It’s not just that Gabe Kapler gives sound advice on fitness and food.
It’s not just that he throws back the curtain on the post-retirement life of a Major Leaguer.
It’s not even the snapshots of “The Body.”
The reason Kapler’s health and fitness blog speaks to us is his conversational writing voice.
Reading kaplifestyle.com regularly, it starts to feel like you’ve run into Kapler every morning at the gym, and this is a conversation you’ve had at the squat press. Some of the stories are funny, some are educational, some raise questions and some of them are just incredible (really, who is that dedicated to being in such great shape?). But hardly any of them will make you feel like an outsider.
He draws you in, with an idea, or a challenge, and sometimes it’s enough of a spark to get you thinking about your own workout and nutrition, and maybe one little step you can take today, right now, in a healthier and stronger direction.
And that’s what Kapler is aiming for, to keep the conversation going — beyond the clubhouse. Kapler started taking his own health and fitness very seriously at the age of 15 and used it to carve out a 13-year Major League baseball career which included a stint with the Boston Red Sox and a World Series win in 2004.
Now 39, he still has a passion for it.
“I want to back up my points. You don’t want to sound like some opinionated fool,” Kapler said. “Every blog I produce, I always research the hell out of it before I post.
“And also, I have lived this lifestyle for 25 years.”
Kapler retired in 2011 and joined FOX Sports 1 in 2013 as an analyst. He also shares his analysis to the network’s flagship evening news and highlight program, FOX Sports Live.
He was always known for his chiseled physique. One newspaper columnist gave him that moniker, “The Body” — and finally, at the end of 2013, he started his own exercise, health and wellness blog — kaplifestyle.com.
The blog is written from his perspective, and so it covers a lot of weightlifting topics or issues that men relate to (like building calf muscles). He downplays any need for supplements and holds your attention with the many uses of coconut oil.
He says the daily blog gets an average of 5,000 hits a day, but some have generated big audiences. Occasionally, he has guest bloggers.
But the best part about him is that, while he looks like a Greek god, he is old school, which makes him approachable. He wants us to eat whole foods. He wants us to drain every ounce of energy we have at our workouts, and then make sure we rest. There’s no keeping up with him, really. If you want to look like him, you’re probably going to have to be extreme like him. But there’s plenty of room for followers who just want a few tips, or motivation, or inspiration now and then to do the best they can.
“I write from my perspective,” Kapler said. “I’ve always wanted the blog to be authentically my perspective — and not to tailor it for any reason.
“I’m trying to have people feel comfortable and confident, without feeling judged. I want to display my failures at every turn, and ultimately I want to lead by example. It comes down to, I’m wrestling with something, you’re wrestling with something — it’s all relative and nobody’s perfect kind of thing.”
Here are a few of Kapler’s answers on fitness, nutrition and — best of all — balance:
Q. Now that you’ve crossed over to the dark side — the media — do you see how some of us struggle with eating right and staying in shape? We sit at a desk for too long and work too many hours and watch too much film and games and sit in a car for too long to get anywhere interesting? Isn’t it awful?
A. (Laughing). It is an absolute grind. It is an absolute challenge. I probably spend 14 hours a day, if you include a commute, at work. That doesn’t leave a whole lot of time to train, and it certainly doesn’t leave a lot of time for a social life. Which I have none. Now, I will have a bit of an offseason where I can sort of decompress, I will still write my blog for FOX Sports, but I won’t be in the studio, which is the big time spend.
Q. So how do you fight that? The pretzels and salty snacks set out at games, the Diet Mountain Dew on deadline… . Maybe with you, as an elite athlete, you had such a good foundation and so those junk food vices that some of us lean on aren’t even tempting.
A. It’s all relative. So for me, my vice and big challenge is coffee intake. I drink black, organic coffee, but I drink way too much. I know it’s not what’s best for my system overall. I made a trade-off because my body is dependent on being alert and caffeine is my friend at this point. It is not something that I’m proud of. It’s not good for my mouth to be consistently consuming hot beverages — and I like to drink it scorching hot. So, again, it’s not Mountain Dew or Pepsi, and I’m not reaching for Snickers bars, but it’s my own version of failure.
Q. I’m going to write this someday: What athletes think about stadium food for fans. I don’t know, there’s something sort of ironic, to me, about us fans ordering some high fat, salt and sugary food. In a bucket. And then sitting down, shoveling it in — and booing the guy on the field, or the court, who trained his whole life to make it in to the bigs. It kind of drives me nuts — but anyway, you guys wouldn’t touch that stuff, right? My cheesy fries?
A. I’ve said this on the blog frequently about how we need to go easy on ourselves and not make ourselves crazy and create stress. If you go to the ballpark once a month, and you eat Cheddar fries and SnoCones, you’re not going to die. If you’re on point for 29 days, and you indulge when you go to the ballpark and you drink four beers? It’s OK. The stress of not allowing yourself life’s guilty pleasures from time to time is as unhealthy as the act of indulging.
I talk about planned indulgences, because you feel a lot more confident when you indulge with a plan, as opposed to you just slipping up because you’re tired and you are hungry. You’re emotional and you’re reaching for whatever is closest. And then you’re like, “Damn, I am weak” — instead of like, “This is part of my master plan. I planned to eat cheesecake or French fries with a burger and a beer tonight.” Instead, you’re like, “I’m a failure”
I encourage planned indulgence — and I discourage emotional eating and binge-style eating.
