Slow Time Down...With Your Workouts

"Time flies when you're having fun."

This is true.

It's also true for a job you've been at for a while.

But let's focus on the "fun" first.

I was big into video games growing up. As I grew older, games required more time. I didn't like being given the advice to "use moderation," especially since games are now more addicting and stimulating and/or require more time.

"Just play one hour per day!"

Or even worse,

"One hour for each day on the weekend."

That's not enough to get immersed into the game.

Even when I was playing DotA 2, the matches were on average 45 minutes to an hour. However, the game was so fun that I wanted more. The sad part is that 1 to 2 hours felt like 10 minutes. Our minds just crave more. You've probably had this feeling when watching a series of something. If the show is just 30 minutes, you want another, and another, and another. Sadly, it never satisfies and again the time flew by.

On the opposite end, we have jobs. People joke how fast time flies through the work week. We also joke (but it's not a joke) how the rest of our lives seem to fly after college and we're in a routine.

On a micro scale, our day flies by and it feels like there's not enough time at the end of the night to enjoy ourselves.

On a macro scale, our weeks, months and years start to blur together. We pop our heads up and it's been 5-10 years and we haven't done anything with our goals in the gym, as an example.

There's a reason for this.

And it's not because you're lazy.

It's because your brain is efficient.

Temporal Compression…Huh?

I recently heard this phrase from Joey Justice.

Without getting too much into the science, temporal compression is when time seems to fly by because you're doing the same thing day in and day out. To me it sounds like our brains are just being more efficient so it doesn't have to work as hard. (That's actually a scary thought.)

Do you remember learning how to tie your shoes or ride a bike? At this point, probably not. What about anything new like college courses or a new job? Time slows down to a crawl because your brain has to work extra hard to figure this new thing out.

Sadly for most adults, that's the last time we push ourselves, at least mentally.

That's not a good thing.

When did we have the opposite problem?

Childhood.

Growing up was one big learning lesson. We have a new body as a baby and we have to gain coordination. We have a new language to learn. We have to figure out how to read. Then school is more of the same but on steroids: different subjects, concepts, homework. Maybe we even added new sports, multiple sports per year, new seasons, etc.

Then on the other end of the mental, we were more present. No matter your age, you grew up with less technology than you have available right now. That was a good long-term mental detox for you. As long as our parents didn't throw electronics at us, we had a lot of time to use our imagination, play with toys, lay on the grass and watch clouds, and stare at bugs at they crept along.

This feeling - these moments of exploration and wonder - should really last through our entire lives. We eventually get used to the "normal" world because we have the experience (bugs don't excite us anymore), but that doesn't mean we can't venture out to new things.

You can't get time back, but you can slow it down, and there is a formula.

One is pursuing meaningful goals (it won't be easy) and the other is mindfulness.

We can use the gym to do both.

It's time to feel like a kid again.

Returning to Baseline

Dopamine Detoxing is all the rage these days, and I'm here for it. People are discovering that having a screen time that's 14+ hours isn't good for their mind, and they want to make a change.

The counter arguments are that "you'll slingshot and want to do your bad habits even more!"

Fair enough.

But how about you just don't let that happen in the first place?

I know that a "detox" is traditionally a short period of time, but how about we stop seeing our plan as a short term fix and just plan on using cheap dopamine, through technology, which we know is bad for us, for less time?

That's like saying "don't stop eating cake because if you do, when you eat it again you'll want to eat it more!"

Sure, but you don't need a cake for every day that ends in the letter y.

Step 1: Detox

We're about to free up a lot of mental time for you.

You're welcome.

Let's discuss each problem quickly.

The Phone

Phones are necessary, but they don't have to consume our lives. There are a few tricks you can use without completely deleting social media (that's an extreme and not a long term solution).

Here are a few solutions.

• Follow fewer people - I'm looking at you, Instagram. When you do that, (especially those celebrities that don't add value to your life), social media will feel less appealing. You'll also not waste forever watching their stories.

