Before Blake Reichenbach founded the publication, Self-Himprovement, he felt frustrated with the content he was being paid to create as a freelance writer. So the writer created his own website where he had the freedom to create the content he wanted. The result was Self-Himprovement, which covers topics ranging from fitness routines, sexual health, technology trends and much more.
MenLiving’s Patrick McKenna spoke to Reichenbach about what led him to branching out on his own, embracing a relationship with fitness that fits all bodies, the amazing impact working out has on his mental health and more.
Patrick:
Tell me a little bit about where you were at in your career before deciding to create your publication Self-Himprovement.
Blake:
I started Self-Himprovement back in 2017. Prior to that, I had been working as a freelance writer, primarily in the fashion and wellness industries. I was creating content, blog posts, marketing emails, website pages. I was doing all that type of stuff for yoga studios, designer underwear brands…the full spectrum within that space. There was a lot that I was writing that I really enjoyed. But there was also a lot that I did not enjoy, and which felt very shallow. I would find myself looking through a marketing brief and thinking, “Can I write this? Yes. Do I care? Not at all.”
It got to the point with some of my higher-end product clients where I would receive a marketing brief about an audience, and it would dance around who that audience was. It would sugarcoat and describe that audience by describing their income, the types of gyms they go to, their level of education and the cities they lived in. The impression that I got from that was this is all one big euphemism for wealthy white men in New York and Los Angeles. I come from dairy farmers in central Kentucky. I did not fit that description of the persona that I was creating content for. I felt like a lot of that content was just so shallow and inconsequential. I wanted the opportunity to write about things that I found to be important and consequential. That’s where my website came from.
Patrick: Fascinating.
Blake:
In the early phases, it was very broad in terms of scope and finding our voice as a publication. Over time, we’ve matured and grown into what we are now, which is primarily focusing on fitness, wellness, and grooming content for men. But we’re approaching it in a way that a lot of men’s publications don’t, especially when it comes to topics like body image issues, body dysmorphia, sexual health, and sexual performance topics. So much of what is out there and available is very one-track and singular. It can be totally dishonest to what men experience, which is where we want to come in and create different content.
Patrick:
That’s awesome. Was there a big eureka moment you had that prefaced creating Self-Himprovement or was it more of burnout over time from creating this content that you didn’t feel any connection to?
Blake:
It was a little bit of both. There was this progressive burnout of having this content that felt very vapid in a lot of ways that I was responsible for creating. But I also got a job at a tech company in late 2017. I was freelancing on the side and doing software by day. When I got hired at that tech company, I had access to a full CMS suite, which is something that I had never been able to really access outside of free tools before. When I had those tools available at my disposal, it was like someone handed me a permission slip to start creating the content that I wanted to create. That burnout reached a crescendo around when I got access to those resources, and here we are.
Patrick:
That is a little serendipitous. From your experience working in the media/advertising world prior to starting Self-Himprovement, what did you learn about how media represents men?
Blake:
I think that it really underscored for me the intersection between individuals and businesses and consumers. A lot of the individual people at these businesses – who I was working with and working for – were great. We could have a one-on-one discussion about things like gender bias, gender-based violence, or healthy masculinity. At the same time, because the businesses that we were working with have their core business goal of turning a profit, the way that we were niching it and seeking out audiences was about going on what was known and already established. There was this feedback loop where the people in the system saw things a little bit differently. But because they were being driven by these core goals that they had to fulfill, they also had to feed into some of those stereotypes around like, “What does it mean to be masculine? What does it mean to be manly? How do men behave?” as if that could all fit into one box.
So, it really highlighted that even folks with good intentions can play into a lot of these same tropes that continue to limit and hold men back or put them in a box. That’s one reason why it was super liberating when I was able to launch Self-Himprovement and say, “I have a salary, and I’m doing this because I want to do this. I don’t have to earn a profit off this.” I could get off that ride a bit.
Patrick:
So from what you learned, how did it then inform you to what you did want out of this new publication that you were creating on your own?
Blake:
For me, choosing to go down the angle of focusing on health and wellness was really rooted in my own experiences. Getting into the gym and getting involved in fitness – outside of any goals around aesthetics or weight loss or anything like that – was beneficial for me in terms of managing my mental health, my daily stress level, and even reducing some chronic pain and inflammation from having a day job where I’m sitting at a desk for hours on end. From there, that was a point for me where I said, “Okay, this is an area that I want to explore more. I want to grow and mature and then share that with others.” I also went on to get certified as a personal trainer through the ISSA. Armed with that knowledge is really where I doubled down.
It’s also a field where I think men have an easier time getting a foot in the door and having that point of entry. When you’re discussing things like weightlifting, that’s a space that has traditionally been seen as a masculine territory. It feels approachable for a lot of men. But it also opens the door to have those discussions about, “What are some of the other benefits of this? Are you sleeping better? Are you feeling happier? Are you feeling less frustrated?” It helps to facilitate those bonds with other men who are on that same wellness journey, in addition to making it easier to talk about your feelings and your anxiety level. These are conversations that men typically just aren’t conditioned to have with each other.
Patrick:
Yeah, absolutely. It’s so ingrained that the thought of having a conversation about your feelings while you’re spotting someone seems odd, when it shouldn’t be.
Blake:
Exactly.
Patrick:
We’re just not used to it. But I like how you said that. Sure, I may want to look a certain way, but overall, it’s most about the maintenance and upkeep that I do for my mental health. Clearly, you’ve found that there’s other people like you that desire this content more than the standard men’s health content we get.
