How I built my exercise routine

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Hi there. It’s Samarth Bansal , your Editor, and this week, it’s my turn to write the newsletter.

I am writing about something everyone needs, yet many often overlook: exercise. I know some of you read us regularly yet struggle to work out. Not ideal, but I understand. Been there. I have my phases of “I can’t for the life of me exercise, and I feel terrible, but I don’t know what’s happening.”

So, I’m sharing some suggestions to ensure that you exercise—any form of exercise—rather than just read about it and do nothing. (This is as much a note to my future self if I hit the i-cant’-exercise phase again.)

1. Don’t confuse ‘exercise’ with ‘training’

We all need movement in our lives, but it doesn’t have to be complicated. Exercise is physical activity done for its own sake. It helps burn calories, improves energy levels, boosts mood, and more. It makes you feel healthy.?

But don’t mistake it for training, like training for muscle gain. That’s a more systematic approach to hitting clearly defined long-term goals, like a targeted body fat percentage.?

The point is: If you’re not tracking your lifts or not trying five different kinds of push-ups or deadlifts, that’s fine. There’s a whole spectrum of options between ‘doing nothing’ and ‘look at my gains, thanks to my amazing workout routine.’?

I’ve made the mistake of aiming for perfection, ending up paralysed by choices and doing nothing. Don’t fall into that trap. Do simple things. Go for a run. Try body-weight exercises. Get some dumbbells at home and add resistance. Stretch. If nothing else, at least walk. (Though, strictly speaking, I don’t count walking as an exercise in my framework.)

If you can consistently hit the gym, great. Just don’t let the search for the perfect routine lead you astray. Basic consistent exercise can provide not just physical but also mental well-being.

2. Automating my behaviour

Willpower and motivation can be fleeting and often overrated. You can follow countless fitness instructors on Instagram, watch YouTube talks on why exercise matters, read books on health, and even enrol in costly fitness programs. But none of that will work long-term if you don’t turn your motivation into a habit operating on auto-pilot. How can you achieve that?

Here’s an idea I learned from behavioural economist Sendhil Mullainathan. On an episode of the Knowledge Project podcast, he explained that going to the gym daily is easier than only three times a week.?

Why? Because it removes a tough thing in life: the hurdle of choosing. To establish the habit, go every day — even for only five minutes. Showing up is the victory, Mullainathan suggests. By keeping the bar low and staying consistent, desirable habits stick.

Mullainathan makes the case for eliminating decisions and following a pre-decided list of rules:

The rule versus decision has another element which I really like, which is, there’s a person in my life I just do not trust. Even though I spend a lot of time with this person, I just do not trust them. It’s embarrassing to say, but I don’t trust their motives, I don’t trust them to follow through on anything. And that person is me.

That is, rules, instead of decisions, provide a structure that acknowledges our uneasy relationship with self-discipline.

I relate to this deeply. Decision-making can be particularly challenging in the complex world of fitness. As Daniel Lieberman writes in his book, many people are continually exercised about exercise, confused and doubtful amid commercial pressures. The industry capitalises on our insecurities and anxieties, leading us to decision paralysis.

I found signing up for either home-workout classes or group fitness classes at the gym very helpful. It reduces the number of decisions I have to make. I only need to decide what my weekly workout mix needs to look like and then, as a rule, attend classes. I don’t have to decide what to do in the class itself. Which helps.?

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3. A strategy that works for me

Making exercise the first task of the day. This simple shift in scheduling has been remarkably effective. As the day progresses, random events can occur: an unscheduled phone call, an unexpected assignment at work, or even a mood swing. These interruptions can easily derail a 6 pm exercise plan. However, mornings are typically less chaotic, making meeting my goal more likely.

Morning workouts also offer two additional advantages.?

One, completing exercise early imparts a satisfying sense of accomplishment, as I’ve ticked off a significant task from my to-do list.?

Two, starting workday post-exercise leaves me with heightened energy levels, setting a positive tone for the rest of the day.

4. Go easy with numbers

I have my phases of obsessive workout tracking, which provide me with a deep sense of progress. Being a numbers person, I generally enjoy measuring things. But I must confess, it sometimes takes away the joy—especially when I’m getting back into my routine after slacking off. At that point, I only want to feel great and get myself moving. I don’t want to see numbers. So I take it easy, without stress about what I’m doing or how much—and focus simply on doing something.

Thi Nguyen, a philosopher of games, made a thought-provoking point about this on The Ezra Klein Show podcast:

One of the basic things I want to say about Fitbit is that Fitbit can capture steps but it can’t capture your joy and ecstasy and physical emotion. If I exercise and I don’t use any objective measures, then I could just be fooling myself. But if I become obsessed with objective measures, then I’m not going to exercise for any of the things that fall outside those objective measures, like the aesthetic joy of movement.

Repeating for emphasis: the “aesthetic joy of movement”—I never forget this. If you haven’t felt it yet, maybe—without being judgemental—just maybe, you’re not doing it right.

5. Finding the time

I’ve realised that being “too busy” isn’t a valid excuse for neglecting my workouts. If it features on my priority list, I can find time.

Whenever I attempt to deceive myself with this excuse, I’m reminded of Barack Obama’s routine. In his memoir The Promised Land, the former President of the United States shared his workout schedule:

‘Each morning, Monday through Thursday, Michelle and I began our days with both Cornell [his athletic trainer] and Sam [his chef], the four of us gathering in the small gym on the third floor of the residence…For both Michelle and me, that daily hour in the gym became one more zone of normalcy….’

If a sitting President can find the time for working out, I can surely find some time to stretch my legs?

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