• Set a social media time limit - Not perfect, but if you run out of your 1-2 hour limit for the day and it's only noon, it'll be an eye opener.

• Physical Barrier - When you work (or go to the gym), keep your phone away from you. This may not be possible for you completely, but find some way to make yourself have to get up and walk to get your phone or at least put it in a drawer so you can't see it.

• Notifications off - For as many apps as possible, turn your notifications off. You can leave texts and calls on if necessary, but you don't need an alert for social media memes.

Your phone isn't evil, you just have to manage it better.

Entertainment

Entertainment, as with your phone, it's not evil, but do you need it as much as you've been using it? Do you want more free time? Do you "not have the time" to work on your goals? This will fix it.

• Start with a goal which will lead to a new habit. Entertainment will be the reward for doing the habit for the day.

• Start with 2 hours of entertainment allowed per day.

• Then cut back the time (About 1 hour. That's good enough for 1-2 shows or a gaming session.)

• Then cut it back to weekends only.

• Then Sundays only.

• Then a few days at the end of the month.

• A full week every quarter?

• None!?

You can go as little as you want. If you keep it in daily, a trick I've used is to not allow myself to use any until work on my personal projects was done.

You can also live without entertainment.

You'll be fine.

Step 2: Add In the Good Stuff

I think everyone can easily shave off 1 hour of nonsense each day. If your brain is still wanting to hold on to it, let me ask you this:

Which is more important, your goals or another episode?

When I put it that way, the answer should be obvious.

I've told you what to not do, but what do you actually do?

Read

You should have some goals already. If you have none, go get some. Otherwise, I'll just pretend that you have goals related to fitness OR you need a mental tune up and should just read something motivational.

Many moons ago, I fell in love with Lord of the Rings (thanks to the video games). Then I watched all the movies. Then I thought "well, I might as well read where this all came from," and decided to read the books.

It took me forever to get through them all.

It was about 1 year for 3 books. I didn't realize how slow my brain had become when it came to reading. I hadn't read anything seriously since college, which at that point had been a couple years. I didn't even remember the last time I read a book all the way through that wasn't something school told me to read.

Fast forward a few years ago and I attempted (never finished, sorry) 75 Hard. One of the rules is to read 10 pages every day. Once again, it was a bit of a mental chore, even though 10 pages is supposed to be not that much. It depended on the size of the pages for the books, but I eventually got into a rhythm. It soon became easy to read a chapter per night.

How many adults are reading often these days?

Probably not as many as there used to be, just because reading is so "boring."

Work on Goals

I can't tell you what you want.

I can give you one recommendation: work on your body.

Why?

Because everyone has one.

Do you want to build muscle? Lose fat? Get stronger? Get more flexible? Run a marathon? That goal will give your brain something to work on. You'll have to try plans, put in the work, probably fail, see how to make corrections and so on.

This is where the zest of life comes from. The paradox is that you'll feel better working on the goal than achieving the goal itself. You're going to spend more time working on it anyway, so make sure you pick work you enjoy.

What happens when you achieve a goal?

You set another.

Even if you set a goal to "stay consistent with workouts," that's a good start. However I believe we're wired to continuously want to achieve more. There's nothing wrong with that.

But please don't take it to the extremes. If you want to bench 315, you don't have to try to bench 705. If you want to get to 15% body fat, you don't have to try to get to 5%. Both of those examples require extreme methods. We're normal people, so you don't need that. Set another goal or pivot into something new. Been powerlifting and want to try CrossFit? Do it. Been weightlifting and want to start running? Do it. Never put yourself in a box. Try everything.

Step 3: Workout…But Like This

There are two ways to make your workouts more sinister:

• Don't use any music

• Do something grueling for time

The first is hard enough for most people, but this is the flow state. The flow state is also called "getting in the zone." It's when there are no distractions and you merge into the task itself. You don't exist. Time slows down. You're not thinking about dinner tonight. You're just focused. I've talked about this before, but when you have any audio input, you're not focusing on the thing you're supposed to be doing, or at least you're not as focused as you could be. Try it more often.

But what about the second point?

