Virgil – The Man's Guide

Depending on what age or stage you are in life while reading this makes absolutely no difference. As a man in his mid-30s with a full-time job and a toddler, I could jump on the bandwagon of believing it is only people in mid-life who ask this question.

This mindset, or sludge thinking, can come at any time in your life. For me, it was in my twenties, at a time when I had no real responsibilities. I always convinced myself I didn’t have the time to take care of my fitness. What you eat and dieting is a whole different area, but focusing solely on lying to yourself about finding time in the day to get a sweat on is the focus here.

Even if you have an awful diet and you aren’t going to lose any actual weight, getting in some exercise has much more important mental benefits.

Time is precious, but so are you. What is the point in thinking about the time you have on this earth if you aren’t in any physical state to enjoy it, or you’re not getting the best out of yourself? I’m not going to badger on about being a gym bro and lifting your body weight. I’m not going to insist you get 10,000 steps in or run a daily 5k. This is about making exercise a fundamental part of your weekly schedule, as routine as shaving or putting fuel in the car. Hassle-free, enjoyable and sustainable.

The hard and fast answer to all of this is mindset — making a choice that you want to start moving more and seeing what can happen. You might even enjoy it; fuck, you might end up at the next local Hyrox event.

Regardless of age, responsibilities or whatever other shit you’ve got going on, this is for you. I started with the simplest of workouts. I wanted someone to hold my hand and tell me what to do for as long as they told me to. No, I didn’t pay for a personal trainer. I didn’t even pay for the ad-free version.

YouTube.

Depending on where you are reading this, Joe Wicks was my go-to man, and I branched out the more confident I got. YouTube is your friend — your friend that can be with you in your safe place, with the curtains closed. A simple Google of what workout you fancy — yoga, HIIT or even seated workouts — is all it takes. Search it and find the length of video you feel comfortable with.

I started with 20 minutes. I got out of bed 20 minutes earlier than I normally did, waddled down to my living room and spent some sweaty time with Joe Wicks. I did this every second day, and for the first two weeks I didn’t finish the full 20 minutes. But once I did, I never looked back. It might take you days, weeks or months, but make that choice to find 15, 20 or 30 minutes of following a simple video and you never know where you might end up.

If you can’t find the time — be it morning, noon or night — we have a bigger problem.

The bigger picture of life is looking ahead to your next day. Some people — most people — have never been taught this, never had the guidance to start tomorrow the night before and create some structure. I know that sounds boring and very adult, but if you can look at your day in planner mode, you can tick the boxes of what is a priority and gain a clear vision.

You will also see the time you waste. Doom-scrolling is probably everyone’s favourite hobby or addiction now. It’s not a bad thing, but it has to be measured if you don’t want to miss the beautiful world around you. But most importantly, you don’t want to miss yourself — the beautiful person you are.