Pain > pleasure
jasonleow • 20 Jan 2025 •
I remember my struggles with morning exercise, and how just going out for 10min for a morning walk is a habit I needed to build. That was 2020, 2021 I think.
Enter 2025, 5 years later, and this is my workout routine every morning, except an occasional Sunday when I take a rest:
- Brisk walk 15min
- Calf raises x 20
- Deadhangs x 20
- Pullups x 15
- Pushups x 30
- Squats x 20
- Toe raises x 30
- Crunches x 20
- Stair climbing x 7 stories
- Repeat pullups and deadhangs before lunch and preschool pickup
I didn’t do this many sets overnight though. Over the years, I added items incrementally, mostly out of necessity to strengthen or release tension in a part of the body that needed it. You can see it’s mostly for my back, shoulders, arms and legs. A good workout for an office worker who sits at his desk all day.
It’s gotten to the point where I can’t do without my daily morning workouts. Miss a day, and I start feeling the tension and aches in my wrist, back, shoulders and neck. Exercise is hygiene now. I do it not because I wanted to be fit af, but to avoid pain. Pain from sitting on my chair, pain from carrying my son, pain from even sneezing (yes, everyone past 40s would invariably tweak your back at least once while sneezing).
It’s funny how avoiding pain is a much stronger motivator for consistency than pursuing a reward or goal.
Pain > pleasure
Comments
Haha true true. The dosage makes the poison. But the thing with panic is it might be harder to have a tiny dosage of it as a daily reminder. Whereas my tech neck is always fast to remind me when I missed a day…
When I had my panic attack the dread of it occurring again made me commit fully to a few healthy habits. That dread slowly faded and I returned to a few unhealthy habits. Sometimes I think: maaaaybe I should panic a little about the harms these habits might cause me. 🤣