Fancy title eh? But hear me out. If you are reading this, you probably care about being fitter or want to care about being fitter or want to want to care about being fitter (Hmm 🤔). The problem, however, is that most of us fail to consistently put in the effort to reach the standards that we set for ourselves.
I empathize entirely. My family is relatively overweight, I was raised overweight. At 15, I was like a momma penguin amidst a bunch of stallions. So grossly overweight that if you saw a guy waddling on the football field from a mile, you would know it was me. And that inhibited me from doing a lot of things that I wanted to do. I even got myself a nickname, that the friends I hold dear still call me by today. Some things just stick.
One day I just decided that I wanted to get fitter. There was no single ‘aha’ moment that you would expect. I just wanted to put myself in motion. In the next 3 years, I saw a total transformation in not just my fitness and appearance but also the way I think. What I want to share with you, is the result of my own experiments with fitness.
Here are my three maximums for a fitter life. Hold these dear to thyself.
The more I pack, the fitter I will be.
The more I integrate, the fitter I will be.
The more I enjoy the process, the fitter I will be.
1. The more I pack, the fitter I will be.
The traditional approach is saying, ‘I will work out 1 hour every day’, then adding ‘from tomorrow’ and then never doing it. You rationalize this with ‘I’m busy’, ‘I have better things to do in that one hour’.
Let us break this cycle.
How about doing some tiny exercise whenever you’re free? when you’re waiting for the bus to school or the 20 minutes after you come back from school and have another class. You could even drop down for 20 pushups after every online class. This is what I like to call ‘decentralized fitness’.
You must remove the notion that you’re putting effort for a prolonged period and instead have short bursts of intense activity throughout your day. However, the key to make this practical is to set up systems for yourself so you can be consistent.
Gains from workouts, like most things in real life, compound. You could start with a super intense fitness regime but if you can’t sustain it, it is useless. Consistency is extremely important.
Here’s what I mean by systems for consistency: Tell yourself, for example, that at a minimum, you will do 20 pushups before each online class. Simple, right? It’s hardly going to take you a minute. You could do 20 burpees + 20 situps right after you get up in the morning. That’ll get your blood pumping and set you up for the day. You could do 50 crunches before sleeping at night. That will tire you out and help you sleep easily. The key is to anchor these short workouts on routine tasks like attending classes that you would already do anyway.
Now, that’s just a minimum baseline that you set for yourself. I’ve found that it’s starting to work out that’s hard but after you get in the mood and feel your blood pumping you’d want to do more. So, it is key to be intentionally quick about things you do.
For example, I normally walk about a km from my bus stop to my house at 3:20 PM and then leave for tuitions at four. Normally a brisk walk takes 10 minutes but once I started becoming intentional about saving time, I started walking faster or jogging. That helped me reach home 5 minutes earlier. These 5 minutes were a huge bonus cause 5 minutes = 100 more pushups.
Earn some extra time, invest it in your workout, and see compound interest work its magic.
2. The more I integrate, the fitter I will be.
I want you to think about optimizing for fitness all the time. In every activity that you do, look for an opportunity to integrate a workout. This is especially effective if you can integrate fitness with a routine task. For example, if you must travel across the city for classes, cycle. Jog to and from your bus stop. Plank for a couple of minutes as you wait for your water to get warm if you’re into that (personally, cold showers are the best 🧊). Always keep looking for these opportunities.
This way, you start putting in more time in physical activity almost without thinking because they are a part of bigger things that you do every day. It also keeps you motivated and intentional about the rest of your day so you are doing things in the best way possible.
3. The more I enjoy the process, the fitter I will be.
Orient yourself to enjoy the process. Not the outcome. Once you fall in love with just the feeling of working out, rather than the result, nobody can stop you from reaching your fitness goals.
Having a result-oriented approach is largely unsustainable because you aren’t likely to see gains immediately. Be patient. Things in real life compound. Wait for your payday.
If you frequently flex your biceps or check your abs out to see your gains, you are doing it wrong. I fall victim to that from time to time too, but the key is to become aware of that immediately and call yourself out.
Now, you must understand that a concentrated high energy 1-hour workout is much better than four 15-minute workouts. But that’s beside the point. Here, you’re building a way of life. If you can follow all the maximums correctly you will be able to put in more time effortlessly and it will be sustainable in the long run.
TL;DR: Repeat the three maximums often and internalize them.
1. The more I pack, the fitter I will be.
2. The more I integrate, the fitter I will be.
3. The more I enjoy the process, the fitter I will be.
There is another aspect of fitness: the food you eat. It is just as important as your workouts. I will cover this in another article. But if you think about it, these maximums apply to your ‘diet’ too!
I am super excited about your fitness journey. Godspeed! 🚀
If you’ve read until this point, I hope you have had quite a few takeaways. I’d love to discuss your fitness journey and I’ll be thrilled to hear your feedback too. Shoot me a mail at suraj.ranganath@gmail.com. Connect with me on LinkedIn.
