In January, the gyms are packed.
In February?... Let's not talk about it.
You might have some fitness related goals for the year, but let's face it - the majority of people don't meet their New Year's resolutions.
Building habits isn't enough. Neither is consistency, if it relies on force or external motivation.
So here are 4 things I've learned over the past couple of years that helped me shift my mindset, and might help you on your journey too.
1. Think about it as movement, not exercise.
When we think about exercise, we often think about getting ourselves pumped up to go to the gym, or go for a run, or whatever. We use words like progressive overload or personal bests or training or working out. We look up to athletes and bodybuilders who professionally push themselves to the limits of human physical capacity.
And so we start to think:
“When I go to for a swim, I need to push myself. That's what exercise means. Otherwise I won't meet my resolution.”
“I need to get that hype music on. That's what I need to run at a good pace. Otherwise I won't hit my personal best.”
“I need to take my pre-workout so that I can go ham on the leg press. Otherwise I won't perform at the ironman.”
But in my mind, these narratives are a seed for an unsustainable routine.
I've found that I swim or run less regularly when my motivation is to always push myself. To always grind. To go against my body's natural level of energy. That's when the pain and negative emotions come in, and I start feeling deflated about working out.
I think that's the wrong way of going about it.
So my first step is to not think about my time in the gym as exercise, but as movement.
When I reframe exercise to be about movement, it presents the activity as a devotion to my body rather than an insult to it. Movement is more all-encompassing than exercise, and I've found that it gives me the opportunity to align with my biology rather than work against it.
There will be some days where I'll take things slow, but on the days I feel like going hard, I do.
Either way, I'll be at the gym or in the park or in the pool, moving.
I'm not saying we shouldn't have goals and milestones (more on this later). I'm just saying that pushing against our will is less sustainable at best, and injury prone at worst.
2. Make movement a ritual, not a habit.
There's something rich and sacred about the word ritual. It implies we treat our bodies as things worth nurturing. It makes movement an act of caring. It embraces the deep power and potential of being able to move as a human being.
I've already spoken about the power of building rituals over habits, inspired by
. The core idea is that ritualising something brings intentionality to the table, rather than the unconsciousness of habit (to be clear, habit is different to routine).When we think of movement as a ritual to practise, rather than a habit to enforce, we empower ourselves with better vibes and invoke a sense of service to ourselves.
3. Remember that we're moving all the time.
"Exercising" is movement, but so is everything else.
We move till we die. Or as Charles Sherrington put it:
"To move things is all that mankind can do... whether it be whispering a syllable or felling a forest."
When we ritualise movement, we can ritualise everything we do. It's a hack into an evergreen, present and meditative state. Whether we're doing the dishes or pumping the dumbbells, it's all movement.
I think bringing this level of awareness to all movement is slept on.
If short-term injuries are caused by pushing against our biology, long-term muscular and skeletal pain are caused by "switching off" outside workouts. Hunching over computers, slouching whilst folding the laundry, and long periods of sitting probably contribute more to long-term pain than exercise-based injuries. There's no point perfecting that squat technique if you're not going to use it to pick things up off the floor in every-day life!
4. Movement for life.
I'm not waging a war against fitness goals and new-years resolutions. I just hope that by offering a subtle change in mindset, you can reach those goals this year, rather than give up or crash out.
But looking beyond the year ahead, whether you meet your goals or not, it's worth thinking about why so many of us choose health-related resolutions every year.
My hunch is that it's because we value our physical health - not just for the year, but for our lives.
When we're 80, we want to be able to pick up our grandkids and play with them in the park. We want to live as much of our lives as we can to the fullest.
And the ability to do that starts now, with an attitude to movement that is sustainable for life.
That's what I'm hoping you'll take away from this.
Where exercise wages a battle against your biology,
Movement works with it.
Where exercise is intermittent and static,
Movement is constant and fluid.
Where exercise is artificial,
Movement is innate.
One Liners
“An uncertain future is not a problem to be solved” -
“We have a brain for one reason and one reason only — and that’s to produce adaptable and complex movements.” - Daniel Wolpert
“What they call play (gym, travel, sports) looks like work.” - Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Recommended reading from Substack:
- ’s anthology of Balaji Srinivasan.
- conjectures on the role of AI in jobs and interviews.
- shares the power of Why.
- reviews Fargo Season 5.
- explores a pragmatic future for AI, and shares other techno-pragmatists’ views on Substack.
Recommended reading beyond Substack:
The Pathless Path, Paul Millerd (free).
Song of the week:
James Clear has a great distinction for building habits: make it part of your identity. Take pride in being the type of person who eats healthy and gets exercise. That way, it’s just something you do, because it’s part of who you are.
Great reframe from exercise to movement! I think it does something similar. And appreciate the shoutout 🙏🏼
I like this, Zan. The idea that shifting the way we think about movement/exercise is one I definitely agree with.
I’ve always considered myself lucky because although skateboarding is exercise, I’ve never looked at it that way, it’s always been fun and exciting and something I want to do - not something I have to get pumped up to do. I see that as a blessing.
These days I do other ‘exercise’ as well but as you said I like to think of it as this movement ritual that I enjoy.
Great post, Zan :)