Storytellersunplugged

by Brian Hodge

In last month’s installment I wandered into the topic of maintaining an active workout regimen — something that targets flexibility, strength, and cardiovascular endurance, the three leaves of the fitness clover — and its relevance to writing and other creative work. If, that is, one is able-bodied and in sufficient health to take it up.

Part 1 was primarily overview. For this month, I promised specific benefits that I, and others, have found that regular exercise can bring to creative work and its demands on your life. Plus a shocking bonus photo! Which you’ll see right smack here at the top, since Blogger won’t let me put it near the end, where I really wanted it.

So grab a box of doughnuts, crack open a two-liter bottle of Jolt, and let’s get — wait, that would be totally self-defeating, wouldn’t it?

Energy. In last month’s Comments section, we started getting ahead of ourselves when resident co-manager Dave Wilson said: “I work best when my mind and body aren’t exhausted from lack of stamina, and to do this writing thing, day after day, along with family, work, college, etc. … it’s a commitment of energy you have GOT to replenish.”

I couldn’t have paid someone to do a better, more succinct job of laying out the challenges most writers face, even if we write full-time: We belong to other people, other obligations, other pursuits, other lives, and they all demand their due.

Where is the energy to deal with everything going to come from? Just like ya gotta spend money to make money, ya gotta expend energy to generate more.

Several weeks ago I started feeling that I was getting too comfortable with the weightlifting routines I’ve been working, so each day I started doing an additional superset (a sequence of different exercises done one after another, without pausing for rest) before finishing up on a cardio machine.

The surprise was the substantial energy boost I’ve gotten from the extra work, which has been reliably lasting throughout the rest of the day and night — a good twelve hours or so. That translates into feeling sharper at the desk, and more focused while reading and researching, being able to squeeze in an additional task or two I’d been putting off … and brings us back to a contention I made last month: that time spent exercising really can pay for itself.

Our bodies, like our minds, operate on a use-it-or-lose principle. Make demands of it, within reason, and it just may surprise you by rising to the challenge … which, umm, really isn’t intended to be as suggestive as that may sound.

States of mind. Last month I also mentioned that I took up yoga a few years ago, and while it’s aces for flexibility, its plusses don’t necessarily stop there. I got lured into it the same way crack addicts are born: The sampler class was free. An hour later I practically floated home: “Ohhhhh … I wanna feel like this ALLLL THE TIME.”

After going through the full class, I’ve kept up with it on my own ever since; it’s how I start most mornings. And I’ve noticed that, almost invariably, the days I do it — especially those days with the most intimidating To Do lists — run more smoothly, more productively, than the days that I’m dumb enough to skip it. There’s just something about beginning the morning from that place of calm yet energized focus that sets up the rest of the day.

And then there’s a good workout’s aggro factor.

Writing takes a colossal amount of determination. In the beginning, at least, getting published takes even more. Clawing over rejection slips and past indifference? Determination. Resolving to improve your art and craft? Determination. Soldiering on when setbacks befall you, and they will, after you’ve established yourself and think it shouldn’t happen? Determination.

Different quality, same question: How are you going to replenish the wellspring within yourself?

Likely it’s going to draw from a variety of internal batteries, and you can’t have too many of those.

Digging in at the end of a run to finish the last 100 yards at a sprint … squeezing out an extra rep or two when all you want to do is put the barbell down … or stepping out for the brisk walk you’ve told yourself you will commit to … the mental resolve that these take, and build, can’t help but carry over to the keyboard. Because the qualities that drive us and define us don’t reside in separate compartments. They go into the communal pool.

Finally, it’s no secret that writers can be a rather morose lot at times. Ours is a solitary pursuit, and we live and die by our wits, a state of existence that can weigh upon us like Jacob Marley’s logging chain dressing gown.

Some writers can channel a dismal mood into good use. I’ve done it myself, many times, although I honestly don’t know if the work was actually better for it, or if writing was a therapeutic act that helped get me past the mood. Regardless, I know I get more quality work done on a day when I feel primed to bite into it, rather than those days when it feels like the other way around.