Blake:
Yeah. I think it’s underrepresented in terms of fitness for the outcomes that people are seeking. I’m actually working on a piece right now about how you can reclaim your relationship with exercise if you’re still feeling traumatized by high school PE classes. There’s a large subset of people who may have fraught relationships with exercise or with their bodies. It’s not frequently discussed in communities of men but eating disorders and body dysmorphia are still super common in men and growing more common. There are people with these fraught relationships with their bodies or who have a tangential interest in lifting or other forms of athletics but always felt like they were on the outskirts. For me, being able to have those conversations and get into gym based upon things like, “Hey, my name’s Blake. I’m a personal trainer. I work out because I have chronic severe depression, and exercise helps me manage my symptoms.” That is an entry point that a lot of people can relate to, and they may just not have seen that or heard that from others.
Patrick:
Totally. What do you think the wellness media industry can do better in terms of promoting to men healthier perceptions of their body and overall mental health?
Blake:
This may sound like a weird answer at first or like I’m answering a completely different question, but I promise it will make sense in a moment. I think that more broadly, if fitness-based media had a realistic view of sex, that would help so much. This is because so much of the content that we read about fitness and wellness that’s geared towards men goes back to sex. “Are you sexually attractive? What is your sexual performance?” The link between physical activity and sex appeal is so conflated and intermingled in the way that we talk about it these things.
Sexuality and sexual health are important topics that men should be discussing, especially in conversations with their healthcare providers. But I think that by keeping wellness within this frame of mind where it’s rooted only in, “I exercise to be sexy,” or “Exercise equals sex appeal,” we’re pulling the rug out from under the other benefits that come from exercise. Preventing heart disease, improving bone density, improving mental health, boosting creativity, sleeping better…all these are real benefits from exercise. Then, we also limit the conversations that we’re then having about sexual health. “Are you getting tested? Do you know how and where to get tested? Do you have realistic perceptions of what sex is actually like outside of pornography?” I would say that if I could wave a magic wand and change one thing about the fitness and wellness media industry, it would be to detangle sex appeal and exercise.
Patrick:
That’s interesting. The first thing that I thought of while you were explaining this was what happens if someone is working out, they have their goals they’re hitting and they’re looking the way you want to look…what if they’re still feeling sexually frustrated? What happens then? Do they feel like this is all for no purpose? Or do they then become angry and depressed over it and stop taking care of themselves?
Blake:
Exactly. There are a lot of people who think, “If I blank, then I will be happy. If I have a six-pack or large biceps, then I will be happy, attractive and successful.” I think that that’s an over-simplification of what can make you happy to give you that sense of fulfillment. It’s best to not go into that situation where you’re going to be in a position to think, “Well, I have a six-pack now. Why can I still not form a relationship?” Well, you assumed the problem was your body. Maybe you’re just struggling to communicate or form these meaningful relationships.
Patrick:
Totally. Or you just have unresolved issues that have nothing to do with body or fitness.
Blake:
Exactly.
Patrick:
So then how do you think men can develop healthier perceptions of themselves and their bodies?
Blake:
This is something that I’ve written about, and it’s come up in conversations when I’ve interviewed readers. It’s really rooted in my own experience of becoming a gym rat where, for me, what really helped was taking a notebook to the gym with me and keeping a log of every exercise that I was doing. How much weight was I lifting for each exercise? How many sets? How many reps for each exercise? Anytime you take something that’s in your mind and conceptual and put it on paper to make it physical, it changes the way that you’re seeing it. Rather than just being, “I am exercising,” I was seeing, in detail, this is what this exercise looked like. That gave me a place to come back the next week when I was at the same muscle group again and say, “Okay, here’s what I did last week. Can I do better?”
It eventually becomes a challenge for yourself where what you’re trying to do is compete against yourself and notice those improvements in yourself. It can partially be a personality thing. I am naturally a competitive person, so having something where I can compete against myself just works for me. But being able to have that and being able to look back overtime and say, “Oh, I used to struggle with this amount of weight and could only do like three reps, and then I felt like I was dying. Now, that’s my warm-up way. Oh my god. That is so cool.” Being able to see that progress, especially when you don’t feel like you’re getting thinner or maybe your weights staying the same, being able to have that progress where you’re saying,” I’m getting stronger. I’m doing better. I’m learning new exercises.” It gives it a lot more intrinsic value.
Patrick:
That’s awesome way of thinking. Outside of the fitness sphere, what do you think are more positive ways that we can redefine what masculinity looks like in 2021 and going forward?
Blake:
One of the things that I see, especially being from the south in a rural area, is conversations around masculinity are typically seen in a way of, “Oh, I’m attacking your way of existing.” For example, I have an academic background in gender theory, but in my writing and in my conversations with people, I very rarely use terms like toxic masculinity. This is because as soon as that term comes up, there are people who feel threatened or immediately want to go on the defensive. I think that in terms of moving toward a healthier masculinity and making masculinity this productive, empowering force within communities, one of the things that would be super helpful is equipping more men with the language to discuss masculinity outside of a lot of the frameworks that currently exist.
What we’re looking at when we talk about the evolution of masculinity isn’t getting rid of masculinity. It’s like your saying, “Okay, what are the parts that best serve myself, my family, my community? How do we get more of that and less of these aspects that can cause more problems for us down the road?” Change is always uncomfortable. Some people may feel the growing pains more acutely than others. But I think moving that conversation to a point of saying that no one’s trying to tell you that you are innately wrong. Instead, what we’re saying is, there are things we could be doing better that would make your life richer and more rewarding.
