I’m at the end of the 2nd week of doing at least 1 uncomfortable thing each day for 2023 and I’ve started taking my own advice to dig in deeper when something starts to transition from “ooh that’s hard” to “it’s kinda OK now”.
Cold Showers
That transition to comfort was definitely happening in the shower. I started with 30 seconds and didn’t turn the shower down to full, Colorado winter-time city water. It was enough to make my teeth chatter afterwards, but just sometimes. Then I upped it to 45 seconds but still didn’t go full icicle. Yesterday I turned it down almost all the way and counted out 60 seconds. This time it was enough to get the “holy shit that’s cold, heart in throat response”, but I made it, finding it wasn’t that bad. Still though, our cold water here in Northern Colorado is never that far from a local glacier or cirque. I’m aiming at around 11 minutes or so per week of cold showers to have it produce good benefits.
The Gym
Another place that comfort has set in is at the gym. This is actually an old habit of mine, going to the gym for half an hour of spinning on the bike and some light weights. On the positive side I’m actually getting there semi-regularly and that’s good. I’ve read good advice from both Terry Crews and Arnold Schwarzenegger on how important it is to just show up, even if you use the gym as a spa that day.
In fact, this was the point: He wanted to make it clear to himself that that was perfectly possible and normal to endure. By getting up close and personal with what so many of his wealthy friends dreaded, what made them risk averse and anxious, Seneca could say to himself:
Is this what you feared?
— Ryan Holiday, Discipline is Destiny
But … just showing up is maintenance at best and more likely regressive. Objectively, I’m skipping the things that are hard and the things that produce real improvements in anaerobic and aerobic fitness: deep stretching, lifting heavy weights, a core routine, and HIIT. I’m not in the gym to become a powerlifter or a body builder or a gymnast, but I am there to get my whole body stronger, fitter, and more flexible.
Every action you take is a vote for the type of person you wish to become.
— James Clear, Tim Ferris podcast episode
This week I dug a little deeper by adding some short sprints on the treadmill, more consistent squats with heavier weight, and yesterday heavier weights for upper body exercises. Which brings me to 2am this morning when my arms hurt so much it woke me up. I lay there for about 5 minutes shifting the position of my arms under the pillow but to no avail: I had to take some ibuprofen just to get back to sleep.
Not “torn muscle” type soreness, just “muscle got worked hard for the first time in a long time” soreness. Normally I get DOMS (Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness) after 2 days so this was a good indicator that I had dug a little deeper. So yeah, discomfort.
I do have to admit I fear the DOMS when I up the number and weight of squats. I work at a standing desk and I take breaks by sitting on an old Ikea wooden stool. The whole point of the uncushioned wooden stool - nominally “the chair of pain” - is to get me back to standing when I start to get lazy. The combination of extra sore glutes and the chair of pain are particularly spicy.
Noticing
So far this experiment has been about noticing: noticing what I’m avoiding, noticing how little it takes to go from fear/avoidance to discomfort to “this is easy”, noticing how the discomfort actually makes me feel better. I can also see how this is going to turn into something deeper where I strip away more and more layers of things I’m avoiding. How about you?