If you want it, need it, exercise is a natural mood elevator. I knew that already, but wanted to be able to cite why. As if on cue, Dr. Andrew Weil complied in this month’s issue of his Self Healing newsletter: “Regular aerobic exercise may be more important than diet to affect brain levels of serotonin and other neurotransmitters that help regulate mood.”

Problem solving. Writing means problems crying out for solutions: characters that need a plausible reason for going from Point A to Point B, or a clever response to a wild turn of events, or a way out of the bucket of calamities you’ve heaped upon their poor heads.

Says Lisa Rogak, in the Smart Guide to Managing Your Time: “[M]any people who exercise report that their best ideas and solutions come when they’re running or biking, when they’ve stopped looking directly at a topic or problem and tucked it away just under the realm of consciousness and gone on to do something else as a break.”

Ah, but we’re getting ahead of ourselves again. That’s a topic for another month. Really. Dibs. Double dog dibs.

THE MOTIVATIONAL MALAISE

Unfortunately, exercise is one of those things for which it’s easy to find reasons not to do. Especially for someone who’s just starting out and hasn’t made a habit of it yet, or, beyond that, gotten to the point I think of as benign addiction.

If you’ve had trouble making a regimen stick, science has the likely explanation, with two conclusions from various psychological studies. The first is a redux from last month. I’ve never seen these paired together, but when taken together, they explain a lot about human inertia:

(1) The average person, when embarking on some new discipline, has enough gas to make it the first 17 days or so. Then the backsliding begins.

(2) A new habit, new behavior, new discipline is supported by a foundation of new neural pathways in the brain … which generally take 20 to 30 days of repetition to create.

You see the cosmic joke being played here, of course.

But the conclusion is clear enough. Whatever change you want to make, stick it out for a month and you’ll have a much better chance of owning it.

And if it takes an unflattering photo to get you moving, that’s as good a prod as any.

Sorry. It’s a lame segue, but that’s the best I have.

Because, as threatened last month, it’s time for the inspirational photo that I clipped from a Sunday newspaper Parade magazine and keep taped to the inside of the hutch door on my desk. Behold, the five-time Mr. Universe and seven-time Mr. Olympia, now that he’s turned to politics:

(OK, pretend you’re seeing it here for the first time, instead of at the top.)

According to web sources, it was shot just a couple years after Arnold Schwarzenegger’s still-buff appearance in Terminator 3. No, I don’t expect him to still look like Conan … but is it too much to hope for that he might look like someone who could at least terminate his way out of Krispy Kreme bag? Conan fan that I am, I found a load of motivation in that.

Every little bit helps.

And I freely concede that for every single one of the foregoing observations, your mileage may vary … but how will you know unless you put in the miles in the first place?

RESOURCES

Strength Training Anatomy, by Frederic Delavier ($19.95, Human Kinetics). A one-of-a-kind book on weightlifting. Supplies the how-to on dozens of weightlifting exercises, including tips on proper form, and augments these with detailed anatomical cutaway drawing of the specific muscles being worked.

Box Like The Pros, by Smokin’ Joe Frazier ($15.95, Collins). Nobody’s in better overall shape than pro boxers. Along with co-writer William Dettloff, the one-time heavyweight champion does a good job of targeting this book not only to aspiring pros, but also interested amateurs and anyone who just wants a good workout without taking or landing a punch.

Rodale. The publishers of Men’s Health and Women’s Health magazines (ten bucks if you can find an issue whose cover doesn’t make a reference to abs or sex), plus several other monthlies and a wide range of books.

RealAge. Forget the calendar — how old are you really? This site covers much more than exercise, and can provide an overall assessment of where you stand in terms of fitness, diet, etc. You’ll start by taking a lengthy quiz about yourself, your history, and your habits. It will then calculate whether you’re breaking even, or have a well-maintained chassis that repels the years, or a sorely abused carcass that’s hit the fast-forward button on the aging process. (Now leaving mixed metaphor zone.) Short, weekly newsletters provide links to three brief articles on relevant topics.

On Demand. I don’t know about every digital cable system, but the market leader, Comcast, has loads of exercise and yoga videos you can play anytime and follow along with. From the main On Demand menu, go to Sports & Fitness, then Exercise TV.