Workout Principles

Make your workouts fit your life

I found some great thoughts in a collection of essays by Dan John. He says that for ordinary people, it’s not about setting up a perfect workout and diet routine. It’s about managing options.

Every diet works. Stick with it. Almost any training program is going to be perfect for you. You just have to let it run its course. You have to follow both. Try not to flip from thing to thing to thing.

I got rid of my gym subscription. I bought two kettlebells instead. I do different workouts, depending on the time available.

One is Simple & Sinister – that’s two kettlebell movements and some warmup. Simple.

Another is the Humane Burpee which is pretty close to what Simple & Sinister does.

On some days, I can only manage a quick workout, so I do some burpees or a 6-minute workout through the Streaks Workout app.

All of these let me clock in my workout without a lot of planning. I just decide what to do, start the workout and off we go. I have put all of these and also some short CrossFit ideas from a colleague into the Streaks Workout app, so that I can quickly pick one of these.

I also have a pullup bar at home. That’s it. Is it perfect? No. Is it something I could do every day for the rest of my life without spending a lot of thought on it? Sure!

Since people asked me about the kettlebell part quite often: Kettlebell Beginner Tips

Take cold showers.

Quite some time ago, our water heater broke down. I had no other option than taking cold showers back then. On the day it got fixed, the cold shower suddenly felt good. So I kept doing it.

Yes. It’s cold. It’s uncomfortable. And it wakes you up like nothing else in the morning.

Maybe there are some health benefits, some fancy research on why this is good or some counter arguments. I don’t really care about that – cold showers make me confront an uncomfortable situation almost every day. Learning and repeating that every day is worth it.

Do walking meetings

I should do this more often: Take a walk if you have a two person meeting. Being outside and walking always works well for a short (or even a longer) exchange of ideas. For me, it works better than sitting around.

If you can, I can also recommend a treadmill to get your steps in while working from home. Especially in winter, it is the perfect way to move without getting out into cold/rainy/generally awful weather.

Books I can recommend