Tag Archives: routines

It’s time to start

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I’ve been working out between 5-7 times a week for almost 7 years. It has been at least 2 years since I skipped two days in a row. To count a workout I do cardio, a stretch, and pick one muscle group to work pretty hard. Over 95% of my workouts are at home in my small basement gym. It has been a great routine and I’ve enjoyed it.

But I am feeling stuck now. I feel the limits of my small gym. I seem to fall into the trap of focusing in on a few workouts I like and avoiding getting to many muscles that I’d normally work out in a bigger gym. It’s not that I haven’t seen gains, I have. The gains just haven’t been evenly distributed.

I think it’s time for me to sign up at a gym. I feel the need to do more than my home gym provides. I don’t yet know how this will upset my morning routine? Maybe I’ll have to write at night? Maybe I’ll do cardio at a different time? Even with just a 15 minute drive to the gym, that’s still a half hour daily of driving to add to my routine.

I’ll admit that I’m a bit apprehensive about changing my morning routine, but I know this is a step I need to take. It will only be a challenge until the end of this school year, when I retire. The question I then ask myself is, why don’t I just wait until then to join the gym? The answer is, I just know that now is the right time.

We often spend much of our life waiting for the right time, rather than just doing the thing we want to do. My only holdback right now is that most gyms have deals at Christmas/New Years and I’d rather not pay a lot more than necessary because I didn’t wait a few days. Holding off for less than a month seems reasonable. Holding off for 7 months doesn’t. Even if I only use the gym 2-4 times a week to start, I think it will fill a void I’ve been feeling with my workouts, and will push me in a way that I’m struggling to push myself after 7 years in my tiny home gym.

Embracing the cycle

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There have been many years where during the summer my fitness has been on cruise control. I do just enough so that I do not fall too far behind in gains. This summer was different. I pushed hard, stayed very healthy, and even moved in the right direction.

Now I’m back at work, and I’m just going through the motions, doing the bare minimum to check the box that I did a workout. That’s just where I am right now. Normally this would bug the crap out of me, but I’m actually accepting this as part of the cycle. It’s really hard to be pushing for improvements all the time. It’s hard to stay motivated.

Sometimes just showing up is a win. Putting the time in, without giving 100% is still putting the time in. Some days that’s all I’ve got. And the reality is, that’s a lot more than not showing up at all. That’s a lot more than many people do.

It might be a few more days, it might be a week or two, but I’ll get back into a cycle where I push myself. Until then I’ll still get on the treadmill, I’ll still stretch, I’ll still move weights around… and more importantly, I won’t beat myself up for not doing enough.

Short gains, long views

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It’s hard to stick to healthy routines over the summer. It takes a lot more effort than when you have everything dialled in and a schedule to keep. That said, I’m thrilled about how I’ve taken care of myself over the summer. I haven’t just been in maintenance mode. I’ve actually stayed right on top of things and continued with my goals, albeit in tiny increments.

But tiny increments in the right direction still means I’m going in the right direction. The thing to remember is that while the gains are small and hard to see, they are only hard to see when looking short term. I’ve gained muscle this year, and I’ve simultaneously reduced my body fat percentage.

Sure when I compare myself to the start of summer, or even a couple months before that, the gains are small. But when I compare myself to 2 years ago, or better yet when I started my fitness goals 5-and-a-half years ago, the gains are significant!

It’s easy to get frustrated with how small gains can be in the short term, but fitness and wellbeing are lifelong goals and as such gains should be looked at through a longer lens… and I have to say that things are going, looking, and feeling great!

Making Progress – 11 Tips to Success

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Yes, another fitness post. Yes, another post about building good habits.

Is it just my algorithm or is everyone getting a lot of posts, reels, TikTok’s, and/or YouTube shorts about fitness, wellbeing, and longevity?

Everyone is an influencer now, telling you how to drop weight, tone abs, and build muscle.

Here is what I’ve learned… none of this is mine, it’s all learned from others. These are 11 things that can help you transform your body for the better. (Disclaimer: I’m not a doctor, don’t play one on the internet… these are things that have worked for me. Consult real experts, especially if you have health challenges.)

