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Comment by sah2ed | Hacker News Reader

> I'm not much of a body builder compared to most, mind you, but I keep at it.

Mind sharing how you are able to sustain the habit?

I currently jog fairly consistently but only on week days. I’m able to jog for ~25 mins 3 to 5 times a week and make it a point to rest on weekends.

I got a boxed set of portable weights just as the lock down was about to be enacted but have not been able to lift regularly. Now, it takes an enormous amount of mental energy to get myself to lift even on weekends that I’ve simply abandoned the weights.

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I think it's about creating habits. I struggled to workout at home during the lockdown, and slid backwards a lot. When I have the gym available, I just go 5 times a week at the same hour every day. I don't have to think about it. I don't take my phone with me, so I have an hour at the gym with nothing else to do but do my exercises. So my advice to you is set a time on the weekends when you're going to workout, and make sure you do that every weekend without fail, pretty soon it'll just be another thing you do, like brushing your teeth.

It's a little awkward now because I have to schedule an appointment for the gym and I can only get access 3 times a week, and it's the building gym so there isn't a huge variety of equipment, but I'm making do.

Thanks for the tips!

God willing, I’ll try out the same-time same-days tip this weekend and see if I can sustain it for a month. If I can’t make it work, I’ll trial the gym membership tip.

Thanks!

Not the person you've replied to, but I've found that the observation of consistent progress (in terms of the weights you're capable of lifting, etc) is a big hook.

I haven't lifted in a while, but I've done marathon training before and the hook is quite related. Each week, if you push yourself hard enough, you will make more or less linear progress.

Just like running, the first 2-3 weeks of regular lifting are a big slog to get through, but then your body starts learning/adapting, you start demonstrably and rapidly improving, and it becomes fun.

I agree somewhat but there are still differences between the 2 workouts. I guess it boils down to the different muscle types that are recruited for each workout: slow-twitch muscles for jogging versus fast-twitch muscles for weightlifting.

Linear progress is easy to track with runs when you push yourself hard enough as you say, but not so much with weights because it comes with it’s own tending. For instance, to really see results rapidly, your diet has to change such that you are getting certain amounts of protein and other nutrients to build muscle mass.

I have tried to copy the discipline I’ve inculcated from running regularly for weightlifting, but I’m not able to sustain it because in addition to it using up fast-twitch muscles, it also comes with a change in dietary habits that go with that kind of workout.

These are totally fair points. I'd only quibble a bit that diet can be a big limiter for linear progress in running, depending on the kind of running you're doing.

At the time I was training, I was aiming for a marathon time that qualifies you for the Boston Marathon, as an example. (that's much more about muscle development than other forms of running). You can't consistently run a sub-7:00 mile for more than 3 miles without having a pretty regimented diet.

If you don't increase your protein intake dramatically, you'll get injuries while pushing for that pace, and if you can't push, you will plateau.

But you're right that you can go pretty far (maybe a month) without changing your diet in running training, depending on where you're starting from.

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