The Strenuous Life is an online/offline platform that helps members learn new skills, pursue new interests, and improve themselves in body, mind, and spirit. Each month, members create and publish a newsletter — The Bugle — to highlight what’s going in the TSL community.
If you’ve wondered what The Strenuous Life is like, below we share a recent edition of The Bugle. The next TSL enrollment, and the final enrollment of 2025, will open in June. Click here to get on the email list and be the first to know when enrollment opens.
The Strenuous Life Bugle is the newsletter for participants of The Strenuous Life, which highlights the strenuous going-ons of our intrepid members. This Bugle brought to you courtesy of: @averyb, @clouden1, @gwalliman, @jopasmith, and @S-C-Hughes.
Class Insignia
Class 086 recently completed their class insignia. @snwall suggested the winning motto, Fortitudine Vincimus (which translates to “by endurance, we conquer”); @tdangelo handled the design and created the final product. The design features the Viking runes Raidho (travel, journey, evolution), Algiz (protection, shield, wards off evil), and Uruz (physical strength, speed, untamed potential). Great job, Class 086!
Congratulations to Those Who did 52/52 Agons!
Completing 52/52 Agons — an entire year of challenges in body, mind, and spirit — is an incredibly strenuous accomplishment. You’ve got to complete consecutive Agons in sickness and health; in winter, fall, spring, and summer; whether you’re feeling like it or not; even if you’re on vacation. Less than 1% of members have been able to accomplish this feat. Recently, a few of our most elite members have joined this exclusive club, earning the 52/52 Agon Perfection Award and the right to wear TSL’s Agon Perfection Ring:
- Mark A., Class 079
- Matthew T., Class 079
- Sean C., Class 081
- Michael M., Class 081
- Mollie D., Class 081
If you achieve 52/52 Agons, please email [email protected] to let us know.
Badge Work
What badge requirements have you been working on? Here’s a sample of how your fellow members got action recently:
For the Art Badge, @nickdyer visited the Tate Britain Museum to view paintings by Constable and Turner, and @Fahey and his son completed an 8-week class on Drawing Fundamentals and has progressed beyond stick figures. For the Backyard Chef Badge, @psappington82 made three meat rubs and a homemade BBQ sauce. For the Barbell Badge, @sapherenmp hit his 1.8x bodyweight deadlift goal, and @jeff-more signed up for Barbell Logic coaching.
@damandsave went to the Kansas University Museum of Natural History for the Rough Rider Badge. @Schlechtenacht spent 24 hours teaching himself to play the guitar for the Music Badge. @jeff-more read Biblical Literacy and The Book of Jewish Values for the Monk Badge. @dlawrence2913 completed his eighth outing at Lost Valley Trail near Ponca, Arkansas for the Microadventure Badge. For the Penmanship Badge, @pejandras hand-wrote three letters to loved ones: his inner child, his one-year-old daughter to be read on her 14th birthday, and his wife.
For the Handyman Badge, @john-galt helped his friend build a 10-foot workbench, and @jmasonb installed a “fandelier” in his master bedroom, and moved the fan that was there to the guest bedroom (replacing the broken fan there), improving the look and feel of both rooms. @bluebomber completed the Journaling Badge and observed, “I believe strongly that by reflecting daily, I can check in with the vision of a man I wish to be compared to the one I was that day.” In the Kiss the Chef Badge, @psappington82 made breakfast for his coworkers, including pancakes from scratch. @sp_scaarce whipped and fused rope ends as a part of his Knotsmanship Badge work. And in the Letter Writing Badge, @pejandras wrote a love letter to his wife (a gesture we hope never goes out of style!).
For the Sartorialist Badge, @tjpalmer256 put together a sharp suit for a wedding, including a well-folded pocket square — can’t leave a suit coat naked! He later added a light grey vest to make it three-piece ensemble. For the Shaving Badge, @s-heiland finished his 30 days of safety razor shaving, commenting that it requires far more care lest one cut himself. @old75blazer finished his first 13-week cycle for the Virtue Badge.
