What Defines the Two Percent Community

You filled out my survey. Here's what you told me.

I sent out a survey a couple of weeks ago. I figured a few hundred of you would fill it out. More than a thousand of you did.

I analyzed every response. You wrote paragraphs about your lives, your goals, what frustrates you, and what this newsletter has done for you.

Some of you wrote things that made me laugh. Some of you wrote things that gave me the feels.

I told a friend about the survey, and he asked what I found. I said: “I learned way more about who we Two Percenters are.”

Today’s post is different. I’m going to tell you who we are.

Quick housekeeping

In case you missed it:

• On Wednesday, we covered The Six Laws of Carrying Weight and 11 critical carries to try.

• Friday’s Gear Not Stuff was all about book recommendations from brilliant people, including NYT bestselling authors, performance researchers, a Navy SEAL, and more.

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By the numbers

71% of paid members have been reading for over a year; 42% have been here one to two years. Another 18% for two to three years; 11% have been here since day one, about three years ago(!). Only 13% of you are in your first six months. (Two Percenters are committed.)

75% of you lift. 66% ruck. 53% hike, mountain bike, or do some kind of outdoor sport. 42% run. (Two Percenters are active.)

66% of you exercise 4 or more hours a week; 39% percent of you log 4 to 7 hours. About 20% do 7 to 10. And 7% of you do more than 10 hours a week(!). (Two Percenters are really active.)

The takeaway: The typical Two Percent member lifts, rucks, gets outside, and has been reading for more than a year. They also exercise more in a week than most Americans do in a month. Or two. My kind of people.

What you love

I asked you what your favorite part of Two Percent is. Here’s what you told me, ranked by how many of you said it:

#1: Workouts and fitness content (22% of you). Next was research and science (17%). After that was health and wellness broadly (15%), then gear (12%).

But the thing you value most is something you can use and do in your active lives. No matter what it is.

That’s probably why the single most common word in the entire survey was “actionable.” Many of you used it without prompting. I.e., You wrote the word in an open-text box where you could have written anything. “Practical,” “tips,” “ideas,” and “insight” were other popular words.

• One of you wrote that you like Two Percent because it gives you: “Something actionable I can do to make my life even a little bit better every week.”

• Another wrote: “Small daily takeaways and tasks to be healthy, fit, and sane.”

The message is hard to miss.

Many of you also used some version of “no BS,” “unbiased,” or “honest.”

One of you put it like this: “There is too much info out now that is not based on data … just people pulling stuff out of their ass. You make honest assessments.”

I try—I’ve taken this feedback to heart and will lean into it even more.

What you’ve gained

This was the section that gave me, as the kids put it, “the feels.”

I asked what you’ve gained from reading Two Percent.

A quarter of you said you feel smarter about your health. “I now understand how to think about this stuff in a way that’s really helped me,” one of you wrote.

Another quarter said your health has measurably improved. You noted that you’ve lost weight, increased your fitness, improved your health markers, repaired injuries, boosted your mental health and, generally, now live a richer life.

A fifth of you said you’ve formed habits that have become part of who you are. Health practices no longer feel like a battle—you just do them. (I think that goes back to the pairing of “actionable” and “practical.”)

One in ten of you mentioned rucking. Many of you had never heard the word before this newsletter. Now you’re frequently slinging weight on your back and walking, just like humans were born to do. Even better: many of you have gotten your spouses and friends into it.

No surprise, many of you mentioned stairs. One of you wrote: “I now ALWAYS take the stairs. I was just traveling and, despite luggage, didn’t use the escalators or people movers.” That mindset shift spreads everywhere.

One of you said the biggest benefit was (and I’m quoting exactly here) “to chill the f*ck out on my overanalyzing of fitness. My fitness has been simplified around what I actually care about, and it has skyrocketed.”

I loved that—one of my key goals is to make us less neurotic about our health—and actually enjoy what we get from improving it.

Who we are

About 60 percent of us are men, and 40 percent are women. We come from all ages and backgrounds.

Many of you are doctors, and you reference Two Percent when encouraging your patients to live healthier.

Others are military and first responders, who’ve used the information on Two Percent to do your job better and safer.

Others are busy professionals across industries who use Two Percent not only to stay physically and mentally healthy despite a desk job, but also to perform better at work. Many of you ended up making more money based on a simple tweak you learned about in Two Percent.

Others work in physically demanding jobs, and you’ve used Two Percent to offset some of the harms of manual labor and feel better every day.

Others are parents who—and I loved this—have used Two Percent to improve the health of your entire family.

The list goes on.

What you’re working on

I asked what you’re trying to improve over the next three to six months. Your answers, ranked:

32% said fitness and strength. 18% said diet and nutrition. 15% said career and professional growth. 14% said general health. 13% said running or endurance. 12% said mental health and mindset.

Your #1 frustration: Time—25% of you said it. You have the will—but you need the hours. After that, the biggest frustrations were injury and aging (13%), consistency (11%), and diet (9%). (I’ll keep this in mind moving forward).

The #1 topic you want me to write about this year: longevity and aging. You’re active people and want to know how to live well for the long haul.

To accomplish that, you don’t want longevity-fairy-dust protocols, or obscure supplement stacks, or 47-step morning routines. (Thank God, because you’d be in the wrong place for that).

You want to know how stay strong and bulletproof—and keep doing what you love—as your body changes. You had questions like, how do master athletes adapt? What does the research say about training through your 40s, 50s, 60s?

One said you wanted me to address: “How to stay fit while getting older so that the quality of my life remains high longer.” Another wrote: “Tailored exercise structured for older readers.” Another: “Women and aging.”

Again, I hear you, and we’ll deliver.

The cement that binds us: community

Several of you wrote some version of this: “For a long time I felt like an outcast, until I found this place.”

And this: “No one supports me. No one lives like this. Two-Percenters are rare, and they get a lot of flak. It’s good to be seen.”

I know that feeling. We do weird shit like taking the stairs when 98 people ride the escalator. We don’t give in as easily to the machine—of ultraprocessed food, social media, stagnation, and avoiding what is hard.

It can be weird to be, well, weird like us.

This survey told me that for many of you, Two Percent is proof that there are other people out there who think and live the way you do.

One wrote: “In line with the common phrase of ‘You are the average of the 5 people you spend the most time with’—I often consider Michael Easter to be 1 of my 5.”

I’ll say this: This community guides what I write. So, really, this community is one of your five. As for me? All of you are one of my five. And I’m better for it.

So we’ll keep being weird together and making this place and its comment section the best damn spot on the internet.

Two more things: Thanks and why we sent the survey

Two final things:

• First, thank you for being part of this project. I love that we’re all here, and I get so much joy from it.

• Second, we sent this survey because we want to make sure we’re delivering on what will help you most. We have some big new projects in the works, and what you sent will guide them accordingly. Keep an eye out.

Have fun, don’t die, and thanks for being here.

-Michael

Audio Version