This edition is dedicated to Floyd Van Alstyne (1920–2025), who lived and worked harder than most of us ever will.

Joe here, writing this week from Miami, Florida.

My friend Floyd passed away last month at the age of 105. He was a World War II veteran who served with the 389th Port Battalion and fought through the brutal Allied landing at Salerno and the Battle of Anzio. When he came home, he bought a farm in East Barnard, Vermont, and never stopped working. He raised a family. He ran a sawmill. He operated bulldozers, cleared trails, built ponds, sugared trees, logged forests, and stayed strong through rain, snow, and heat.

Floyd loved to tell stories, and he had many. He never met a stranger, just someone he hadn’t connected with yet. He once met a man buying lumber and discovered they’d both crossed the Atlantic on the same WWII ship. That’s who Floyd was. He didn’t just live through history, he built community. He helped start the Broad Brook Fire Department in the 1950s, and for decades, he showed up for his neighbors the same way he showed up for his country: without hesitation..

105 years is not luck, it’s discipline. He’d agree with me, “Get your fingernails dirty every day.” That’s what creates a legacy.

He didn’t stretch on soft rubber mats, or workout under bright fluorescent lights designed for Instagram. Box jumps and SkiErgs are cool, but he simply lived hard, every day, for over a century.

Somewhere along the way, we started confusing movement with effort. We chase looks harder than we chase real physical and mental growth. We plan the perfect workout, obsess over optimization, and somehow forget the most important part: stepping outside and just doing the hard work.

This week, I ask you to train like Floyd lived.

• Get outdoors.
• Carry something heavy.
• Skip the playlist and the mirror.
• Sweat like your life depends on it, because one day, it will.

Floyd’s graveside service is this Sunday, June 8th. If you want to honor a life well lived, then move. Lift. Suffer. Serve.

The world needs more old-fashioned grit. We need more people like Floyd.

With respect,

Joe