LONG POST- After the wannabe Baywatch scene in my last video about my pet octopus, I had a good number of people asking what I do for working out. 1) I feel so much of how you build/show muscle is genetics (e.g. If I copied The Rock’s exact workout I will never look like The Rock) so don’t believe the workout programs with 0.1% genetic outliers promising otherwise. 2) I’ve done pushups and situps for 3 minutes before showering nearly everyday of my adult life. It’s a quick, simple habit so engrained now, it feels real unpleasant if have to skip a day. But a few months ago I just started actually working out 2-3x a week at gym to test a theory. Our brains are really good at finding a nice balance between pleasure and suffering. Even if you tried to just live a life of just pleasure it would normalize. This is why drugs stop being great after a while or conversely why nurses can still laugh in a cancer ward. It’s called hedonic adaptation and a really great book called Dopamine Nation dives deep into this topic. So why not proactively seek out the out the suffering moments you’re gonna experience anyways and use them to your advantage?!? That’s the gym for me. But it could also be things like an education, eating at least 1 healthy meal/day, cardio exercise, getting out of your comfort zone for growth or selfless acts as a parent or volunteer when it would be more enjoyable to do what you want to do. It’s a working theory but I’ve found it to be a useful mindset cause while I’m going through the unavoidable suffering I know the activity is benefiting me plus I know my brain owes me some pleasure later to balance things out :)