This is going to get a little weird, but that's just who I am.

You need to find movements that "last" longer and do them for at least 10 minutes.

Allow me to explain.

You can do a heavy set of squats, but it lasts about 30 seconds. You can do a heavy clean and jerk, but again, it doesn't last that long. Then in between you sit and rest. A way to make things more evil is to find things that force you to endure. Running is an example, and even though I love lifting, it can't be denied that a long distance run is a test of will.

A simple way to add it this in for most people is to just go for walks. Walk with just yourself or rucking where you use a mildly heavy loaded backpack. Then go out for 10 minutes. You could even do 20 or more.

Another level is carries. Pick something up, walk a distance. Put it down. Pick it back up and walk. Repeat this for 10 minutes trying to rest as little as needed.

Then we have crawling. Yes it's hard, especially when you focus on keeping your head up and mouth shut, breathing only through your nose. The easy version is doing it on your hands and knees. Want to make it harder? Do it on your hands and feet. You can either do what you can for 10 minutes or try to accumulate 10 minutes, meaning each time you have to rest, the timer stops.

Why?

Typical strength training workouts require a period of work and a period of rest. If the training is serious enough, the rest is longer. It would benefit any strength trainee to use that rest time to stare out into space, think about the last set and get ready for the next. Sadly, our phones are getting in the way these days.

All of the examples I gave - walking/rucking, carries and crawling - require you to last longer than just short moments of strength movements.

I'm not saying that doing a heavy lift that last for 10 seconds is bad. What I am saying is that if you never train your brain to endure, to last longer than a few seconds, you're not training your mental toughness as much as you could.

Since I'm a fan of the iron, I picked "gentle" movements that could be added to the end of your training and won't interfere with recovery. Pretend it's gentle conditioning. I picked these because they make you feel what dog years feel like.

When you train like this, your mind plays tricks on you. You want to stop. You want to turn around. You want to listen to anything to distract you from the pain. It isn't crazy training, but it is a little bit of mental toughness training.

Life throws stress at us all the time. If you can carve out a little bit of time in the day for self imposed stress, then the rest of life feels better. It's similar to tensing your muscles before relaxing to rest on a yoga mat. We need to give our brains the training to withstand the stresses of life. Meditation is great and it does help your brain. This is another level: moving meditation.

Slow Down Life

I used the gym as an example of hard work sessions. You could apply this to anything:

• Have a goal

• Set a block of time that you'll work on it most days

• Cut out distractions

There's a horrible phrase which is true: people die at 25 but don't get buried until they're 65.

This means most people are living out the same day, week and months on autopilot. They've lost that spark, the drive, the sense of wonder and exploration. They never put a glitch in the system of their own lives and try something different. Not all childish things are meant to be tossed aside.

Do something. Anything. If you set a goal and it takes you 3 years, it at least adds zest to your life. Then set another goal. What's cool is that when you're working on this thing, time slows down to a halt because your brain has to work hard.

I can hear you saying:

"But when will I get to have fun?"

This question says two things:

• You think "fun" is modern notion of fun: cheap dopamine activities that add little value to your life in the long term. (Movies make you feel good, but it didn't do anything for you aside from that.)

• You think "work" has to be something you hate. There are things called "hobbies." What's sad is that people see them as childish and worthless. Yet they take work. Going to the gym, that's a waste of time, right? Tell that to the person that goes every day and trains hard just because they like it. That person gets the reward of a healthy body and confidence. That's a good trade off.

Be like the people who pick something in life that they can stick with for the rest of their lives. Again, my favorite example is John Williams, the composer of Star Wars (and a ton of other movies). I don't think he's going to slow down any time soon. You can say the same for a ton of other people too: fitness people, musicians, authors, actors, etc.

"But not everyone can be a celebrity!"

Yea but you can at least do something with your life that gives you life. If it's something you like to do, figure out how to help other people do the same.

Now go do something.

Thanks for reading!

As always, if you have any questions and want me to answer it (which will give me fuel for this newsletter) feel free to respond.