The 12 weeks exercise routine I’ll follow to get jacked… as a writer

In the last 20 years I’ve explored numerous strength exercise routines including Daily undulating periodization, Hypertrophy Specific Training, West side barbell shop for skinny bastards, Starting strength, CrossFit, Kettlebell sessions And of course periods of intense, specific but very inefficient training of biceps and pectoralis.

Despite the diverse focus areas, I’ve maintained a relatively consistent training regime for two decades. I am fortunate that exercise comes relatively easy to me, and I don’t have to force myself to go.

However, over the last 12 years I’ve had to restart my training a bunch of times due to critical illness, a kidney transplantation, a shit load of different surgeries, a recent spinal tap fracture and various mundane biological hick-ups.

Many of these events have completely washed away all gains and I’ve been forced to start all over again, again and again. Nevertheless, I refuse to give up, and have built a good regimen for restarting my exercise routine.

My restart training regimen

The regimen consists of three basic principles:

1. Start small

Many of us tend to start hard. Once we have taken the decision to build a habit of exercising, we go all in. We train four times per week for two hours and completely crash and burn. We overtrain, get injured and loose our motivation. Instead, I usually start very small. I do strength training for 25 minutes 3 times per week. This amount is probably not sufficient in the long run, but it means that I leave my garage gym wanting more and look forward to the next session. I’ve found that this is an effective approach for me to getting back into the habit.

2. Commit to the routine

Despite looking forward to the next session, some evenings the last thing I want to do, is to walk to the garage where my “gym” is found. Walking in the dark through rain, temperatures below 0 degrees and sometimes facing snow and a frozen barbell makes me feel sorry for myself, and I rather stay in the couch.

In those situations, I commit to at least putting on the gym clothes, walk to the garage and do 10 air squats, after which I allow myself to go back inside. Often when I get started, I find myself gaining energy and end up completing the entire workout, despite the initial reluctance.

3. Progress.

Once I am out of the first week or two, I focus on progressing every time I train. Due to my medical history I have to be careful not progressing too fast, but I progress in at least one dimension per session, either through adding volume (more reps, sets or exercises) or through increased intensity. This means that I’m increasing my workload and slowly getting stronger.

That’s it. Three simple principles for restarting my exercise routine.

I typically follow the schedule for 12 weeks. It’s not rocket science, but it works like a charm.

Exercising the writing muscles

While I’ve never been writing consistently, I’ve committed to writing and publishing one blog post per week to structure my thoughts and to become a better writer.

Just like strength and hypertrophy, good writing is something that can be achieved through consistency. I’m convinced That the same principles for restarting my exercise routine can be applied to initiate a consistent habit of writing.  

Below I’ve mapped out how my training routine transitions into the initiation of my writing journey.

1. Start small

I’ll write relatively short pieces that can be finished through 30 minute daily writing sessions for the first couple of weeks.

• Commit

I’ll commit to writing every day, even if it’s just for two minutes, even if it’s just opening up the word editor writing my own name 10 times.

• Progress

After the first week or two, I’ll gradually increase volume, that is time spend writing. In order to really build the muscle, I’ll probably also have to do Forced reps, isolation exercises and take sessions with a personal trainer. But right now, my goal is to get started.

No one have become jacked by exercising for 12 weeks and I certainly do not expect that I’ll be a writing expert in 12 weeks. I hope that I’ll learn a lot and that the habit of writing will stick.

If you have any practical tactics for getting started writing, I’ll be more than happy to learn about your experiences.

/Kristian