Let me be honest with you.
I am not a trainer or a doctor, and I will not write you a bulking plan. I am writing about what worked for me.
This text is for you if you have never been to a gym. Or you went once, in January, and never came back. I go almost every day, and I want to tell you why.
01I started too late. And that is the first lesson.
I have been sitting in front of a computer since 1990. First the Atari, then my first websites, then clients and projects. For years my body was somewhere under the desk and only reminded me it existed when something started to hurt.
I only started looking after myself about 10 years ago, after more than 25 years at a desk. I got to the point where I could not sit normally or focus. Tailbone, lower back, shoulders, always something. I wrote more about it in 36 years in front of a computer.
So I did not go to the gym to get in shape. I went because I had run out of options.
02I do not go there for the muscles
At first I thought it was about the weights: how much I can lift, how many reps, how many kilos more than last week. I quickly understood that this is just a bonus.
For an hour I do not have my phone in my hand, I do not reply to clients and I do not fix margins in Webflow. A head you do not flood with noise finally starts thinking. Quite a few of my best project ideas came to me right between sets.
Mostly for the discipline. The muscles come along on the way.
03The middle of the day is my best time
I do not train in the morning or in the evening. I go in the middle of the day, when I already have a few hours of sitting in front of the screen behind me.
That is the moment when I used to make my third coffee and stare at the monitor, waiting for things to get done on their own. Today I leave the house, lift some weights and come back with energy like after a good night's sleep. The second half of my day is often more productive than the first.
I used to think an hour at the gym meant an hour less for clients. Today I know it is the other way round. I am calmer, I sleep better and I get less stressed when something goes wrong, and in this industry something always goes wrong. A person with a clear head simply builds better websites.
Put an hour for training in your calendar and treat it like a call with a client. Motivation comes and goes, habits stay.
04My weekends are gym-free. And that is not laziness.
Saturday and Sunday are barbell-free for me, on purpose. Muscles grow when you rest, not when you push yourself to the limit.
That does not mean I lie on the sofa. Every Saturday I do parkrun, and I go for walks almost every day, because my labradoodle Coconut loves them. At the weekend I also have time for the kitchen: I make my own protein bars and pizza with a protein base, which I am prouder of than I should be.
Rest is part of the plan, not a reward for the plan.
05The gym is contagious. First at home, then with clients.
I did not see this coming. I have already got my wife into it. The kids are still too young, but they cannot wait to come with me, and for now they train at home.
It is similar with clients. When they hear I go to the gym, we find common ground straight away. We start with training and end up talking about the project, and those projects turn out really well. I have a feeling that people who look after themselves usually look after their business too.
06Nobody is watching you
I know what you are afraid of, because I was afraid of it too. That you will walk in and everyone will stare, that you will not know how a machine works, that someone will laugh.
The truth is that everyone is busy with themselves: their workout, the music in their headphones and their reflection in the mirror. And if you do not know how something works, just ask. People at the gym are much nicer than you think.
07A mini gym in the garden is not the same
I built myself a mini gym in the garden. It works, but it is not the same.
It feels really good to leave the house, go there and see people who have almost the same things on their minds as you: tiredness, plans, some fight of their own. You do not know their names, and you still feel you belong to the same group. For someone who spends most of the day alone in front of a screen, that is priceless.
08The gym is never a punishment
Many people treat training as a punishment for pizza, for the weekend or for the belly that no longer fits in their trousers. Mate, it does not work like that.
If you do not overdo it and you eat well, your body will thank you for the gym. For me the fat started to disappear on its own, before I had seriously changed my diet. Then I changed it anyway, because when you feel better, you want to eat better. And when you eat well, you have more strength and training gives you more endorphins. One feeds the other.
It is not a week or a month. More like half a year, a year or two. It is worth the wait.
09The sooner you start, the more you get
I am glad I started at all. But if I had done it ten years earlier, I would have saved myself a lot of back pain and sleepless nights.
Your body is the only thing you cannot swap for a newer model or redesign over a weekend. Every year without movement costs you, and every year you train pays off. You will find more about what sitting does to your eyes, back and head in 36 years in front of a computer.
- 01Start with two workouts a week, half an hour each.
- 02Put them in your calendar like a meeting you never cancel.
- 03If you do not know how a machine works, just ask.
I am not saying this as a fitness expert, but as a guy who sat in front of a screen for years and thought he would have time for it later.
Do you already go, or are you still getting ready? Let me know.
Let me know