Last week's ask, revisited: how did the wind-down cue go this week, on top of the wake-time habit? Two habits running at once is genuinely harder than one — if it slipped some nights, that's normal, not a sign this isn't working.
Mesocycle: Sleep
Microcycle 3/4: PUSH
This week's ask is the hardest one in this block, and I'm not going to pretend otherwise.
Here's why it's worth it: deep sleep is when your body does its real repair work — tissue recovery, growth hormone release, the physical maintenance that keeps you strong as you age. REM sleep, later in the night, is where memory consolidation happens. Both stages get fragmented by something most people don't think twice about: a phone within reach. Even without picking it up, the notifications, the light, the low-grade awareness that it's there — all of it keeps your brain slightly more alert than it should be at 3 AM.
This week's ask: phone charges outside the bedroom, every night this week. Get an actual alarm clock if you need one. Keep the wake-time and wind-down habits going too — this is the full stack now.
“I'm not a gym person.”
I hear this one often, and I have a follow-up question for anyone who says it: then what kind of person are you?
See, I used to say, “I run sometimes, but I’m not a runner.” I don’t identify as a runner.
So it’s okay that you don’t identify as a gym person—you should still go to the gym.
“I get my physical activity outside. I run, and I hike. I’m more of an outdoors person.”
Fabulous! When is the last time you actually did any of those things? Let’s be honest about 50% of Americans fail to meet the recommended 150 minutes a week of moderate physical aerobic activity. And about 75% of Americans fail to meet both aerobic and resistance training guidelines.
Something is better than nothing, no doubt about it, but I too often see runners with posture imbalances and inadequate core strength to make me confident that they’ll be useful moving a friend’s couch out of their apartment. Conversely, there are strong people who can help a friend move one or two large items, but get winded and watch the rest of the moving crew do the remaining trips up and down the stairs.
You need both types of fitness, so be sure that your identity aligns with your ability to pursue it.
“I can’t stand gym bros.”
I’ve heard that as well.
Do the gym bros actually come up and harass you? Because if the answer is no, then what you're describing isn't a safety concern. And if you simply find them annoying, well that says more about you. I’ll grant you, a pack of high school boys finding the weight room for the first time can be annoying, but no more so than any young person who hasn’t matured.
Overall, gym bros are helpful. They’re enthusiastic about fitness. And they don’t throw shade on anyone showing up to get stronger.
A gym, at its core, is a safe, climate-controlled facility built specifically to provide access to physical activity—which matters more now than it ever has, because modern life has engineered away almost all the physical labor humans used to get for free. A gym is the equivalent of a hamster wheel, and what bad pet owners we would be if we didn’t lets the little critters run.
Like ‘em or not, we need gyms. We need gyms in every neighborhood, just like parks.
The evidence is sitting in nearly every house in America: the treadmill, the NordicTrack, the stationary bike, each one now functioning as an expensive laundry rack, or rusting in a damp basement nobody wants to spend time in. We buy these things convinced we have the discipline to use them consistently at home. We love the novelty of a new purchase. The moment the novelty fades, then equipment sits there as a monument to good intentions.
This is exactly why paying for a gym membership is a better strategy psychologically. It gives you skin in the game. It costs you money to keep access to it, unlike the Nordic Track holding your laundry.
Also, a gym is an environment full of other people actively dedicating time to their own upkeep, which does something for your own follow-through that willpower alone rarely manages on its own.
"I do a lot of gardening instead."
I love that for you, honestly — and it beats walking the dog as exercise, though walking matters too and shouldn't be dismissed outright. Gardening involves real lifting, bending, and carrying, often over genuinely uneven terrain, which is more physically demanding than people give it credit for. But let's not confuse hauling a few bags of potting soil each spring with actual progressive overload. I know plenty of people with osteoporosis who walk their dogs faithfully and garden every weekend, and it isn't enough on its own — because neither activity asks the skeleton to bear meaningfully increasing load over time.
I ask a lot of the people I work with, because I believe we're more capable than we usually give ourselves credit for — most of us are limited far more by imagination and mindset than by any real physical constraint.
You don't have to identify as a gym bro. But you do need to identify as someone who deliberately seeks out enough stress on their body that it's forced to adapt.
DON’T FORGET this week's ask: phone charges outside the bedroom, every night this week. Get an actual alarm clock if you need one. Keep the wake-time and wind-down habits going too — this is the full stack now.
General health information only — not a diagnosis, not treatment, and not a substitute for care from your own physician. Talk to your doctor before changing your exercise, diet, or medication routine, especially if you have an existing condition.