  1. Weight Loss: The only thing that matters, more than fitness, more than what you actually eat, is being in a calorie deficit. That’s it. If you are in a deficit you will lose weight. Period. Full stop. End of story. So choose an app that tracks what you eat and use it religiously. Want to eat more? Exercise, burn calories, and you can have more calories that day, and still be in a deficit.
  2. Track your workouts. Choose a minimum amount that counts as a workout and track them. Here is one rule that is simple if you build a routine, and hard if you aren’t actually tracking: Never miss 2 days in a row. You can make up other rules or requirements as you see fit, so long as you NEVER break your own rules. One break gives permission for other breaks, then habits are lost and you are stuck trying to be disciplined. Habits are easy, discipline is hard. Track your progress and you will ‘see’ your habits, which will help you perpetuate them.
  3. Protein and Creatine. There is a 99.9% chance that you are not eating as much protein as you should. Quite literally if 1,000 people read this, there would only be one of you actually eating as much as 1 gram of protein per pound on the scale. That’s my goal and I still don’t regularly hit it. Protein is good for the body AND the brain. Same with creatine. Creatine reduces muscle soreness after workouts, and is one of the most studied supplements. Less than 1% of the population can have digestion issues with it. Probably not you and there is literally no other down side and huge upsides to taking it.
  4. Train most of your cardio in ‘Zone 2’. What is Zone 2? If you tried to talk normally while in that zone, it would be challenging to catch your breath, but if you were told at the end of your workout that you had to keep going at the same pace for 5 more minutes you could maintain that pace. So many people think they have to kill themselves with high heart rate cardio blasts. Still do this once per week to improve your Max Vo2, but 80+% of your cardio should be in Zone 2. My tracking requirements are a minimum of 20 minutes. I walk on a treadmill, on an incline, with a weighted vest most days. This is much lower impact than running, and I can still get in the zone. You want better weight loss gains? Cardio tip: Don’t eat before cardio. You want to drain your glycogen reserves and get to fat burn. Food reserves will be used as energy before fat. No food reserves means your body gets to fat burn faster. Mind you, this is moot if you aren’t in a calorie deficit.
  5. Weight train. Lift and carry heavy things. Muscles are quite literally things that you use or you lose. Research shows a direct correlation between larger muscles and longevity. Grandma or grandpa who can do a pull-up and deadlift their own weight are not the ones who are going to stumble and break their hips. They are also more likely to be cognitively’ ‘there’ compared to their sedentary peers.
  6. Weight lift your muscles completely to fatigue. This is called hypertrophy training, you are wanting to build muscle. First, because larger muscles means a longer (healthier) lifespan. Secondly, you are literally telling your body to stay young. Building muscles demands your body to be in ‘growth mode’ rather than in sunset mode on your way to the grave. Pick at least one muscle group and work it to failure. Personal secret: 90% of my workouts are done in 40-45 minutes with 20 minutes cardio and 5-10 minutes stretching. How do I get it ‘all’ done so quickly? Besides cardio and stretching, I just work one muscle group but I work it really hard. Yesterday was shoulders. I did 4 sets of free weight shoulder press (1st one at 1/2 weight for warm up, then 3 progressively heavy sets to 10-12, but the last set I could only get to 9). Then lateral raises, again ending with a set to failure. Today was biceps. Seated curls, then standing hammer curls, then 1 set of elastic ban Bayesian curls to fatigue. In both day’s examples the sets took 20-25 minutes. Tomorrow I’ll do abs and legs to give my upper body a rest, then chest the following day. I love when I go to the gym with a budy and workout more body parts in a workout, but I share my example to emphasize that you can make progress doing an entire workout in less time that it takes to watch a show on Netflix. That said, this is minimal volume and I know I’d make more gains if I did more.
  7. Stretch. I don’t believe you should ever stretch cold. That’s why I do cardio first. Research says that to slightly improve muscle gains, do weights before cardio. But on my daily (early morning) routine, I want to stretch before weights, and I want to be warm when I stretch. I’ll pass on tiny gains to get a routine that works for me. Stretching makes you feel better and more mobile, and helps to reduce injuries. It’s also a way to feel a connection to your body.
  8. Meditate. I cheat and meditate on the treadmill. I clip the emergency stop clip on me, hold the rails, close my eyes, and do a guided meditation. I find the physical activity a distraction that helps me reduce my mind wandering, and this also gives me more time in my tight morning routine because I’m double dipping. Meditation is not a state of quiet mind, it is a continual state of quieting the mind. It’s not about no distraction, but a state of coming back from distraction. Beyond that I’m years into my practice and still a rookie. Get meditation advice elsewhere, but take my advice and start a regular meditation habit. (I track this like I track my fitness, with stickers on a year-long calendar.)
  9. Have a workout buddy. I only get to workout with someone about once every couple weeks. I wish I could do more because being with him pushes me to be better. But even when I don’t work out with him, he and I keep each other accountable. We can share our highs and lows. I tell him I had a shitty workout, he congratulates me on showing up. I hit a personal best, I can share it with him and he’ll celebrate it with me, without it feeling like bragging. It’s our victory. Find someone to share you journey with.
  10. Routine, routine, routine. Build your habit so that you don’t require discipline. My favourite example of reducing workout friction and thus making my routine easier is my workout shoes. In my small basement gym I have workout shoes and a shoehorn. My shoes are pre-tied tight enough to walk (or run) on the treadmill, and I can still slip them on with the shoehorn. Why? Because I hate tying shoes and I hate getting on the treadmill with one shoe feeling tighter than the other. This was a pain point. What are your pain points? Remove them. You workout after work? Routinize having your workout bag by the front door the night before. Then put it on the passenger seat as a visual reminder when you get in the car after work. Reduce the friction and the habit will form, and then you’ll get used to showing up.
  11. JUST SHOW UP! The most important days in the gym are the days you don’t want to show up and you do anyway. These are the days that make the habit an actual habit. These are the days that make a routine an actual routine. The days you had to drag your ass into the gym and do the bare minimum are more important than the days you hit a personal best. And as a bonus, some of the days that you drag yourself in might also be a personal best day when you finally got there. Showing up then becomes a habit, and it no longer feels as hard to do on the hard days. Because if you ‘just show up’ enough on the hard days then showing up no longer feels like work. It’s a self-perpetuating cycle… But the early hard days are the toughest. Go back to tip 2 and Never miss 2 days in a row.

