Gentle Refinement Month 1: Exercise

Everything starts with vision. You have to see it before you can achieve it. You will never regret the time you spend to develop a very clear vision.
-Arnold Schwarzenegger

That is a yearly theme—a vision.

A vision of where you see yourself in a month, a quarter, a year. But any change has to start there, with a vision.

The last half-year has been one of upheaval. Between major life changes for multiple children, extreme stressors at work, and trying these new experiments, I feel that life has become unsteady. The truth is, it has been a lot to deal with.

And I haven't been dealing with things in the most positive ways.

Aspects of my life that had been almost automatic have become, at best, "sometimes" things instead of nearly always things. One that has been most on my mind is my exercise habit.

I continued to be active: walking with my weighted pack, doing some kettlebell exercises. But it has been sporadic, almost nonsensical.

Too often, the resistance to do an actual workout was more than I had the energy to overcome. I have no excuses. I have all the equipment I need in my basement. All I have to do is change into my workout clothes and go down.

Lately, even doing that has been too much.

That needs to change. But it isn't just the doing that needs to change. It is my vision of myself. I don't need to see myself as a marathoner or some fitness competitor. I need a vision that is much simpler.

And I discovered one rooted in an identity I've had, but had lost sight of.

Simply, I need to envision myself as someone who exercises regularly and intentionally.

True behavior change is identity change
-James Clear, Atomic Habits

That's the key—I need to see myself as someone who values exercise. And not only values it, but values it enough that it is a key part of my day.

Sadly, simply thinking that doesn’t make it happen. I need to make other changes as well.

The vision for my yearly theme began to coalesce, and soon a connection appeared. I needed to refine my plans for exercise, and I needed to do so gently. The first step was to find ways to reduce the resistance I felt to doing a workout by improving my system.

Solving problems at the outcome level is temporary.
-Kurtis Pykes

For much of 2025, I had been using the programs found in Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Pump Club app. After years of using algorithmic workout apps like Fitbod and Gains AI/Gravl, I’d found significant benefit in following human-created programs.

But.

The workouts were lengthy, focusing on fundamentals, building over time, and reaching a point where each workout was a 75-90 minute time commitment to complete. That is where much of the resistance entered the picture. And right now? I'm not there. I'm not prepared for the intensity of 75+ minute workouts.

I'd become wildly inconsistent, and that was what I needed: consistency.

Intensity makes for a good story, but consistency makes progress.
-James Clear

There is a time and a place for intensity. But it is consistency that makes those moments of intensity possible.

Enter the MED, or minimum effective dose.

That was what I needed to get to—the minimum strength training that would elicit my desired physiologic response of getting stronger.

My purpose in defining the MED was to get down to the key movements and volumes that would preserve and build strength, and would offer the least mental resistance to getting it done.

That is my refinement for the month of January. Meet that MED, establish (again) that habit of exercising regularly, and build consistency now.

The how isn’t really that interesting. Using my history of lifting, as well as some online tools, I built a four-week, three-day/week lifting program that would hit all the major muscle groups. Each workout, if done at the true MED, only takes about 20 minutes.

That was the key to designing this program. It needs to not be a waste of time, hence the effective part. But it also needed to be sufficiently minimal that even on days when I have very little energy, I know that I can still meet that minimum.

I have also established what my minimum cardio workouts need to be. And then I have given myself some space. My minimum is two strength and two cardio workouts each week. More than that is great, but it is gravy.

I know I can do this. I know I can do much more than this. But this is my gentle refinement—an effective workout plan that I can successfully complete even on my worst days.

Now comes the important part—actually doing it.

Thought is useful when it motivates action and a hindrance when it substitutes for action.
-David Allen, Getting Things Done

All the planning and thinking in the world mean nothing if they don't lead to action. And so far, this has been a success. I have met my targets for these first two weeks of the year. Is it still tough some mornings? Of course.

But is the resistance significantly less than it had been?

100%.

This is about consistency. This is about building, again, that habit tied to my identity as someone who exercises. There are many days I don't have the energy for intensity.

But I can be consistent.