Cover Image: Sundara team by Danny Forest

Choose your room carefully

Let’s start with a little reflexion here:

Who shows up the most frequently at the gym? The people who take classes.
Who procrastinates the least for work? The people who have co-workers.
Who reads the most? People who are part of a book club.

See the pattern?

If you want to achieve more, you need to surround yourself with like-minded people.

But that’s only the first step!

If you are the most active person in the room, you are in the wrong room. — Zdravko Cvijetic

Working With Even Harder Working People

I used to think that I was one of the hardest working people out there.

Back in Toronto, everyone works hard, but it wasn’t common for someone to do 12-hour days.

When I left Toronto to work in Cambodia, I realized I wasn’t alone. In fact, there were people working even harder than I was.

And I’m sure some of you work harder than me too.

At AngkorHUB, where I was working from, Jeff Laflamme, the owner of the place, and his partner Jan, were working at least 12 hours per day, 6 days a week. They enjoy what they do, but they also do it out of necessity, which makes them work even harder. The stakes are high.

Working with and alongside them changed me. I worked harder and more efficiently. They elevated my standards for hard work.

I achieved so much more simply because they were in the same room, literally.

Getting More Fit

In January, I had the crazy goal of gaining 5kg of mass while losing 3% body fat. For an ectomorph like myself, it’s near impossible. In fact, it was 8+% of my total body weight. I was eating 4500 calories of healthy food every day. To put that into perspective, Dwayne Johnson eats 5000. The guy is 3 times my size.

I reached my mass gain goal in 26 days. I ended up losing 2% body fat. I was already very lean, so I’m more than satisfied.

During that period of time, I inspired other people at the co-working space I worked from in Málaga to get fit as well. I accidentally started a “fitness squad” and we grew from 2 members to 15 in less than a month.

I certainly didn’t see myself as a leader, but they followed me. They saw my results. They want to achieve more. Everyone, without exception, achieved way more than they thought they could.

We did 100 pushups every day. Most people who started thought they could only do about 10. Everyone ended up doing more than 20 on their first session. Most reached over 60 over the course of the day.

These people were in the right room, following others who were more fit than them.

Getting Even More Fit

The problem with the fitness squad for me is that I was in the wrong room. And I knew it.

But this changed in February. I had started journaling.

I thought it would be dumb. I thought I’d have nothing to write. But every “successful” person mention how great it is, so I decided it would be one of the 3 skills I pick up this month.

I won’t go into the details, but needless to say, I had SO MUCH to write about. I journaled for two and a half hours at the beach. For the last 30 minutes or so, there was a guy who came stretching close to me. We both noticed each other, simply because we were both doing unusual things.

After my journaling session, I went to talk to him. Turns out I actually played Pádel with him the previous weekend!

Gerrit is a fit guy. He’s always been into fitness. I learned more about fitness in my hour-long chat with him than I learned in my entire life I think. I had finally found a guy way more fit than me abroad.

That happy accident made it so I now know where the right room is for me to achieve more in fitness.

Conclusion

What is it you want to achieve?

Look around yourself.

Can you think of anyone who does what you want to achieve, but at a greater level?

If not, how can you turn that around?

The power of peers is unquestionable. We see it everywhere, in health, at work, in our recreational activities, etc.

“You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.” — Jim Rohn

When we see people do, we do. When people do it better, we do it better. When we do it better, we want to do it even better.

When we achieve our goals, we have bigger goals. When we achieve bigger goals, we become unstoppable!

Be in the right room. Do more. Be better. Achieve more!

Feel free to share your own experiences in the comments below!

You can do this!

Thanks for reading! :)

Cover Photo by @theformfitness: https://unsplash.com/photos/QP84K2HuIMY

I’m not the most fit guy out there.

I’m busy. I’m working 15 hours per day, from 4am to 7pm.

I’m a nomad, I don’t stay in the same place for long.

I’ve got 3 good excuses not to work out every day.

I likely work more hours than you do and my environment is likely less stable than yours. I can’t get gym memberships because I move around too much.

Yet I work out daily. No excuses.

It only takes 20 minutes every day and doesn’t require any equipment.

How It Started

Last month, I had a stable enough place to stay that I actually did get a gym membership for a month. I worked out 3 times a week, full-body workout.

But then a friend from the co-working space I worked from was telling me about a 100 push-ups a day challenge. I was intrigued and started doing it. He joined me one or two days after.

We thought it would be hard to do. Well, it was for the first few days. Especially because I was already exhausted from my workout a few hours before.

We did four sessions in the first week. We did between 35 and 15 pushups per session. I reached 100 on the first day. By the end of the week, I could do 100 in 2 sessions. The next week I could do 200 in 3 sessions. But it was not only me, my friend improved a lot as well.

And quickly, our group grew bigger and bigger. People started joining the challenge.

But at the end of the month, I was leaving Málaga. No more gym. No more friends to work out with. I had to come up with something.

The Ultimate Daily Excuse-Free 20 Minute Workout Routine

What a name!

I’ll repeat what I said above:

It only takes 20 minutes every day and doesn’t require any equipment.

I’m doing it every day from my hotel room in Sevilla from 6:45 to 7:05. In fact, I just finished doing it now, which is the reason I’m inspired to write about it.

With this routine, I work out most muscles groups, and I’m seeing very visible changes to my body. Very rapidly too. I also got way stronger.

The Broad Idea

I do 5 sets of 20 reps for 3 different exercises. The exercises are the same every day. I’m thinking of changing them on a monthly basis.

I do 20 reps of exercise a), immediately followed by 20 reps of exercise b), immediately followed by 20 reps of exercise c). I rest between 30 seconds to 2 minutes, but more frequently it’s about 1 minute.

Rinse and repeat 5 times.

I warn you, it’s quite intense. Start with less reps if a total of 100 is too much for you.

My Exercises

I do 100 pushups, 100 squats and 100 dips every day. With these, I work out the body parts I care about.

These are good exercises for men. Pushups and dips may be a little less interesting for women. My previous colleague liked to do planks. She was a pro. Feel free to mention your favourite exercises in the comments section below.

I’ve seen significant changes in my pectorals, my legs and my triceps. I had never been able to grow my pectorals until I did that.

But I warn you again, if you’re not in a good shape, this is intense. I’m not in the best shape either. But I fight through it.

The changes in looks and strength are too good not to continue doing it.

Resting

Resting is an important step. My body recovers really fast, both because it’s now used to it, and because I eat a lot of protein.

But!

Do not strain yourself with this. If your body is sore and aching all over, take a day’s rest. This is not a competition. It’s all about being in better shape.

Conclusion

Forget the excuses.

This workout routine yields impressive results for “minimal” effort.

Do it daily, reap the rewards and thank me later!

You can do this!

Thanks for reading! :)