One final thought. While I’ve seen significant progress in the past 2 years, I’ve been on this path for 6-and-a-half years. I initially saw a good weight loss and small muscle gains, but it took the addition of creatine and a higher protein diet before I saw the most recent gains. Day-to-day I really haven’t seen a lot a gains anywhere. I share this because many people get discouraged when they don’t see the gains or fat loss immediately. Here are two things to think about related to looking for gains: First, if you are gaining muscle while losing fat, muscle is heavier than fat. Don’t focus on the scale, focus on the habits. And second, if you aren’t getting stronger, you are not really training your muscles to fatigue. These gains are slow too, but if you can only do 10 pushups and 2 months later that’s still your max, you probably could be training harder. If you walk on the treadmill at the same speed and incline every week, with no incremental increase and it still feels just as challenging, you probably aren’t working hard enough. Don’t look for gains weekly, but set goals for progress and even if you don’t hit them, make sure you are trending up. Trending up is often slower than you hoped, but as long as the trend is up… you are doing great!

And finally… if you see something that I’ve gotten wrong, please tell me and help me in my learning journey.

Holidays and routines

I know that the reason I fit my meditation, writing, and fitness regimen into my day is because I wake up early and because I have a routine that I maintain. In fact the idea of routine maintenance is normally a bit of an oxymoron for me because when I’m running my routine there is no maintenance required. My alarm goes off and my routine begins. No maintenance needed. No motivation needed… It all just gets done.

Then comes a holiday and suddenly the routines are out the window. Now I need to think about when I’m going do the things that I normally do without thought or effort. And since thinking, effort, and motivation are all required, it all gets a lot harder to do.

There is the running joke that if you need to get something done, give it to a busy person. Well, that sums up my routine tasks. Give me a small window and say, ‘All this needs to be done in this short time,’ and I get it done. Give me a whole morning to do the same, and it will take me all morning. Parkinson’s Law in effect: “work expands to fill the time available for its completion.”

