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Does Bodybuilding Count As High Quality Leisure?


Chapters

0:0 Cal's intro
0:8 Cal listens to a question about High Quality Leisure
0:35 Cal talks to Jesse about bodybuilding
1:18 Cal likes how it's different
1:48 Jesse asks Cal about lifting and earphones
2:40 Concentrating on muscle to make it grow
3:9 Training for your mind

Whisper Transcript | Transcript Only Page

00:00:00.000 | (upbeat music)
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.
00:04:13.040 | (upbeat music)
00:04:15.620 | (upbeat music)
00:04:18.200 | (upbeat music)