As their current covers show, there’s little overlap between the readers and interests of Yoga Journal and young-men’s magazines like Details (Men’s Fitness, Men’s Health, Maxim, etc.)

“Peace Inside” could hardly be more different than “Abs Outside.” And I strongly suspect that readers of Swim Well Blog and visitors to the TI web site are more likely to read Yoga Journal than Details.

Years ago I occasionally got a call from an editor or writer for one of the men’s mags seeking a story idea:

“Can swimming give you bigger pecs?”

“Well, most  swimmers have streamlined, not bulky, muscles.”

“Yeah, but suppose you worked out with big paddles?”

“We pretty strongly discourage that. We encourage swimmers to focus on reducing drag instead of muscling the water, and to swim as a practice, not a workout.”

Those conversations ended pretty quickly.

So I was pretty amused, even encouraged, when my daughter Betsy forwarded me a link to an interview with author Tim Ferriss about his new book “4-Hour Body.”

The interview appeared on a web site called Turbulence Training Fat Loss. While TI emphatically advises you to avoid turbulence — in the water and in life — that title seems pretty clearly calculated to appeal to young men.  (Note that the full title of Tim’s new book is “The 4-Hour Body: An Uncommon Guide to Rapid Fat Loss, Incredible Sex and Becoming Superhuman.)

SoI imagine the site’s proprietor must have been pretty surprised at Tim’s response to this question:

Craig Ballantyne: Before we finish up , why don’t you just tell us what you had the most fun learning about in the book.  Was it kettlebells, the running, the deadlifting?

Tim Ferriss: Actually the first place winner would be swimming.  Swimming was one of my biggest embarrassments and insecurities, and I fixed it in one week.  That completely changed how I looked at everything that I thought was impossible.  I had tried so many classes and completely given up on being able to swim.  And I went from two laps to about 40 laps a workout in a week.  And very soon thereafter swimming a mile in the ocean.  It’s completely unbelievable to me, even now, that I was able to do that.  And it’s very easy to replicate.

Tim didn’t mention TI in the interview, but in the book he wrote: TI training is  100% responsible for the fastest transformation I’ve ever had in sports.

Is it possible that Tim Ferris might turn masses of 20-something men on to the possibility that grace and mastery – and maybe even inner peace – might make you happier than outward abs?