I have never been the exercising type. I walk quite much. But I don’t run, I don’t lift weights, I don’t like to get exhausted and I don’t like when it hurts.
Having passed the age of 40 I realized I am not getting younger, healthier or stronger. Although a little bit heavier – not overweight at all, but skinny-fat.
In the autumn of 2018 I listened to Jordan Peterson talking about his book 12 Rules for Life. This particular lecture was about Rule #4: Compare yourself to who you were yesterday, not who someone else is today. Peterson mentioned in his lecture that if you make small consistent improvements over a long period of time, you will eventually make significant improvements in the long run.
Inspired by this I set up a scheme of exercising that works for me:
- I have a number of simple exercises I can do at home, in a hotel room, or elsewhere: pushups, squats, planks and things like that. Most are body-weight only exercises.
- Every week I do at least as many of each exercise as I did last week.
- Every week, in total, I do more than last week.
That is it!
I started out with very low ambition. The first weeks I did ridiculously little exercise. But after 8-9 weeks I saw some improvements, I had got the habit, and I did not want to fail and give up. I have now done this for a little more than a year, and not a single week I have failed to improve.
A few more things:
- A week starts on Sunday (so it is easy to get a good start) and ends on Saturday (so I have time to catch up after a bad week)
- Some exercises I do better/heavier after a while, even though the amount is the same. For example, there are different pushup techniques and I allow myself to change between them, generally this makes my exercise harder than it was a year ago. I get more quality out of the same time or repetitions.
- Sometime I add a new exercise to the list rather than doing more of the old ones.
This is my weekly (every 4 week printed) progress:
Week 49 1 5 9 13 17 21 25 29 33 37 41 45 49 a) 195 320 380 400 420 435 440 450 460 460 460 460 460 460 b) 30 30 35 50 60 65 70 75 80 80 c) 40 75 105 120 120 120 120 120 125 130 130 140 140 140 d) 29 80 100 120 155 160 165 165 171 175 175 180 180 180 e) 60 85 105 120 120 120 120 120 120 125 125 125 125 125 f) 30 45 60 75 80 90 100 100 120 120 135 150 155 170 g) 20 30 35 40 45 55 60 65 70 70 80 h) 30 45 50 50 50 50 50 50 i) 15 20 25 25 30 j) 15 30 35 35 40 k) 60 60 Total 354 605 750 855 955 990 1050 1095 1161 1215 1260 1310 1380 1415
The different exercises are here named a-k (the important thing is that you find exercises that you like) and the number can be seconds or repetitions (sometimes this is for two sides so I do twice as many). So I think it is a good guess that I exercise almost one hour per week, but that is effective time. I would not be able to do this in a gym in one hour, that would be too heavy.
As you can see it levels out a bit. It is hard, I sometimes hate it, but I improve and I do not give up!
In the beginning I set up a few goals: new personal records when it comes to pushups and planks for example. I reached those and now my goal is to be able to walk on my hands. So I do see results! Also my body looks and feels different.
Discipline, systems and motivation
Motivation will not take you too far. There comes a day when motivation simply fails you and you can lose a good habit. However, if you are disciplined about systematic improvement, you do not fail even when your motivation is low.
Conclusion
If you already exercise regularly and you are happy about it, you are probably already better than I will ever be. But if you really do not exercise and you are aware that you and your body would benefit from it, I think this is a method for you.
Start out with very low ambition. You need to negotiate with yourself (as Peterson says). Perhaps you can do 10 pushups and 10 situps the first week? And 11 the next. Do it, you have nothing to lose. And after a few months giving up on your good development is harder than doing those damn pushups.
I think for me a weekly goal has been good. Some days are just not good days but I can make my weekly goal anyway.
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