Going to the gym to listen to podcasts

I’ve always fantasized about the day I become disciplined enough to have muscles, a great body, six-pack abs, and I could go shirtless jogging down the street showing off my results. (Okay, I wouldn’t actually do that. I only thought of it because yesterday I saw a very fit, very handsome guy doing exactly that while I was on the bus.)

I’ve had bursts of gym enthusiasm many times throughout my life. I’ve read multiple fitness books (Starting Strength, Convict Conditioning, Bigger Leaner Stronger, etc.) and followed various reddit-recommended routines. I know the basics. Barbells are most effective. Progressive overload. Focus on the big compound lifts: squats, deadlifts, bench press, overhead press, rows. Eat enough protein. Maybe try creatine.

I also scoffed at personal trainers. Waste of money. Most of them don’t know more than I do. The ones who do are too expensive.

I had all the knowledge I needed. I just lacked discipline. Once I get disciplined, my body will transform. I’ll run marathons. I’ll have boundless energy every single day.

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The biggest change after getting diagnosed with ADHD last month was that I surrendered on the whole fitness thing.

I stopped fantasizing about becoming a disciplined person. Stopped fantasizing about six-pack abs. I completely relaxed. I started treating myself like a 10-year-old, guiding myself to the gym in the simplest way possible. Just as I’d never expect a 10-year-old to get jacked, I stopped having any expectations for myself.

I also stopped resisting the idea of hiring a trainer. If I find a good one, I’ll go.

More importantly, my daily fitness routine became extremely simple.

Every morning after dropping off my kid, I habit-stack a 25-minute walk. Not for exercise, but to organize my thoughts. That’s my thinking time. The sunlight and movement are just bonuses. This is often when blog post ideas come to me. This post, for instance, came from this morning’s walk. I usually don’t bring my phone. Just walk and think. Some days I put on AirPods to practice talking to myself, which I’m terrible at. Some days I’ll stretch a bit afterward, or do some Baduanjin qigong I half-learned during one of my fleeting phases.

I no longer go to the gym to work out. I go to listen to podcasts.

Since I work from home and my kid’s preschool is downstairs, I rarely need to commute, which means far less podcast time. So I made a rule: I can only listen to podcasts at the gym or during commutes. When I want to listen, I just go hang out at the gym.

I stopped obsessing over which program to follow. Instead, I listen to podcasts while messing around with whatever equipment I feel like. I stopped caring about time. If I have 30 minutes, I listen to a 30-minute podcast. If I have an hour, I listen for an hour. I also stopped insisting on barbell squats, which stressed me out and risked injury. Now I do safer single-leg exercises like lunges. But leg day is uncomfortable, so skipping it is fine too. Because I’m here for the podcast.

If I skip the gym, there’s no guilt. It’s just a little sad that I didn’t get to listen to the podcasts I’d saved up.

Since I started doing this, my exercise frequency and duration have gone way up.

I think the problem was always that I’d get too excited. Read all the top-recommended books at once. Try to optimize everything. Build the most efficient program. Do the most effective exercises. Expect amazing results immediately. But that kind of enthusiasm never lasts.

As someone with extreme shiny object syndrome, I’ve realized: everything I’ve managed to sustain was never something I was excited about in the moment. It was something that no longer required much energy.

To stick with something, it has to be simple enough, automatic enough, and fun enough. If it’s boring, you need to bundle it with something you actually want to do. Writing this blog was hard for me at first, but after a sprint and drastically lowering my expectations (not daily, just twice a week), it became one of the things I do on autopilot. When I want to write more, I write more.

So maybe I’ve been trying too hard all along. There’s a Chinese saying: “go slow, go fast.” Maybe it’s true. Slow really is faster.

I’m not going to the gym to work out. I’m going to listen to podcasts. The workout is just a side effect.

P.S. My upcoming book will have a more systematic take on this idea.

Alex Hsu

Indie developer, AI music miner, aspiring writer, ADHD.
Documenting my journey of personal growth and the pursuit of simplicity.