find useful tools for improving fitness along with work-life balance.

[Pastel]

I won a copy in a Goodreads giveaway.

I honestly started skimming early on in this book. He defines four categories of people that this book is for and I am not in any of them. This book is basically telling you how to be him, and I'm sure it works, if you are already him. He is his most used example of success which makes sense but feels... smarmy.

It's actually a bit depressing if you aren't him. If you don't have a partner, get ready to feel like you can't do anything about your life. He definitely did not mean to present his insights that way, but it's my only new takeaway. Everything else is little tidbits you probably heard somewhere else, like hey sign up for a 5k to get motivated. The rest is super contextual. I'm not sure what you are supposed to do if you don't have a gym and shower at your work. Yoga in the parking lot? I guess??

Whatever. If you are already motivated to workout, have a partner, and a job with lax lunch rules and place to shower, this is for you. Everyone else, get out.

Note to self: I skimmed the whole thing, but honestly, this is more like a DNF or a hate read. I should probably pass it on to a married person working at a startup.

[Reader · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a lifelong runner, who has struggled, of late, to fit it in with kids, work, life, I found this book hugely inspiring. It's engaging, down-to-earth, and encouraging. Really loved it..and now I'm lacing back up! I'd recommend it to anyone who's been "waiting" for the right time" to start moving again. Will keep this book within close reach for any time I lose my motivation again.

[Josh · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an easy and inspiring read. It really encouraged me to pursue balance in my life in regards to family, work, and fitness. I loved the idea of thinking yourself as an athlete and how you would approach fitness with that mindset. I would recommend this book to anyone who has kids and a spouse as the author speaks more to this group than anyone else.

[Steve · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good little book on making sure to find the time to exercise.

[Jen (The Jenerator) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really glad I read this. I learned a lot and I feel great about that! :)