Terry Crews Shares His Most Important Personal Strength Tip
AS AN ACTOR, TV personality, and former NFL player, Terry Crews has lived many lives, and put his skills to the test in a number of different fields. The 56-year-old has always been one of the most physically fit people around, but he also always appears full of positivity, charisma, and encouragement. So it makes
AS AN ACTOR, TV personality, and former NFL player, Terry Crews has lived many lives, and put his skills to the test in a number of different fields. The 56-year-old has always been one of the most physically fit people around, but he also always appears full of positivity, charisma, and encouragement.
So it makes sense, then, that during an appearance speaking on a panel at the Men’s Health Lab, he was able to offer his biggest tip to anyone striving for strength and progress in their own lives, on their own journey.
“I believe that competition is the opposite of creativity. Competition is all about comparing yourself to everybody else—looking at them, and then judging yourself,” he said. “I truly believe you just need to be creative with yourself.”
At the event, Crews was part of a conversation that included MH Fitness Director Ebenezer Samuel, NHL star Jacob Trouba, and Dr. Laith M. Jazrawi, chief of the sports medicine division at NYU Langone Health.
Trouba, Crews, Samuel and Dr. Jazrawi at the Men’s Health Lab event.
Crews made it clear that competing with other people isn’t something he values highly, and that he prefers for people to simply strive for the best they can do—especially when it comes to physical fitness.
“I know for me, even as you get older, you see people start to run past you. You lose heart,” he said. “But the thing is, now, I learn to say to myself, I’ll see you at the finish line. You can’t run uphill with downhill thoughts.”
Crews retired from the NFL in 1997, and by the time it hit the year 2000, he was all over the big and small screen, appearing in movies and shows alike (Everybody Hates Chris and Brooklyn Nine-Nine have proven to be particularly beloved television projects). But as Crews gets older, his experience not only in his career but in life has proven that he needs to be his own best coach, and that looking elsewhere isn’t going to help achieve anything.
“Always talk great to yourself, always speak wonderful things to yourself, because these uphill thoughts… your mind/body connection is real,” he said, referring most specifically to fitness, but with a message that could be applied to just about anything. “It will take your body exactly where it needs to go, and you need to do this all your own, without comparing yourself to anybody else.”
Hosted during National Men’s Health Week, the Men’s Health Lab was sponsored by the Bermuda Tourism Authority, Beyond Meat, and NYU Langone Health.
Evan is the culture editor for Men’s Health, with bylines in The New York Times, MTV News, Brooklyn Magazine, and VICE. He loves weird movies, watches too much TV, and listens to music more often than he doesn’t.
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