How to Find Time to Workout

Between high school and college, I played waaaaaaaay too much Halo and DotA. That includes all the Halos 1-3 and DotA 1 and 2. I have no idea how much DotA 1 I played since the time wasn't tracked in the game (thank goodness because I'd have day-long game sessions), but the last time I checked, when I was playing DotA 2 it was somewhere around 6k hours. Before that, Halo was played until 2am every night.

I could have learned 3 other languages with all that time.

"Time having fun isn't time wasted!"

Or whatever the phrase is.

But was it productive?

Unless I was a pro gamer or a streamer, no.

Despite all that game time, I was still working out, but that's only because I didn't have a lot going on aside from that.

Many years later, after our first kid, I was still working out in the morning, but I kept DotA 2 around. I still made the workouts happen, but it wasn't ideal. I forget why I did this, but I eventually gave it up gaming. It added a huge improvement to my sleep and allowed me to be ready for my workouts the next morning.

Since DotA was my biggest source of entertainment, nothing else felt as fun to me so I ended up quitting everything on accident; no other games, not many shows or movies either. I do have a couple of hobbies (gym, music, reading) so I'm not that crazy.

What was a big eye opener was how much time I was able to gain just from dropping this habit.

My "motivation" to workout also increased. If I wasn't getting the huge dopamine hit from video games, working out and other "boring" things felt more exciting again.

Ask most people why they don't workout and they'll probably say something about how little time they have.

Malarkey I say.

There are a couple things that will reveal to you just how much time you already have.

A time audit and dopamine detoxing.

The Entertainment Trap

I remember reading Convict Conditioning 2, a book on bodyweight training. In it, things are put into perspective when author Paul Wade describes former weightlifter John Grimek. This was back in the 30s and 40s, and he'd work all day in a steel foundry, then go workout. Talk about an all day workout.

But did have the option to go home and watch TV, scroll his phone or play video games?

No.

(Did he even have a TV back then? Dunno.)

He probably had nothing else to do. More specifically, he didn't have anything super stimulating that could get in the way mentally.

No TV. No video games. No social media.

Everyone knows that doing anything entertainment related eats up the time during that activity. Shows can be 30 minutes to 1 hour. Movies are about 2 hours. Games about 1 hour or more.

Each one of those is enough for a good workout session.

What no one talks about is what happens to your brain in between those events.

This is going to be sad and embarrassing, but I need to drive the point home.

DotA is an intimidating game. It's not easy. There are over 100 characters to choose from. I stumbled upon it randomly back when I was playing Warcraft 3. (It was a mod of Warcraft 3, which meant someone made it with the custom game feature.) I was horrible at it, so I quit.

Then 2 friends from real life discovered that I played a little so they showed me the ropes. They told me who to play, what to do, what items to get, etc. I binged one hero (Blademaster, if you want to know), figured it out and got better.

Then I did the same thing for another hero.

Then another.

Then another.

I learned them all.

Then DotA 2 came out with a ranking system.

I'd try to level up. I'd research how to play better. I'd practice moves. I'd wait in anticipation to get home after work or school or the gym to play again. I'd message my friends to see who was available. I'd watch the pros play online.

Is the game still 1 hour?

Can't you see that your whole day becomes consumed with "let me just do all this other stuff so I can actually have fun tonight"?

This is why you aren't motivated.

Not only is working out not entertainment, it's hard. I think people would rather sit and watch paint dry instead of doing a tough workout. So you'd have to put your entertainment down AND do something your brain doesn't want to do.

Your brain doesn't know what's good for you.

It just wants a dopamine hit.

It doesn't matter whether that comes from how you feel about your body after 6 months of dedicated gym effort or a piece of cake.

But if you give it the easy win, the cake, and do that repeatedly, why would it sign up for punishment so that it can enjoy something months from now?

We have to stack the deck in our favor.

This dopamine chat is glossed over too much these days.

"A little in moderation is fine."

"Just have some balance. Live a little."

"Just practice self control."

The simplest way (not easy) to stop doing something is to go cold turkey.

Remember, these devices and foods are engineered to keep you hooked. Yet if you've just been trying to dabble a little using moderation and can't for "some reason," it's time to rip the band-aid off. After too much of it, your body doesn't want to budge when it comes to hard things.

Detox.

Give yourself a break, and after a while your brain will want to get dopamine from something so it will start to enjoy the hard work again.

And please don't start the "this person plays video games and is achieving [insert goal that you want]." That person isn't you. Give yourself a fighting chance.

Now let's work out.

But how?

Bring Your Gym Home

After that long entertainment rant, what else gets in the way of people working out?

The first thing people often think of is joining a gym. That's a great start!

But what if you're intimidated? What if you don't know what to do with all of that equipment in there? What if you don't want to shell out money for a gym or a personal trainer?

You take it into your own hands.

