What is Go You Fitness?

Go You Fitness is about fitness, and about writing about fitness. As a reader, you can play a vital role through your input, feedback, and maybe even beta reading (if you want to).

I write transformational books for “regular folks” who are starting out on their fitness journey, especially the nearly 80% who struggle to make fitness a regular part of life. Go You Fitness is a unique experimental project where I share my work, live, as I create it. Things are new and evolving here day to day!

LINDA ESKIN

Writer (non-fiction) | Aikido (sandan) | Personal Trainer | Behavior Change Specialist | Highland Games Thrower (masters 60+) | On a mission to empower people | She/Her

Start Here!
How to Begin

Fitness Tips & Inspiration

Benefits of Exercise & Fitness

Fun Fitness Activities

Learn About Getting Fit

Fitness Issues
& Resources

You Can Do this.

If you’re discouraged about fitness, you’re in the right place. Maybe you’ve tried to get in shape, get more exercise, or eat better, but haven’t been able to stick with it. Maybe you were so traumatized by P.E. classes you decided you hate the whole idea. Maybe it all just seems so impossible that you haven’t ever really tried.

According to the current Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans: “… only 26 percent of men, 19 percent of women, and 20 percent of adolescents report sufficient activity to meet the relevant aerobic and muscle-strengthening guidelines.”

That’s tragic. But hey, it’s not just you, is it? Something’s wrong here.

Doctors admonish patients to “lose some weight,” or “try to walk more.” That only makes people feel bad. Fitness industry ads show athletic bodies performing impossible feats. That just leaves folks feeling hopeless. “I’ll never be able to look like that, or do that. I guess fitness isn’t for me.”

Yet somehow all the medical professionals, public health people, and fitness advocates put together have made virtually no difference over time in how many people actually participate in physical activity. Did you know that doctors, and even most fitness professionals, receive little to no training in coaching people to support behavior change? Both talk about “compliance,” as if people who can’t make the changes they prescribe are simply being disobedient.

We hear a lot about what we ought to be doing, and why, but precious little about how. We all know it’s a good idea to be active, to keep our bodies strong, to eat nutritious foods, to “move more, sit less.” That’s nice… We might not know how much we should be moving, or how profoundly we could benefit, but the basic idea really isn’t a mystery. You know that, or you wouldn’t be here, checking out a website for people struggling with fitness.

But how? How do we fit working out into our already overwhelming schedules? Not just for a few months, but for life? How are we supposed to afford a trainer, or build a home gym? What about our real-life obstacles like weather, darkness, safety? What about caregivers, rural folks, people with social anxiety — people for whom going to the gym is not a possibility?

How can we create an active life when our reality makes it seem impossible? Clearly beating ourselves up about “failing” doesn’t help.

Here we take a completely different approach. We’ll build a foundation of mindset and self-image, small steps and achievable habits, and creating an environment that supports us. We’ll discover and design a way that works for each of us, the nearly 80% who have been struggling, in our real lives.

Let’s GET STARTED

Watch this Go You Fitness Guidebook take shape:

Independent Fitness: How to Be an Active, Athletic Person in a Way That Works for You, for Life

by Linda Eskin

NASM Certified Personal Trainer

Black Belt in Aikido (Sandan)

NASM Behavior Change Specialist

My Ideas of Fitness Fun

Aikido & Martial Arts

I started training at 46. If you’ve always wanted to practice a martial art, here’s how you can begin.

Aikido & Martial Arts

Scottish Athletics

You can compete in Highland Games! I started at 60 and am having a blast and getting stronger.

Scottish Heavy Athletics

Rowing & Kayaking

When my feet or knees are troublesome, here are two great activities that give them some time off.

Rowing and Kayaking

Simple, inexpensive Ways to Work OUt

Exercising with No Equipment

No gym? No equipment? No time? No problem. Work out with just you and gravity, and it’s free!

BodyWeight Exercises

Compact, Versatile Kettlebells

Kettlebells require very little space and provide tons of quiet, impact-free exercise options.

Work Out with kettlebells

Running – Tips for New Runners

Things I learned when I decided to run at age 60, after a lifetime of being told I couldn’t.

Tips for New Runners