Nerd Based Fitness

I had two main hobbies growing up:

Gaming and working out.

For a definition, a hobby is something that could feel like work to someone else but is almost a game (pun) for you.

As a side note, I think gaming is in the middle. Yes they require mental effort, but at a certain point, are you just entertaining yourself?

Gaming is wonderful, but at some level it will drain your life if you can't manage it.

Personally, I was always able to keep in both, yet as life goes on and free time gets smaller, gaming was getting in the way of working out.

Even if you are able to break free and start working out, people start out with "I just want to make sure I'm showing up to work out."

That's a great start, but at a certain point, isn't it time to level up?

Humans are goal seeking organisms. We feel good when we're in the process of trying to achieve something. There's nothing wrong with wanting more. You aim for goals every day: getting good grades, getting to school or work on time, finishing projects in both, getting a promotion, or a raise, or a better paying job, finishing a TV series, beating a game, etc.

The goal, however, is to play a bigger game with your own life, not something assigned to you.

It's time to turn your workouts into one big game.

Games Are All Around Us

I had this epiphany when I quit gaming (more like I was so bored I had no other choice). I'm sure other people who have quit games have felt the same thing.

There are elements in real life that are related to gaming.

Games have this unique ability to get you into a flow state. This is the point where you aren't distracted by anything else and are completely focused on the task at hand.

How?

You create your "self" as a character. You join a race or faction or guild you agree with. (OK, you probably can't pick those things in real life, but you get the idea.) You start small with small challenges. You're rewarded constantly for each step along the way. You have a group of friends that you can play with.

Why not put that same idea into real life?

These ideas and rules come about from MMOs, which are "massive multiplayer online" games. (Think World of Warcraft. For the Horde!)

Here are the similarities with games and the gym (since that's why we're here):

Goals

• You have a reason to be there in the first place. It could take the form of new levels, zones, bosses, gear, etc.

• Your goals are your fitness goals: more strength, speed, endurance, appearance, etc.

Race/Class/Factions

• You choose with race you will play, with different advantages, disadvantages and starting locations.

• In fitness, you choose what kind of trainee you will be depending on your goals: strength training, powerlifting, runner, cycling, etc.

Plans

• The quests are laid out for you. It always starts with baby steps. Often you have to follow a series of quests to get a desired goal (more quests, different zones, dungeons).

• In fitness, you find a training program and follow it. It will probably be something simple. Once you reach a goal with one plan, you'll need another.

Dailies

• Some tasks are mandatory to level up. Some tasks are optional, like selling things on an auction house to get more money, or get better gear, having a side profession, or running through certain dungeons daily.

• In fitness, you have the main tasks for your goals and other sub-tasks that can help along the way.

Gear

• These can be another goal. These are the items you get only from achieving a certain quest or defeating a dungeon. The items help you achieve more.

• In fitness you can give yourself the goal of new gear as a reward for completing another goal.

Competition

• You play against other players from the other faction in small skirmishes.

• You can compete in fitness too. Not necessary, but it is fun.

Expansions

• MMOs don't end, otherwise their business model would dry up. The way to solve this is to constantly give new zones and challenges to the players in the form of expansions. It's an infinite game.

• Taking care of your health doesn't (and shouldn't) end. Even if you achieve a major goal, you have to go for another so you don't stagnate. People with the initial goal of "just show up" will burn out if they don't a goal that excites them enough.

If you lay things out similarly (either on purpose or on accident) in your own life, "leveling up" becomes as easy as putting one foot in front of the other. (Or completing one quest at a time.)

As a bonus tip, but a critical one:

All this chatter about gaming is fun, but you need to understand that real life will never "feel" as good as a hyper-stimulating game that was engineered to keep you hooked. This is why it's so easy to get sucked into games for 1-3 hours at a time but most people will find spending a fraction of that time working on their own bodies a chore.

So if you read the title of this article and think you'll feel as good doing workouts and stretching as you would playing Warcraft, you're going to be mistaken.

The idea here is to transfer that gaming energy into something healthier for you. If that requires a detox period, then so be it. If that requires you to only allow yourself to play games until after you've done your workout for the day, so be it.

Then again, which is more important, your health or your paladin?

The answer should be obvious.

Now let's actually put this together and enter the…

World of Workouts

I couldn't resist.

Let's craft this plan in order of importance. I was going to start with something about positive motivation and an inspiring goal, but there are a couple things that will make action even more unavoidable:

Step 1: Immersion - Detox and Get in the flow

• In games you're immersed. There are no outside distractions.

• You're going to need motivation to get you and keep you going in the real world. Focus will help, and in this sense, focusing means not having any distractions. Figure out a detox schedule (at least only allow fun after your workouts are done for the day) and stick with it.

Step 2: Levels and Bosses - Vision and Anti-Vision

• In games, you have the goal of new levels and defeating certain dungeons and bosses.