I love to lift weights, but I'm going to say something blasphemous in the weightlifting community:

You don't have to lift weights.

But…

You do have to resistance train.

Your body doesn't know if it's lifting weight or not. Tension is tension. If you have a bench press or a one arm pushup, which one is harder? (Hard to say unless you can do both.)

Yes, you will never get as big with calisthenics as if you were lifting weight, but it's great for most people. It's also a great way to be in control of your own body. Don't be one of these guys that can bench 3 plates but can't do a single pull up.

Be integrated.

You could even do both, shocker!

Besides, have you ever seen those park workout guys on YouTube? They're jacked. It also looks cool to be able to knock out some intense bodyweight movements.

Many moons ago, a couple friends of mine and I decided to figure out handstand pushups. By "figure out" I mean we had no online tutorials at the time. We just helped each other get up to the wall and then just try to max out a few times.

Lo and behold, after taking some time off of doing military presses, the weight I could do went up after not doing them at all.

It's almost as if the balance and coordination of handstand pushups is harder than pressing a barbell overhead (unless you're doing 200lbs+).

So what do you do?

Find a bodyweight program and stick with it.

You have no excuses.

If you can do pushups and walk, you're golden. If you want to amp things up and buy a pullup bar and gymnastics rings, you're super golden.

If "the gym" is intimidating, the best place for someone to start is just with what they already have, which is workouts at home using your own body.

Workouts for "Busy" People

Ok let's put these two mindsets together. We're going to reduce our entertainment time and just workout at home.

Wow that's easy.

Step 1: The Mindset

• Have a goal in mind. If you don't have one, think about what you don't like about yourself. Write it down. (This is harsh, but necessary.)

• Realize what entertainment is doing to you. You have something that you want to do related to your fitness/health. It's robbing it.

Step 2: Time Audit

• Go on your phone and check out the screen time feature. See how much screen time you have per day.

• Analyze your nights. Are you just scrolling mindless at night? Do you magically pop your head up and think "oh no I need to go to bed!" Stop doing that.

• Analyze your entertainment. How many shows are you watching per night? How long are you spending on video games?

• So what's more important? A 20 minute workout for your health? Or this time you're spending on entertainment? The time is there, it's time to use it better.

• You don't have to remove entertainment, just shave off about 20 minutes at night, go to bed 20 minutes earlier, wake up 20 minutes earlier.

Step 3: Schedule It

• Schedule a time to workout. Mornings work well for this so you don't talk yourself out of it. (We'll talk about it later.)

• Stick to it like it's a time for a business flight.

Step 4: Use Bodyweight Workouts

• Go on Google for 2 seconds and look up a bodyweight workout plan.

• The reps shouldn't go on forever, the progressions should get harder. Anything works. As an example, if you can do 30 pushups against the wall, it's time to start trying pushups on your knees on the floor.

• Some Program examples:

• Convict Conditioning (basic bodyweight movements)

• Anything by Knessovertoesguy (focuses on athleticism)

• Bodyweight workouts by Kinobody (focuses on looking better)

• Literally stop reading this and search YouTube for something

Bonus step: Use the mornings

• We talk ourselves out of things too much. I don't know who you are or what you've got going on, but I want to assume you're super duper busy. If that's the case, use the mornings.

• Set a "no more social media and entertainment" alarm at night. Stick to it. Get your workout clothes ready. Set an alarm for the morning and go to bed.

• Wake up and workout!

Bonus step 2: Easy Cardio - Walk More

• Concerned about cardio? Try to get 10k steps per day. If that sounds daunting and you're sitting at 3k per day, try to double it first.

• There are arguments such as "10 minutes a few times per day is enough!" or "there are better ways to do cardio!" I'm going to side step all of those arguments and say this: people these days don't move enough. If you had a construction job or worked in a restaurant or worked on a farm or did anything physical, you're probably getting those steps anyway. Is it crazy to try to sneak in a couple 20 minute walks per day and just walk around the house to keep it clean? No. It's no crazier than sitting still and watching TV for 2 hours straight every night.

The Time is There. Use it better.

The average person uses social media for 2 hours and 24 minutes per day.

Goodness.

I understand that it helps us connect with old friends and see what they're doing, but it's also a horrible time sink if you're using it to mindlessly scroll. You do have people physically closer to you that you could be connecting with instead.

Either way, once you know that stat, you can see that you would just have to shave off 20 minutes of that time and use it productively. We all know the feeling at the end of the night when we pop our heads out of our screens and realize how much time we just wasted.

"20 minutes isn't enough."

It's plenty.

I'm a gym rat and could easily spend 2 hours in the gym if I had the time, but you don't have to start there.

Do 10 minutes of pushups and squats then do a 10 minute walk for the rest of your life and you're going to never need a nursing home.

Thanks for reading!

As always, if you have any questions feel free to respond to this newsletter.