Fresh YouTube Videos and Channel Update

For each of the last 4 weeks now, I’ve published a fresh fitness-related YouTube video. The videos have dropped either on Sunday or Monday. I plan to continue this pace for as long as I can. I am editing the video that will be up next week and should film the next one this week. Being ahead takes the pressure off.

Last week’s video (That Time Dad Got Shredded) was the best performing of all my videos to date. I’ve had videos that eventually accumulated more views, but this one did it faster and it also added 13 subscribers to the channel, which is like a 50% increase in subscribers. It’s safe to say that at this point new subscribers are no longer family members. Sky is the limit from here!

Below is a quick summary of the last two videos and how they came together.

That Time Dad Got Shredded

The idea with this video was to document the success I had in losing bodyfat in 2020, dropping 30 pounds from peak to trough. It included the specific plan I followed and some things that made this effort to get lean more successful than others in the past.

I filmed the segments without any help from my family or kids. It was done at night after everyone was asleep. I broke up the content by filming each of the 5 elements in different locations while wearing different hats.

My thumbnail editing has improved. Here I cut myself out of two separate pictures and put them into another picture. That’s a skill I only recently learned.

That Time Dad Tried to Out-Step the Family

This week’s video was a wild idea I had of trying to accumulate more steps in a day than my family combined. I enjoyed the challenge itself, especially trying to race the clock at the end.

Will Tennyson inspired the videos. He published one video where he did 25,000 steps a day for a week. In another video he tried to get 100,000 steps in a day. Steps are a big data point for me in making sure I normalize my activity levels even in a calorie deficit. Steps help me counteract my body’s natural tendency to slow down activity on lower calories.

I may do more step challenge videos in the future. I know with better planning and less obligations, I can do better than 47,000 steps in a day.

The thumbnail turned out really well. I was at a random park this weekend and thought the fence and the leaves would make a good backdrop, so I had my son frame me up to make the picture thumbnail-worthy.

Content Plan from Here

Two very successful YouTube creators I follow (MattDoesFitness and Will Tennyson) have basically the same format that I’d like to emulate in my videos. Their videos consist of an eating or talking component, broken up with an edit of workout footage.

Tennyson does a really good job of making the workouts relevant to the eating. For example, when he did the military MRE eating video, he did a military workout. He also will typically work in a recipe during his day in the life videos.

My next two videos have both elements, and I’m pretty excited about them:

• The first one was filmed on my 16-year wedding anniversary, so I ate my wife’s diet for a day. Then for the workout, I did a 16 minute pyramid workout created to honor the 16 years.
• The second one is a video focused on my kids punishing me by choosing the worst protein bars they could find and eating those for a day. The workout component there will focus on traditional components coaches or drill sergeants use to punish players (sprints, pushups, burpees, jingle jangles, etc.)

So, I’ll try to keep going with that format for most videos, but I’ll also probably work in some recipe reviews or my own takes on recipes I like to make.

Thanks for all the support, I’m having fun, I hope it becomes infectious and more people get involved, but for now the creative process is enough for me!