Most people don't fail because they don't start. They fail because they restart too often.
Never Start Over Again is a weekly Monday podcast hosted by Rickard Long — coach, entrepreneur, and founder of Escapist CrossFit in Berlin. Each episode is built for one moment: the start of your week. Not to motivate you. Not to lecture you. To shift something before you sit down.
Every episode brings together three things: a story from history you probably haven't heard the right way, an idea from the world of business, science, or human behaviour, and one honest observation from the work of actually
He signed up to prove a sign wrong.He had no idea what was coming.
Raanan walked past Escapist CrossFit one day and saw a sign: "We'll make you fit in 12 weeks." He did not believe it. He decided to try it anyway. He had not done serious sport since he was 25. He had chronic back issues. He had a dislocated vertebra that gave him a week every year where he could not walk. His first session ended after one round because his face lost all colour. He came back. He trained three, four, five times a week. He started running 10ks on weekends. His back improved. His knee improved. He went from not being able to hold 130 watts on an assault bike to deadlifting, cleaning, doing gymnastics. Then he fell on the edge of a box, broke a rib, and Rickard told him to go get it checked. The X-ray showed something else. A CT scan confirmed it. A 4cm tumour in his left lung. Stage three cancer. The chemotherapy started. Then surgery to remove half his upper left lung. Then the cancer moved to stage four. Then a second round of chemotherapy, harder than the first. From October to January he could barely walk his dog for 15 minutes. He came back to Escapist last month. This episode is a conversation between Rickard and Ronan about what fitness actually is for, what it means to build an identity as someone who trains, and why the body you build before the crisis is the body that gets you through it. Ronan's goal right now: run a 10k without losing his breath. He is working toward it with one and a half lungs. This is not a fitness story. This is a story about what never starting over again actually means when life removes your ability to start. —— Links:→ Health and Fitness Map: escapistcrossfit.com/health→ Free assessment in Berlin: go.escapistcrossfit.com/freenonsweat-page→ Escapist Academy: escapistcrossfit.com/academy —— Hosted by Rickard Long · Escapist CrossFit Berlin · escapistcrossfit.com
28 Sept 2026
Why You Are Tired Before You Even Start
Part 2 of the Berlin Professionals & Health series. You finish work. You planned to train. And then something happens, the energy is gone, the motivation has evaporated, and you tell yourself you will go tomorrow.
Tomorrow becomes next week. Next week becomes next month. This is not a discipline problem. Here is what is actually happening. By the end of a full working day, research suggests the average person has processed approximately 35,000 small decisions. Most of them are trivial. But collectively they deplete the same cognitive resource that self-control and long-term decision-making draw from. By 6pm, the part of your brain responsible for making good decisions, the prefrontal cortex, is running on empty. Going to the gym is a large, complex, effortful decision. It is exactly the kind of decision a depleted brain refuses to make. This is why Berlin is particularly dangerous for this pattern. Berliners actually work fewer hours per week than most other German cities. And yet Berlin has among the highest burnout rates and most sick days in the country.
The problem is not total hours. It is structure or the absence of it. Everything gets pushed to the end of the day. Work ends late. Restaurants open late. Social commitments happen late. And the training that was planned for "after work" gets absorbed by all of it. Plus: the history no one talks about, how the divided city may have permanently shaped Berlin's relationship with tomorrow. The one alarm clock that actually solves the morning problem. And why asking for help is not a weakness, it is the fastest route to change.
23 Sept 2026
Why Educated Berliners Still Feel Unfit
Part 1 of a new series: Berlin Professionals & Health.
Why do educated, intelligent professionals, people who know exactly what they should be doing for their health, still struggle to do it consistently? Rickard moved to Berlin in 2011 during the Rocket Internet boom and spent years inside the startup scene. He watched founders and professionals in their late twenties pour everything into building something and arrive at their mid-thirties with their body completely out of shape. Not from ignorance. From infrastructure. Berlin has built a professional culture that pushes everything to the end of the day. Eating late. Working late. Socialising late. And health is always what gets moved when the afternoon fills up. The data: 61% of German workers report suffering from burnout, up 11% in five years. Burnout costs €9 billion annually. Mental health sick leave averages 38 days per case. And Berlin specifically runs on late-night culture, which leaves mornings unprotected and evenings consumed. The people who stay fit through demanding careers do not have more discipline. They train before the day can steal the time. Part 2 next week.
Hosted by Rickard Long · Escapist CrossFit Berlin
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Apple Podcasts (US)
5.0 / 5
1 ratings
Spotify
5.0 / 5
6 ratings
Podcast Authority Score: 41 / 100
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Quality
70
Social presence
0
YouTube
0
Engagement
32
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