So now as I start thinking about enjoying my summer I’m also thinking about routine maintenance… something I normally don’t usually have to think about at all.

The picture tells the story

Friday was the last day of school, and while I had a good weekend before heading back in to work to clean things up, I felt very unmotivated. When I saw this image shared by a friend and coworker, I knew I had to share it too.

There is a saying, “If you want something done, give it to a busy person.”

Summer holidays always start very slow for me because suddenly I have time… the time that I said I wish I had, to do all the things I wish I could do. For me that’s more daunting than exciting. I have routines that automate a lot of the things I want to get done. Remove the routine, remove the automation, and suddenly everything takes effort, everything takes motivation, and motivation is harder to maintain than good habits.

So, I’ll go into a bit of a dip. I’ll struggle just to get the usual stuff done, despite having more time. Then I’ll adjust and it will all get better. But I’ve learned to give myself some slack and just slack off for a bit first. And that’s what this weekend was all about.

Blog post recipes

I’ve been struggling to get writing this morning and so I went into my drafts folder. There I found a series of half-baked ideas that I hope to expand on at some point. But not today. Each idea is a rough recipe for a post, but missing some key ingredients that would take too much time to expand on. That’s usually what gets them stuck in my drafts.

This is a challenge when I have to squeeze my writing into the time frame of my early morning routine. It’s easy to shorten a workout (another part of my morning routine). I can do a walking meditation on a treadmill, instead of sitting for more time to meditate before my workout. What I can’t do is write on the treadmill, or while meditating.

I can’t rush writing. So on days when I really struggle to get going, writing becomes a challenge. The baking of an idea takes time. Sometimes I can just get started and let the ideas flow, but it’s the getting started that is the hard part.

Half-baked ideas can be a great inspiration, but they can also be a recipe for delay and procrastination. Writing is tricky that way. Sometimes you just need a single spark, just the right ingredient, and the whole post comes together. Other times you need all the ingredients clearly in front of you or the ideas don’t get fully baked.

So on these slow days I reflect on my past few days and search for inspiration. This can again be a spark for an idea, but it can also be a recipe for negative thinking. ‘Have the past few days been that un-inspirational?‘, ‘Do I really have nothing to share?’

These thoughts are a recipe for starting my day off poorly. Often it’s not that I have nothing to say, but that I have nothing to say publicly. For example, I have an old post draft from many months ago about how kids avoid seeking advice from adults, and end up seeking bad advice from other kids. I wrote the start of this draft in late 2024, but if I shared it now there are at least two students and their families who might think they are the recent inspiration for that post… when they aren’t.

It’s a good idea to share, but maybe in August when I haven’t been in a school for over a month. That’s the challenge sometimes. I have the ideas, the recipes for a blog post, but feel like I can’t share without seeming to reveal something too personal to others, or sometimes to myself.

So the drafts sit unbaked, and I’m left wondering what I can share this morning, or tomorrow morning? The challenge on these wondering-what-to-write days is that I can leave myself wondering why I have nothing to share? Do I hang up my daily writing hat and retire this practice?

No. Not yet. But I must admit that days like today really make me wonder if this cookbook of writing ideas hasn’t reached its last page.

Love the process

That doesn’t mean the process is easy. It doesn’t mean you wake up full of enthusiasm every day. It doesn’t mean there aren’t hard days.

Just commit to putting yourself out there. Not for an end result, not for a reward, or accolades, or achievement badges. Do enjoy those when they come, celebrate as often as you want… but don’t show up seeking the outcomes.

Show up because you made a commitment. Show up because that’s how you define your success. Show up to show up because that’s what you do, and you’ll naturally fall in love with the process.

Once you’ve fallen in love with the process, then showing up is easy, and even on the hard days you won’t struggle to show up. Then, and only then, will the real rewards come. Again, celebrate them but don’t focus on them. Focus on showing up and keep the love of the process going.

Seeing gains

It has been 6 years in the making, but I’ve seen some pretty amazing gains in my fitness and strength, especially in the past 2 years. The 4 years before that included gains too, but they were very small. Well, initially I did see a good drop in unnecessary weight, but after the first year my gains were small and hard to recognize. Now I’m seeing the results of my hard work.

