The Sub-7 Experiment

Tag: Midlife Fitness

  • A Good Day to Lift

    Today is Tuesday, and when I opened the curtains this morning the sun was actually shining. Hooray.

    If I am completely honest, the first thing I thought about was walking on the beach and looking at the sea. That was the real temptation. But I have work commitments and a day to get on with, so instead I went to the gym and did a strength session.

    And it was great. I really enjoyed it and I am very glad I went. Today is a good day.

    I saw something on Instagram recently that came back to me while I was training. It was the idea that we always call in sick when we feel terrible, but we never call in well.

    Wouldn’t it be brilliant to phone work and say, “I’m not coming in today because I feel great, and I’m going to walk on the beach and look at the sea”?

    I might float that with my manager next time I see him. I doubt it will take off, with deadlines to meet and targets to hit, but the idea still makes me smile. A day off not because you are broken, but because you are actually doing well and want to enjoy it.

    For today, though, I am doing the grown-up version. I lifted, I feel good, and now I am going to get some work done.

    This is The Sub-7 Experiment.

  • Choosing to Turn Up

    Choices. It’s all about the choices.

    Choose to be happy. Choose to be sad. Choose to feel sorry for yourself. Choose to eat your own bodyweight in cheese and crisps and crackers. Choose to turn up. Choose to be a good dad. Choose to go to the gym and come out feeling brilliant, like I did today.

    Today was the first time I’ve chosen to go to the gym in a long time. I haven’t been at all this year.

    Instead, I’ve been blaming other people. Blaming the New Year’s resolution crowd for “clogging up” the gym. Why am I so anti-them? They’re trying to make a change. I’ve been in their shoes, and not that long ago either. Twelve months ago, twenty-four months ago, I was them.

    If anything, I should be in there alongside them. As someone who has been where they are, I could help if they needed it. Instead, I chose to use them as my excuse not to go.

    I also chose to decide to be sad because of the time of year. It’s winter, Christmas is gone, the sun barely shows up, so I leaned into it. Chose the slump. Chose to sit on my hands.

    What a choice, when there’s only one go at this life.

    At some point you have to choose to live it. Choose to get off your arse and do something about it.

    Today, I chose to go to the gym.

    I’ve been rowing in the shed on my new rower, and I’m still delighted I’ve got it. But I’ve missed the contact with people. I’ve missed being in a place that’s full of like-minded folk, all there to put some effort in and feel better for it. The buzz. The energy.

    So today I choose differently.

    I choose to live. I choose to be the best version of me that I can be. And I choose to start doing that again today.

    This is The Sub-7 Experiment.

  • Wrestling With Routine

    My current routine is not working.

    I still think the process itself will work, but I need to change the order in which I do things.

    Right now it goes like this: I wake up, reach for the phone, input my WHOOP scores, see what ChatGPT recommends for the day’s session and then… nothing. No enthusiasm, no drive, just “I don’t want to do that.” Then I get out of bed and start the day.

    And that day has no exercise in it.

    The realisation this morning is that I need to go back to the old routine. The one that actually worked.

    Wake up. Get out of bed. Do the breakfast stuff. Make a packed lunch for my son. Put the gym gear on. Get to the gym or out to the rower. And only then ask ChatGPT for the fitness plan.

    The crucial part is doing all of that without giving myself time to think my way out of it. No lying in bed, staring at a plan on a screen until I talk myself into doing nothing. At the moment that happens about a nanosecond after I see the suggested session.

    So the change is simple: move the decision point from under the duvet to when I am already in my kit, standing next to the machine.

    This is The Sub-7 Experiment: wrestling with routine.