Back to Exercising

Finally arrived in Kuala Lumpur yesterday and got myself a new place to live. It was time to shuffle my routine a bit.

The main goal over the next two weeks is to release many features and bug fixes for 200WaD while keeping on growing the community.

Needless to say, it’s going to be an intense period. I need the right habits to support my work, and exercising is one of them. It’s the first time I’m working out over the last 2 months.

I love sports. France is a football nation. We grow up playing football. I am not good at it and I don’t like watching it on TV or in a stadium, but I’ve always found it fun to play. Playing football during my childhood must be one of the main reasons I like exercising now. The dopamine rush is addictive.

My years in middle school kind of helped as well. I’ve always had a slim figure and slanting eyes. I used to have long hair.  I was the typical nerd who topped his classes.  I started studying work out programs quite early out of frustration. I wanted validation and a girlfriend, not verbal abuse and bullying.

I started with home workout programs (Lafay Method). I kept practicing on and off until college. Mostly off. In college, I joined a gym and did some weightlifting. My year spent in Sweden was the most productive one. I used to wake up at 5AM three times a week and get a good workout (Stronglift 5x5 program) when everyone was still asleep. I hate crowded gyms.

The thing is, I never managed to persist for more than a month. Every two to four weeks I spend another three doing nothing. It’s a habit I just can’t figure out, yet.

When you are traveling all the time it doesn’t get easier.

You have to find a gym which is accessible, not overly expensive and offering one-month memberships. And not crowded as you can’t afford to lose too much time.

Asian megacity condos typically have a gym and a swimming pool accessible to all its inhabitants, which is nice.

You can always find a way to work out from your apartment if you rent one, but it’s always hard to replace pull-up bars with an equivalent exercise. Lifting buckets of water, doing broomstick pull-ups between two chairs, lifting pieces of furniture… it’s nice but it’s not super efficient.

In KL I planned to use the condo’s gym (for pull-ups) and the swimming pool. I’ve already started doing bodyweight exercises: some pistol squats and different sorts of push-ups to get back in shape.

I made peace with the fact I will never grow big. I don’t like stuffing myself to put on some weight. It’s just not my personality. Growing up I learned to accept my body the way it is, and to use the advantages a slim figure offers me over other body shapes.

My only motive now is to stay healthy, in both body and mind. The process, rather than the pursuit of a body goal.

Let’s see how I can apply the 200WaD philosophy to exercising over the next two weeks.