The Reach Out: Max Brooks
The zombie-themed author and military conflict fellow chimes in on fit gardening, writing-while-hiking, organizational camping, and adapting to resistance bands.
Author Max Brooks has propelled zombie-lore from niche sub-culture fascination to mainstream pop-culture obsession.
In his three zombie-themed books —The Zombie Survival Guide, World War Z, and The Zombie Survival Guide: Recorded Attacks —Brooks says his goal was to challenge today’s problem solvers and leaders to think unconventionally about national security issues like automation, weapons procurement, and cyber-warfare.
Indeed, Brooks’ writing inspired the U.S. military to consider mental agility, flexibility, and the ability to adapt to adversity when responding to potential future crises. Brooks has spoken at military engagements that include the Naval War College and San Antonio’s FEMA hurricane drill, and he holds fellowships at the Atlantic Council’s Brent Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security, and the Modern War Institute at West Point.
His comic book, “Germ Warfare: A Graphic History” recounts the story of humanities’ long battle with microbes.
Brooks has appeared on many shows, including Real Time with Bill Maher, MSNBC, Late Night with Stephen Colbert, and CONAN, and recently launched a YouTube channel, Max Brooks Breaks Down (more on this later!)
I spoke with Max Brooks about why staying active and fit is so important to him.
Is regular exercise a priority in your life?
It is. I try to stay healthy and fit because I really want to be around to be a grand-dad.
I work out with a trainer (virtually) twice a week and we do a lot of core training on the balance ball and other core-focused equipment. Right before the pandemic began, we turned our bedroom balcony into an exercise room, so I've been Zooming with my trainer ever since.
I haven't yet gone back to the gym, but on weekends, I like to go hiking.
When do you prefer to work out during the day?
I exercise at some point between taking my son to school and picking him up. So my son’s school day basically informs my workout schedule.
How did the pandemic change your exercise routine?
Something I started using more was resistance bands. With the gyms closed and being unable to use any machines, resistance bands allowed me to do a bunch of different upper body exercises.
What motivates you to exercise regularly?
I would say a few things. The first is overall injury prevention. I want to be physically confident enough in my level of strength that I don’t worry about injuring myself through over-exertion in my day to day life. I want to be strong enough that I can run in an emergency or do any daily physical activity and not not feel that my body is the enemy.
The second is that exercising helps to keep me fit for gardening, which is my favorite hobby. Gardening can be dangerous if you're not in shape. During the pandemic, I was hauling 30 to 40 pound sacks of dirt up the hill from my dad's place to my place. That's why I need a strong core — otherwise, I may have hurt my back or my knees. So keeping fit in order to engage in regular life activities, like gardening — which keeps me sane -- is really important to me.
Is there a sport or a fitness activity that you might want to try?
That's a good question. You know, every time I go kayaking, I really enjoy it, so I think I’d like to do it more often.
Does being active help you with creativity and coming up with new ideas?
I am always always thinking and always writing, whether I’m typing or not, and hiking is actually when I do some of my best work. Sometimes I'll stop on the hiking trail and use the notepad app in my phone to make sure I get it all down. I even talk things out while I’m hiking. I'm sure there's plenty of people in LA that have seen the crazy guy in Will Rogers State Park talking to himself on the hiking trail.
How do you think we can get kids and teens to be more active?
I think you've got to meet them where they are. Find out what their interests are and then try to find a physical activity that matches. Many kids aren’t drawn to competitive sports, but they may still be naturally adventurous — they would be bored on a treadmill or stationary bike — so get them outside to be active.
The same principle applies to reading. When I was a kid, too often, English teachers would choose books that students had no interest in. Sadly, this often led children to claim they “hate” reading. We don’t want kids to hate reading or exercising, so it’s important to identify kids’ interests and tailor physical activities to meet these interests.
My son and I go camping a lot. I find camping to be a great way of teaching someone to organize. Like me, my son is a creative type, and we tend to spend a lot of time in our own heads. Camping is a great way of grounding someone and teaching them to plan and take things step by step. I don't ever want to be so physically unfit that I'm unable to go camping with my son.
When you aren’t gardening, camping, or, maybe, kayaking, you recently launched a new YouTube channel, Max Brooks Breaks Down.
Yes, Max Brooks Breaks Down was originally intended to take complicated issues and break them down into bite-sized nuggets that regular voters and taxpayers like me could understand. It was supposed to launch a year from now, but the Ukraine war jump started everything. So right now I'm breaking down various elements of the Ukraine war. We've had some really interesting conversations already.
Thank you, @maxbrooksauthor
Every time I watch the summer Olympics, I’m amazed at how physically fit the kayaking athletes are. Kayaking looks like a fun and challenging workout. I’m not a camper, but I would love to kayak or canoe.😀
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👍😎😎 Love the comparison to reading