The Little Secret About A ‘Normal’ Workout
Yesterday I’ve landed in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. I still feel a little bit groggy from the 10+ hours that I’ve spent on the airport.
Yet I’ve decided to drag myself to the gym.
After inhaling the instant coffee into my system, changing my jeans with bathing shorts (yes I’m THAT guy) and putting out my worn-out sneakers I’ve headed into the direction of the hotel gym.
Once I’ve reached the 6th floor, where the gym is located (at least that’s what I’ve read in the small flyer that the non-english speaking receptionist gave me), I saw a huge infinity pool.
Immediately I’ve heard the devil on my shoulders: “That’s a nice pool Florian. You know, you haven’t spent ages in a pool. Let’s just enjoy the water and skip the gym today.”
Not today little buddy. Not today.
With the last willpower that I’ve mustered I’ve erased my thoughts and went in the direction of the hotel gym.
Unsurprisingly the hotel gym was a fraction of the size of the gyms that I’m used to in Switzerland. The entire gym area was LESS than the size of the normal cardio area. The biggest dumbbell set proved to be 40 pounds.
“Ain’t no good workout gonna come out of this place.” – the devil on my shoulder suggested again. “You know, the infinity pool is less than a couple feet away. We might just..”
No buddy. I’ve shook my head and went for the treadmill.
After a sloppy 5 minute warm-up in the debilitating heat I went for the first exercise.
I choose a dumbbell bench press. To be fair, I didn’t have much choices as there were only 3 machines, a handful of dumbbells and 2 benches in this place.
After finishing my first set I’ve realized an Indian guy next to me doing shoulder exercises in an machine that is definitely not suited for that kind of work.
My thoughts went wandering again. I found myself drifting off to the infinity pool again – but mustered up all the remaining willpower of my sleep-deprived self to go for the second set.
After my first exercise was finished – honestly took me longer than I’d like to admit – I wobbled over to the second exercise – UNTIL.
4 girls came into the room that started doing a combination of flexibility and warm up exercises that were unknown in my brain’s exercise library.
My unfocused little devil on my shoulder was wondering again: “What are they doing? Anyway, let’s go to the pool.” Until I’ve caught my thoughts again to barely finish the next 3 sets of my second exercise.
Barely sweating – of this less than optimal effort that I’ve put into my regime thus far – I’m attacking (in a french military sense) the last exercise.
I’ve created a deal with my brain today. I’m doing no more than 3 exercises this time.
I’ve pushed for another 3 sets of 8 on a machine that was supposed to mimick a shoulder press. But got distracted in the second set by the indian guy and the 4 random girls still present in the bathtub sized gym.
After a quick, final stretch I went for the infinity pool.
This workout is no anomaly. In fact a workout like that makes up at least 80% of my total time spent training.
Another 10% are good workouts. The last 10% are probably great workouts that move the needle.
And guess what: That’s the same for every. single. person. that you know!
I’m sure even Dwayne Johnsons workouts look like that most of the time. And last time I checked – this works.
Don’t beat yourself up over a bad workout session. They’re normal. That’s life.
So next time someone asks: How did your workouts go? Remember that it doesn’t really matter in the big picture.
What matters most, is that you get your work done in the first place. What matters friend, is persistence.