When Life Is Tough, Get In Shape: A Lesson From Boxing Legend Bernard Hopkins
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As a youngster, I remember watching on HBO pay-per-view Felix “Tito” Trinidad walking into the ring to fight for the undisputed middleweight championship against Bernard “The Executioner” Hopkins.
I had no idea who Hopkins was.
Trinidad was the big-name fighter. He had mustered a decision win over the immensely popular Oscar De La Hoya a few years before. He then followed that up with big wins against David Reid, another Olympic Gold Medalist, and Fernando Vargas, also a former Olympian for the US.
In 2001, when he walked through WBA middleweight champion William Joppy in five rounds, I didn’t fathom Hopkins was going to succeed.
Even worse, I thought, Hopkins was 36 years old. That’s a senior citizen by boxing standards.
But succeed he did. Trinidad’s father stopped the fight in the 12th round, after his son had been decked to the canvas. Hopkins had dominated the fight from start to finish and became undisputed champion.
In the following years, as Hopkins continued to fight well into his 40s, I learned more about his story and background. Like Jack LaLanne, Hopkins was an advocate of self discipline. He did not drink alcohol. He didn’t do drugs. He didn’t eat junk food, either. Year after year, fight after fight, he kept himself in great physical condition. His discipline allowed him to fight well beyond the point when most fighters’ careers were over. But more importantly, I believe it allowed him to straighten out his life beyond the point when most peoples’ lives would have been over.
Hopkins came from a very-tough background. In his late teens, Hopkins, living in Philadelphia, was sent to prison for five years for strong-arm robbery. He was a very different person and distant from the well-adjusted, thoughtful, and disciplined champion athlete he would later become.
In jail, Hopkins, weary of becoming “institutionalized” and lost, chose to elevate his life. He got the ‘reefer and alcohol’ out of his system, as he described. He recommitted to boxing.
When his life was at a deep low, he got himself in shape. He did the work that we are all capable of, but many fail to do. We see it time and again. Someone’s life may even have been going fine—or amazing, and when a situation in their life went off the rails, they went right off the rails with it. Excessive drinking. Drug (ab)use. Sometimes they never get out of it. (Maurice Clarett, was one high-profile example, although it wouldn’t be fair to over-speculate about what alternatives he may have had).
But when life is most difficult, that is when discipline can be most important. It is not a panacea. We still have to deal with our problems, but doing that work is much harder—if not impossible, if we don’t take care of ourselves.
Imagine if the day Hopkins went to jail he had decided to give in. If upon his release he went back to living the life he had lived before. He wasn’t a top prospect, like Trinidad or De La Hoya had been as teenagers. He didn’t have a blue-chip contract and a big signing bonus waiting for him. He had to be willing to try, even though he didn’t yet know if his professional boxing career would become as successful as it did. But if he didn’t go for it with all he had, he would have missed out on the storied life that he eventually fulfilled.
Maybe you are going through a tough time right now.
Maybe you have climbed up the wrong side of the mountain, only to realize that the only way to get to the top is to climb back down and start over on the right path.
Maybe you live a charmed life and you feel like this is irrelevant to you. However, it is relevant, because life is not a pain-free experience.
But if you ever find your life isn’t going the way you want it to, get in shape.
You may ask, “why?” What if you are not an athlete? You may wonder how your physical fitness could have anything to do with getting your life back on track to where you want it to be? Many people think the two have nothing to do with each other.
For one, the more energy you have, the more energy you have to deal with the challenges that are happening. It can be especially difficult when you don’t have a support system. Even Mackie Shilstone, the accomplished coach and trainer, said at one point everyone had written him off. No one gave him a chance. Those situations take even more energy.
If you encounter adversity and start abusing alcohol and drugs, as well as eating and sleeping poorly, that digs the hole even deeper. As the saying goes, when you get in a hole, stop digging. I will provide references and sources below, but alcohol abuse weakens your immune system and health. If you were just having a few drinks before, consider staying sober until you have improved your situation. If you were abusing alcohol before, consider getting help to stop.
Lastly, a poisoned body and mind will have difficulty gaining the clarity that is necessary to make tough decisions and fulfill the commitment you have to bettering your life. Instead of waking up with more clarity than you had before, you are likely to wake up groggy and confused. It might feel like you didn’t even sleep the night before. Instead of having strong focus as you do what needs to be done, you might feel foggy and spacey mentally. Negativity may creep up on you and begin nagging until, after a while, it is the only voice you can hear. These are just a few of the traps that keep people stuck when they fall into difficulty.
Remember, you might have to climb back down the mountain—and now… you have to climb back up. You need all the strength and resources from within that you can muster.
To conclude…
When life is tough…
Get in shape.
Resources and notes:
For inspiration search: “Bernard Hopkins, discipline, diet, alcohol” “Bernard Hopkins: Boxing's Ageless Wonder Pulls No Punches,” by Chris Mannix, April 21, 2014, SI.com. Link here: https://www.si.com/edge/2014/04/21/bernard-hopkins-boxings-ageless-wonder.
Quote: “Edge: What is your diet like?
Hopkins: I avoid alcohol, drugs, and smoking. I avoid processed food. I have heavily contributed to Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods for the last 15 years. They have a lot of my money. I’m making them rich. I read [the label on] everything I put in my body. I’m not a guy who keeps food for weeks and months. I buy fresh and I eat it within a day or two.”For quitting alcohol: The Rational Recovery system and Active-Voice Recognition Technique by Jack Trimpey
Nutritional regimen for alcoholics/post-alcohol abuse: Doctoryourself.com, by Dr. Andrew Saul, “Alcoholism: Nutritional Treatment” Link here: http://www.doctoryourself.com/alcoholism.html.
Note, Dr. Saul taught nutrition courses in prison, as well—as a professor, not an inmate. In his experience, it helped prisoners improve their mood.
Dr. Roger J. Williams also described some studies in his book The Wonderful World Within You where behavior was greatly improved by good nutrition—both in humans and animals.For information on the dangers of alcohol: Article “When Whiskey Sours: Some sobering facts on heavy drinking,” by Dr. Roger J. Williams. Dr. Williams was a biochemistry researcher and professor, vitamin pioneer, and former alcoholic himself. Link here: http://bioinst.cm.utexas.edu/williams/255.htm. Interesting/alarming note—Dr. Williams explains that the brains of alcoholics are found to be crumbling and disintegrating upon autopsy.
For food abuse/binging: Never Binge Again by Dr. Glenn Livingston. Dr. Glenn also offers an intensive for those who want direct, daily support.
Need to reach out? I am also available. Contact here.
References
The analogy for climbing back down and up the mountain on a new trail was from the interview with Joe Rogan and Naval Ravikant done a few years ago.
Paraphrase from Mackie Shilstone came from a speech he gave at the opening of a new boxing gym in Louisiana.
Additional inspiration for this article came from trainer Jeremy Manning, owner of La Jolla’s Finest, in Southern California.
Note on boxing (and safety): I recommend martial arts and self-defense for personal edification. However, I do not recommend competitive boxing or martial arts—it is a dangerous game. Nonetheless, growing up watching the sport, and seeing champions like Hopkins succeed, offered many lessons that are hard to learn in school.
Disclaimer: If you are struggling with alcohol or drug abuse, or believe you may be heading in that direction, check with your physician for support and guidance. This article is not medical advice and does not replace the care of a qualified medical professional if you are dealing with a medical condition or clinical addiction.