The No Audio Workout Challenge

Everyone is distracted.

I don't mean in some grand distracted in life scheme.

I mean every few minutes or seconds, we get tempted to do something else that's not the thing we mean to work on.

Can you workout without music?

Can you go for a walk in silence?

Back in high school, I had no choice. We had a radio off in the corner that would sometimes play if the basketball coach was around, but most of the time it was just the team, the gym, the field and the coaches yelling at you. You want to listen to some music to pump you up? Too bad.

After I graduated, I got into metal music. I can't think of a better genre to lift heavy metal than heavy metal. It was great, but then I was relying on it too much. I would especially use it when I was training alone at my house. The silence can be painful, so we try to mask it.

Music is great, but are you focusing? Are you using it as a crutch? Do you have a specific playlist or song that needs to play before you hit a big lift?

If that's the case, I think there's a problem. There's an almost negative chance that you're going to be able to request a song if you go compete somewhere, so I think it's best to get used to time without it.

Even after I gave up the music, I would still "listen" to educational stuff, whether that meant a long YouTube video, podcast or audiobook. The problem with doing those is that unless you're doing some long boring cardio, you're neither paying attention to the audio nor paying attention to your lifts. You have to pause it for each set or you have to try to listen while under a heavy squat. Not a great combination.

Focus is a hot topic these days. We have all these hacks and tactics, but we really just have to face what we're doing head on and ignore everything else.

Mental toughness is something else we seek, but we have too much comfort. We can bring our nice peaceful playlist with us on days we're dreading the gym.

The best way to accomplish both of these?

No audio.

Grandpa Didn't Have Spotify

Everyone needs to watch "Pumping Iron." It's the story of Arnold Schwarzenegger and his bodybuilding pals as the sport was growing. Better yet, read his autobiography, Total Recall. Arnold came from close to nothing in Austria. We're used to seeing him by the time he actually made it to America in Pumping Iron, but before that, there were years of him training, with or without friends, and with or without music. (Probably without.)

Another unsung hero is a movie called School of Champions. It's about the Bulgarian weightlifting team in the 80s, at their peak. If you don't know, the Bulgarian training system involved going near max almost every day, multiple times per day. Yes there were drugs involved, but that doesn't mean the work wasn't hard. You think they were jamming out to the radio? No.

I think history can teach us a lot. People of the past went on long walks, contemplated life, read books, had deep conversations, wrote books, poems, and letters to be sent across the globe. They spent a ton of time just being and thinking...because there wasn't a lot else to do.

What does this create?

Creativity and a level of mental toughness.

There's nothing to escape with. You're confronted with daily life. These days, as soon as something gets tough or boring in the moment, we have a distraction box to help ease the pain.

When was the last time you just stared out the window?

Becoming Bulletproof

I then read Becoming Bulletproof by Tim Anderson. I can't recommend his books enough. Tim has crawled a mile…nonstop…twice. The book has crawling and a list of other miserable tasks to perform with the goal of either finishing the task, no matter how long it takes, or trying to hit 10 minutes of accumulated or continuous time.

One of the rules is to not use any audio while you do them.

When I first started that challenge, I didn't realize how long it had been since I had gone without anything. When training alone in silence with a hard task, your mind runs wild. You want to numb the pain.

"This is hard! I need to take a break! I want to check my phone!"

I'm not going to lie, it was hard to break the habit of music while lifting or doing the crawling.

Until it was easy.

You know those insights people talk about getting in the shower? Shower thoughts? Getting ideas while walking? After a nap or a full night of sleep? It comes from letting your mind wander instead of constantly consuming stuff. It's hard for people to do these days. We want to either consume for entertainment or even for education. But at some point, if you really want to focus, you need to cut everything out.

After you're done, you get the satisfaction of knowing that you've done something hard. This isn't boot camp or anything, it's just you against you. On a small level, you've just won the day.

When I started doing this, and since I train in the mornings, the rest of my day was calm. I had the confidence of a hard workout, but I had also just spend 1-2 hours without any mental input. That's a long time in this day and age. See it as a form of meditation. If you want to start having a calmer mind through your days, give this a shot.

No Audio. No Problem

I'm going to tackle this in order from the worst offender to the least. At some point you need to get used to nothing. Why? Because it's harder, and we're here to do hard things anyway.

Here are your rules for the gym:

Social Media

• STOP SCROLLING. You don't need to laugh at some memes and get a new video sent to you every 3 seconds. This is the worst thing for your attention span ever.

• You also don't have to follow so many fitness influencers. You still have to put in the work. As a bonus, to make social media less appealing, take a few minutes, hours or days to go through all the people you're following. Remove the ones that aren't giving you any value. Even if it's educational content, you probably aren't learning as much as you could from a book of theirs anyway. You'll be fine.

Music With Lyrics

• Why lyrics? They usually require you to focus on what's being said (unless it's metal and you have no clue what they're saying). It's one extra level of attention that should be spent on your gym session.

• Also if it's degenerate music, you probably shouldn't be listening to it anyway. Anything you consume affects your subconscious mind. Consume wisely.

Instrumental Music

• There is instrumental metal, which is awesome. I'm also a massive nerd, so movie soundtracks are also great for motivation (Hans Zimmer is the man). At the very least, you're the one finally saying the words to motivate yourself.

• Regardless of all the awesome reasons, you're still using an external source to motivate you and push you through the workout. You can do it for yourself.

Audio Books, Podcasts, YouTube Lectures

• Learning is awesome, but if you're sitting around trying to learn between sets, you're not focusing on the next set. This is even worse if you're trying to lift and listen at the same time (I've tried that. I don't recommend it.)

• Your lifting is meant for intensity. Save the listening for boring steady state cardio like walks outside. If you need to let your mind wander or come up with better ideas, you can cut it from the walks too. At some point, if you want to be creative, it requires actual output, not constant input. Almost like how burning calories requires you to stop consuming so many calories.

Let Your Mind Wander Again

People use meditation as a means to try to calm the thoughts in their heads. A thought pops up, and you're supposed to let it go.

What about the other thing your mind does?

Wandering.

I think our minds are supposed to wander more than we realize. If we accept that thoughts creep in when we try to meditate, then they'll definitely creep in if we don't try to meditate.

Is this a bad thing?

I don't think so.

Our minds are incredible problem solving machines. After the "conscious" mind, the part that you use to think, comes the "unconscious" mind that runs in the background. I've hinted at this before with the shower thoughts. The only way to get it to run is to give it quiet time to do so. We have to stop the constant inputs.

People don't like quiet time because they don't like what comes up. Negativity, todo lists, self doubts, all of it. It all makes us uncomfortable, so we want to escape with our phones.

The solution?

Confront them.

If there's a problem in your life that pops up during a workout or a walk, let it come.

You can't solve it if it's hidden.

Named must your fear be, before banish it you can (a totally original quote and not from Yoda).

After it pops up, use your amazing brain to solve it. You probably know enough to do so.

After wandering, we want all that focus and mental toughness. This challenge gives it to you. It gives you a long amount of time without any constant stimulation and it gives you a hard task (gym) to confront.

It's not some Navy SEAL program, but it's good enough for the rest of us.

Thanks for reading!

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