How to Focus in the Gym

Go to any gym and what do you see?

If people are strength training, there's a good chance that they're scrolling on their phones between sets. Rest times are getting longer. (If they're not using their phones to record themselves.)

Your workout sessions should be sacred. Instead, we're teleporting our brains to 100 different things in the span of a few minutes. What do you think that does to you and your brain?

I've been getting better at the scrolling, but the other two things I left in were music and podcasts.

My music is heavy music (metal), and I've stopped listening to that. Plus I was getting too reliant on it to push myself. Podcasts or educational videos? I'm neither training hard nor learning. Try to do two things at once and you end up doing neither.

So the question is this: is there a way to increase our focus in the gym?

Can we do so and also increase our intensity in the gym?

Can we, as a bonus, increase our focus outside the gym?

The answer is yes!

Here's the magical secret:

You just have to put your phone down.

The O.G.'s

I think every fitness human in the modern day should watch "Pumping Iron." It's the documentary about Arnold Schwarzenegger and the growing bodybuilding community back in the 70s.

Those guys were serious: heavy weights, intense training, steak and eggs, no carbs (except for cheat days), mustaches and short shorts. They cheered each other on and had fun in the gym. Even before Arnold got to America, I'm sure he had plenty of gym sessions alone. This would mean more time to focus and just daydream about training.

You know what they didn't have back then?

The internet.

They probably had a radio in the corner somewhere, but that was it.

"Who cares? Isn't the internet something that's good for humanity?"

Yes it helps us learn and connect, and you probably got your training program from it, but it's a double edged sword. In terms of the gym, you're supposed to be in there to train your body and get out. It lasts 1-2 hours. It's an intense, short, focused block of your day…or at least it should be.

Let's pretend you're a power lifter or an Olympic lifter. This would mean you need to hit certain weights for the day because you're on some sort of schedule. That requires focus, right? In an ideal scenario, you're thinking about your workout before you get there. You think about it in your warmup. You think about each set before each set. You reflect back on it when you're done.

Today? That's unlikely. If you sit down between sets and stare at Instagram even for a minute, you could potentially be exposed to at least 20 unrelated videos or images at once. There's never been a time in history when we've been able to do that. So what happens to all that focus that you're supposed to have?

It gets scattered.

This is wrong.

The OS (The Crawling Guy)

Enter Tim Anderson from Original Strength. Specifically his book "The Becoming Bulletproof Project." If you ever end up reading it, you might conclude that he's crazy, and he is. Tim has Spider-Man crawled 1 mile…twice. He trained under John Brookfield (the creator of the battling ropes), and has done a multitude of other miserable things. The book is all about challenges that are miserable.

There's one section in the book where he mentions that to up the intensity, start doing the workouts without listening to anything.

No music.

No audio books.

No podcasts.

Nothing.

Why?

The book has a lot challenges that ask you to endure for at least 10 minutes. If you ever try a crawl for 30 seconds you know how miserable it can be. 10 minutes? An eternity. You'd very much want something to distract yourself. I think this is the reason why people will listen to things when going on a long walk or run. But what if you couldn't?

It's about the title of the book: "Becoming Bulletproof." No this isn't about deflecting bullets like Superman. It's not about never getting hurt (although the exercises in the book make you stronger). It's not about something as tough as military boot camp.

But on a small level, it's about developing mental toughness. You can't escape the pain. You have nothing but the task at hand, yourself and your thoughts. We often want to avoid all of that.

So after reading that book, I tried exactly what he said. No music. No audio. Just suffering and my thoughts. I couldn't stand it. It was horrible…until it wasn't. I applied the "no audio" rule to the crawling, and eventually to my weightlifting, so the entire session was audio free.

What started happening is that I was more focused in training and more calm after. It says something when you're able to withstand something horrible without trying to distract yourself. You've just proven to yourself that you can do something tough, no matter how small.

As a side note: if you think 10 minutes is long, it took Tim over 40 minutes to crawl the mile…and he never turned the podcast he was going to listen to on. So he was crawling in complete silence. That's probably where the idea of the "no audio" rule came from.

Moving Meditation

People have said that meditation increases focus. What is meditation? On a bro-science level it's just trying to let your thoughts go or to practice mindfulness, which is just being aware of your senses and not getting stuck in your thoughts.

People usually do it sitting down, closing your eyes and breathing.

What about another version?

With the "no audio during training" solution, you have no choice but to not think and feel your body work. Good luck thinking about dinner when you're under the last heavy set of squatting or deadlifting.

So now there's two benefits to all of this by accident: more mindfulness and focus in the gym and the benefits of more focus and a calmer mind after the gym. (If you train this way in the morning it really sets the tone for the rest of the day. You'll be calmer.)

Gym Flow State Multiplier

We want to be able to focus in the gym and as a bonus, have better focus through the day so that you can really start thinking about the gym more. (Then your training sessions won't drag on.)

Since the phone is the main culprit, let's deal with that. Let's handle this on a macro (outside of the gym) and micro (in the gym) level.

Phone Setup

• Follow fewer people (on Instagram) - I say Instagram because that's the main culprit. I know you want to keep up with as many fitness influencers as possible because you want to be like them, but they don't even know who you are. I'd rather you get to know the people in your gym instead. When you log in, you want to check in with everyone. Next thing you know it it's been 10 minutes since your last set and you're cold. Now you have to remember what you're even doing. Stop that.

• Turn off as many notifications as possible - You need this for your every day life too. For as many apps as possible, turn the notifications off. Seriously. The only ones you'd really need would be texts, phone calls and maybe a workout app that has a timer. That's it. You don't need to get pinged every single time someone liked a silly comment you made on Instagram. This way you get to decide when you want to use the app instead of it controlling you and ripping your attention away from what it is you really want to do.

In the Gym

• If you're able, just leave your phone in the gym bag or in the locker room. Stare at walls between sets. You'll be fine.

• If you have to use it for training, just use that fitness app.

• Need to record yourself? Fine.

• Social Media? Stop scrolling.

• Want to take it up a step? No music or podcasts either.

• You could use these for walking or other boring cardio, but if you're training with intensity, leave it alone.

• Anything you think you need to motivate yourself (music, hype speeches, etc) can be done by yourself. This means you can talk to yourself instead of relying on anything or anyone else to do it for you. Welcome to positive self talk.

Reset Your Brain

That's it. I am in no way perfect when it comes to this, but some days you just need to focus. This is the easiest way to do it. Stop distracting yourself in the gym.

Put the phone down and get to work.

Thanks for reading!

If you have any questions or any topics you want me to cover, feel free to reach out.