For the Community Service Badge, @Tdocherty22 volunteered to coach a youth basketball league. For Emergency Prep, @corvus303 put together a bugout bag. @brockcooper joined a local BJJ gym for the Fighter Badge and reached 24 hours of attendance over the month of March. For the First Aid Badge, @ucfknights fireman-carried his son through his house.
@reilly did an extremely cool project for his Craftsman Badge: he built a lamp from a 100-year-old electric utility meter, wired up in such a way that the meter reads the usage of the lightbulb. He then presented this as a gift to his grandfather, who worked at the same utility company that @reilly himself now works at. What a manly gift, and what an incredible story!
For his Entrepreneurship Badge, @msacket built an app that helps users track their WWII AGFT scores! It can be found at https://wwii.fitness and is available for both iOS and Android. This will be useful to all TSL members, so go check it out!
Chapter Meetups
The success of TSL is dependent on members not waiting for others to take the lead, but choosing to take the lead themselves. Organize a meetup in your area! Here are some activities that local chapters have done lately:
The Kansas City Trailblazers got together for a 3.3 mile hike, which was the first meetup attended for newest member @confran44 and the perfect opportunity for veteran members @damandsave and @Matt_Gwynn to get to know him a bit! In Germany, @s_heiland hosted a gathering at his home to make bratwurst for the third consecutive year. The attendees enjoyed the fruits of their labor and planned to save some for the Germany chapter’s annual StrenFEAST later this year. Elsewhere in Germany, @irish-crow and @oedeldoedel met up on a Monday afternoon for lunch and a short hike around a castle in Ellwangen. @oedeldoedel noted: “Time for meetups is always too short, but small and short meetups are a great chance to have some more of those enjoyable and inspiring moments.” And the Washington DC chapter continued their busy 2025 with @nimbilus, @themountain_92, @mjuribe, and an aspiring member getting together at Prince William Forest Park to complete the land navigation portion of the Scout Badge. After navigating between five plotted points with a topographic map and compass, @nimbilus observed, “There’s a different type of confidence that comes not just from being able to physically hike the trail or use a map to follow one, but to make your own.”
The Tri-Cities Hotsteppers met up to take on the Badger Mountain Challenge 15K ruck, with all members in attendance completing the course and earning their challenge rucking patches. The Chicago chapter held a “Wisdom and Waffles” event for the second straight year, discussing the Tao Te Ching over breakfast. And the Utah Mountain Division had a busy three months, holding separate meetups to hike to Bell’s Canyon Falls in a blizzard, doing some backcountry snowshoeing, and holding a virtual event with a tailor to discuss men’s fashion and grooming tips.
Upcoming Festivals of Strenuosity
Festivals of Strenuosity, aka “StrenFests,” are member-organized, regional, weekend-long+ meetups/campouts for skill-building, badge work, and all-around fun. StrenFests are easily the best meetups of the year for the chapters and regions that hold them. Don’t miss out if you can make it! Here are the dates for upcoming StrenFests:
- Third Annual U.S. Southeast StrenFest (Georgia) – 10-13 July 2025
- Seventh Annual U.S. East Coast Festival of Strenuosity (Pennsylvania) – 14-18 August 2025
- Fifth Annual Rocky Mountain StrenFest (Southern Idaho) — 11-13 September 2025
Keep living strenuously, everyone!
“Timid people, people scant of faith and hope, and good people, who are not accustomed to the roughness of the life of effort, are almost sure to be disheartened and dismayed by the work and the worry, and overmuch cast down by the shortcomings, actual or seeming, which, in real life, always accompany the first stages even of what eventually turn out to be the most brilliant victories.”
—Theodore Roosevelt
Click here to get on the email list and be the first to know when enrollment opens. Hope to see you on The Strenuous Life this summer.