The easiest place to notice this is my calves and arms. And why do I notice these two areas more than anywhere else? Because of the way my clothes fit. I have pants that used to fit loosely that now ride up my legs every time I sit down because my calves don’t allow my pants to drop back down. And my favourite T-shirts that used to fit loosely are now tight and make me look like I’m trying to show off.

What changed in the last couple years? Why have I seen these gains, when I hadn’t before despite working out as hard?

  1. I’ve been taking creatine for a few years now and the required recovery time of my muscles after a workout has decreased. (So has the 2-day later soreness that I barely get anymore other than leg days, which have always been hard for me.)
  2. I’ve increased my protein. I’m probably still not at the recommended 1gram of protein per pound that I weigh, but I’m now over 3/4 there rather than averaging less than half of that daily.
  3. Really pushing to max (hypertrophy). I push myself more working out with a friend, or at school. Not only can I lift heavier when I’m using machines I don’t have in my home gym, I can also lift heavier when I have a spotter (and motivator).
  4. Consistency. I’ve said it over and over again… the most important day in the gym is the day you don’t feel like going and you go anyway. These days my workouts are such a big part of my day (even though most are for less than an hour), that I struggle to convince myself to take a day off. Volume matters when looking to increase muscle mass.

I think I’m at my ideal weight now, but I have a goal to gain 5-7 pounds more by the end of this year. The way I see it, I won’t be at this ideal weight 15 years from now if I just try to maintain this current weight. But if I’m 7 pounds more now, I could again be at this ideal weight in 15 years, despite muscle loss that can come with aging.

So, I’ve got more gains to make, and I think I’m on the right path to gain the weight I want. The only challenge is that I might need to buy some better fitting clothing.

The first 100 days

Real change only happens when the pain of doing something new is less than the pain of avoiding the new thing. I was talking to my buddy, Dave, after our 178th Coquitlam Crunch today and we spoke about the discipline and work that we’ve put into fitness, good eating habits, and our social-emotional wellbeing. It comes down to the fact that habits are easier to maintain than motivation, and showing up matters more than any other factor.

It sounds so cliche, but the most important workout is the one you don’t want to do… but still do. It’s a scheduled workout day and you have zero motivation… do a workout anyway. Your gas tank is empty and you can’t imagine doing your workout routine… go to the gym anyway and do a 20 minute walk in the treadmill.

Probably more than 50% of the times that you drag your ass to the gym, not wanting to go, you’ll end up doing more than you expected you would do. But guess what? The other times when you don’t do more, when you just barely do the minimum… these are the workouts that really matter. You showed up! You kept the habit going. You made the next attempt to go to the gym easier. “If I can get to the gym feeling the way I did yesterday, I can definitely get to the gym today!”

“My advice,” Dave said, “would be just show up for the first 100 days. Don’t expect to see changes, don’t even look in the mirror. The first 100 days are about making workouts something you never miss, or monitoring calories and developing good eating habits.”

Essentially, the first 100 days are really hard, and they matter the most. I said that, ‘Real change only happens when the pain of doing something new is less than the pain of avoiding the new thing.’ Whatever your new habit is, reduce the pain of doing it by making the desired goal mandatory.

You want to go to the gym 5 days a week? For the first 100 days there are no excuses, nothing is allowed to make you miss. You went away for the weekend and didn’t work out? You go to the gym every day from Monday to Friday. Exhausted and don’t want to go to the gym on Thursday? Too bad, you already missed the weekend, and attendance is non-negotiable.

Will that Thursday workout be a good one? Probably not. But it will likely be more than you thought you had in you, and it was the most important workout of the week. You got there. You kept the streak going. You aren’t someone who skips out, you don’t make excuses, you maintain your habits. You are a regular who would rather feel the pain of a workout than the pain of letting yourself down.

Just show up for the first 100 days. After the habit is established, then you can look at losses and gains. Then you can reduce fat, add muscle, increase flexibility or endurance… or just feel good about yourself because you have developed a great habit that you find easier and easier to maintain.

100 days.

Rain, shine, snow… to the crunch we go!