Does Bodybuilding Count As High Quality Leisure?

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00:00:02.580 | - Would you count pain-inducing bodybuilding workouts

00:00:08.120 | as high quality leisure?

00:00:10.000 | Greetings from Santa Cruz, Bolivia.

00:00:12.480 | - Second question, bodybuilding

00:00:16.500 | as a high quality leisure activity.

00:00:19.120 | Jesse, I'm gonna throw this to you.

00:00:20.480 | You know a lot about that culture,

00:00:23.560 | maybe not bodybuilding, but exercise, et cetera, et cetera.

00:00:27.120 | That's a really intense, complicated

00:00:30.280 | high quality leisure activity, right?

00:00:31.720 | - 100%, yeah.

00:00:33.120 | I mean, even looking at,

00:00:35.560 | I was a big fan of Arnold's biography

00:00:37.440 | and some of the stuff that he's put out.

00:00:39.000 | And he said, you know, when he was training,

00:00:41.200 | like when he was in his 20s and stuff,

00:00:43.100 | like going in there was like doing deep work

00:00:45.940 | for five hours out of the day.

00:00:48.000 | He broke it up in the morning and the afternoon,

00:00:49.820 | but I would think 100% that would count.

00:00:52.060 | - Yeah, no, that sounds good to me.

00:00:53.280 | I just watched that biography on,

00:00:56.280 | I think it was on Netflix, of Ronnie Coleman,

00:00:58.720 | who was the six or seven time Mr. Universe,

00:01:02.520 | a huge guy, now his whole body's broken down.

00:01:06.320 | He can't walk and he's in constant pain

00:01:08.120 | because he's lifting such heavy weights.

00:01:09.840 | But that looked pretty deep to me.

00:01:12.220 | Like that looked pretty deep to me.

00:01:13.520 | So yeah, Pablo, I think that's great.

00:01:15.160 | Also, I like that it's different.

00:01:19.280 | So you're using different parts of your brain

00:01:21.440 | than like your normal work or your other types of life.

00:01:23.840 | And I think there's probably a clarity that comes to that.

00:01:26.240 | I mean, look, when people see me,

00:01:28.000 | they're like, this is a guy who knows about bodybuilding.

00:01:30.220 | So they're often coming to me for advice.

00:01:31.820 | When you look at me, you think super athlete,

00:01:34.520 | you think steroids, you think that's a guy

00:01:37.640 | who knows his way around the gym.

00:01:39.220 | So I'm not surprised you asked me this question,

00:01:41.860 | but yeah, that's deep, go for it.

00:01:45.320 | - Actually, I'm gonna ask you another question

00:01:47.040 | to his part two.

00:01:48.500 | So in a lot of these bodybuilders,

00:01:50.080 | a lot of people who lift and whatnot,

00:01:52.840 | what's your view on them having earphones in

00:01:55.600 | and listening and stuff while they're lifting?

00:01:57.200 | 'Cause a lot of, like Arnold talks about like really

00:02:00.560 | thinking about the muscle and like feeling it

00:02:03.760 | and feeling it grow and stuff,

00:02:05.080 | but you could be distracted

00:02:06.320 | if you have other things in your ear.

00:02:07.560 | So I was just wondering to know your thoughts on that.

00:02:10.400 | - You know, I've read about that somewhere.

00:02:11.640 | I mean, you might know more about it,

00:02:12.720 | but it seems to be true that,

00:02:16.560 | because of the mind muscle connection,

00:02:19.040 | that really concentrating on the muscle

00:02:21.400 | that you're trying to exhaust or contract

00:02:25.000 | to do the reps on makes a difference.

00:02:27.400 | So, I mean, is this the case,

00:02:29.280 | you would know this, Jesse, more than me.

00:02:30.360 | Is this the case for serious weightlifters

00:02:33.140 | that the concentration on the muscle aspect

00:02:36.120 | of what they do is key?

00:02:37.980 | - I think so, 100%.

00:02:39.360 | Arnold totally believes in that.

00:02:42.440 | And that's was, I think, a big,

00:02:43.920 | 'cause he was so disciplined, he could focus on that.

00:02:46.720 | And I think that helped him when he was training.

00:02:49.860 | And I said it in my personal life

00:02:53.200 | by just not wearing headphones anymore.

00:02:54.960 | I mean, sometimes you're at the gym,

00:02:56.040 | there might be music on and whatnot.

00:02:57.120 | You can't really help that.

00:02:58.120 | But I don't know, I've kind of always thought

00:03:01.360 | about what your thoughts on that were.

00:03:03.520 | - I suspect, I'm just thinking about this out loud,

00:03:05.400 | but I suspect doing that type of training,

00:03:08.400 | so you're doing muscle training,

00:03:09.440 | but you're giving full concentration to the contraction

00:03:11.740 | because it helps, is probably fantastic,

00:03:15.040 | general, deep work calisthenics.

00:03:17.800 | Like, in other words, if you're doing that

00:03:21.600 | on a regular basis as part of a fitness routine,

00:03:24.380 | you're gonna be able to concentrate on a book better.

00:03:26.900 | You're gonna be able to concentrate when you're walking

00:03:28.780 | and trying to hold a thought in your head better.

00:03:31.080 | So it's a good point, Jesse,

00:03:32.720 | because I think Pablo, actually,

00:03:34.400 | I'm gonna go beyond now and say,

00:03:35.620 | not only does that count as high quality leisure,

00:03:38.280 | doing serious weight training might actually be

00:03:40.880 | a fantastic way of improving your general ability

00:03:45.880 | to concentrate.

00:03:48.640 | And you have all the other advantages

00:03:50.480 | that's different than the other type of thinking you do

00:03:52.360 | so that you get that relaxation and anxiety reduction.

00:03:56.080 | Look, I'm picking up my fitness this January as well.

00:03:59.840 | I don't like the dark, I don't like the dark weather.

00:04:04.000 | And so I'll see if that has a difference,

00:04:05.720 | but it's a good point.

00:04:07.440 | Yeah, yeah, I think that's a good tool

00:04:10.080 | in the deep work toolkit.

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Does Bodybuilding Count As High Quality Leisure?

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