• In real life, you set up your own "boss" and levels.

  • Set up the "anti-vision." What do you hate about your health right now? This is the boss that you must defeat. It's a brutal question, but it helps set up the…

  • Vision. What is an inspiring goal that you want to achieve within the next 3-6 months? The way to make yourself take action on it is to make it compelling and exciting. Don't hold back here. Even if you miss your goal in the time you give yourself, the fact that it's so inspiring will make you want to take action. Even if you reach 50% of a goal you want, that's still better than zero.

Step 3: Quests - The Plan

• In a game, you could just keep hitting the same beginner monsters over and over until you level up (which, you won't after a certain point because they're so low you don't get experience), but the better option is to follow a quest line. They're all around you and they help you level up more.

• What is a program you can follow? They're all around you. Just do some Googlin' and find a program based no someone that you resonate with. If they can do it, so can you. Ideally it should be a plan with something you can measure. Are your strength numbers going up? Is your running time going down?

Step 4: Dailies - The Little Things that Add Up

• You have the option of doing side activities in a game that can help. They're not the main quest line, but they can help you get more money, which you can use to get better gear, which you can use to be a better player in quests and dungeons.

• There are probably things you can do that aren't part of your training program. Yes showing up is important, but your workouts can only be so good if you're stiff because you don't stretch, you get 4 hours of sleep per night and you eat junk food every day. Set up a list of all the boring things you should do and do them. The easiest way is to get a piece of paper. Write the things to do across the top (left to right) and write down the day of the month going down (top to bottom). Make a check box, do the thing on some minimal level and give yourself credit. Not perfect, but at least you're showing up each day.

Step 5: Gear - Rewards that Help

• In the game, you don't just run around with minimal gear (or close to naked). As you complete quests, dungeons or have enough gold, you can get gear from the enemies, completing quests or can buy new gear from other players on the auction houses. You could even make your own. Each item has stats that aid your character for future quests and leveling.

• Not completely necessary, but are there real world items you can give yourself as a reward and/or to help your fitness journey? A new gym bag, new shoes, clothes, workout equipment? Give your monkey mind something to look forward too. Invest in yourself.

  • (No, we're not talking about that kind of gear.)

Step 6: Factions and Guilds - Find Your People

• In an MMO, you could level up all the way to max level without any help. But once you reach max level, you're going to need a group to defeat the best dungeons. It would also help to find a group to level up with along the way and take on smaller dungeons. These are called guilds.

• In the real world, I'm going to take a bet and say that if you're working hard on your health and fitness, you're in the minority. You probably won't find a ton of people in your friend group doing so, unless you make friends with people at the gym itself. Another workaround is using the internet. Who are your people? You can find them. As an easy exercise, just think about your training of choice and search the internet (probably Reddit) and you'll see that they're out there. Even if you don't make an account and join those groups, it's comforting to know that you're not the only one taking on this adventure. Just seeing the progress of others gives you motivation and confidence that you can do it as well.

Step 7: Player Vs Player - The Competitive Edge

• Not mandatory, but in a game you could have instances where you face the opposite faction. In World of Warcraft, there was the Horde and the Alliance, each having a handful of races to choose from. (That's what I remember since I don't play it now. Maybe something has changed). You could find other members of the faction out in the wild and fight them. Later on they had organized competitions where you could rank up and gain armor.

• In real life, this isn't mandatory either. It might not even be possible to compete against others if all you're doing is some pushups in your house. But if you choose some form of training or sport with a competition involved, it adds another layer to your training. It'll make you get yourself together so you can compete and win. It was fun for me in games and it's fun in real life too. Don't shy away from it if you're thinking about it.

Step 8: Expansions - The Game Never Ends

• Every few years, WoW will release expansions. This is the same game, but with new story lines, zones, dungeons and maybe even character types. Why do this? Because once you max out the skill in the game, you'd get bored if you kept doing the same thing over and over.

• You would be perfectly fine if you did 10 pushups and walked a mile every day for the rest of your life. But you might get bored. The good thing about hitting a goal is that you get to aim for a harder goal. The bad thing about hitting a goal is that you get to aim for a harder goal. (See what I did there?) You'll probably want more out of your training, and that's ok. There's nothing wrong with wanting more. Humans are goal seeking organisms. So if you want to achieve more goals or pivot into another avenue of training, go for it. (Just don't take this to extremes unless you really want to.)

Play the Infinite Game

It's a real shame that people will let years pass without putting much effort into their bodies. What will spark a change is when that person gets so fed up with where they are that they want to start doing something. What keeps you in the game after that point? Making it a game.

Set new standards for yourself. Set new goals. Try new things. Buy a step counter and see how many steps you can get. Compete in something. Try everything.

This isn't for vanity.

This isn't a "hobby."

This isn't a phase.

This is the subject in life that you can't ignore, because everyone has a body.

It's the only body you have, so take it seriously.

Thanks for reading.

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