The Not-So-Famous Flu Workout

You’ve probably watched or heard about Michael Jordan’s famous flu game during the 1997 NBA finals.

Legendary.

For sure.

But not many of you (meaning no one) has ever heard of the famous flu workout that took place in my garage a few months ago. 

It started on Christmas evening where I began to feel a bit off. Not necessarily ill, but fatigued, tired, sluggish. All I wanted to do was crash. 

Crash I did. I went to bed early, even by my standards. (I have to work at four AM so I’m normally in bed rather early anyway.)

When I woke, it felt as though barrels of sludge had been pumped inside my body. Moving was laborious. My muscles, bones, joints — everything ached. My brain was foggy. A killer headache was crushing my thoughts. Snot leaked from my sinuses. It felt like someone had sandpapered my throat. 

But I’m an idiot so I decided to shrug on my uniform and go to work.

Bad idea. 

Halfway there and I came to my snot-filled senses. This was stupid. Work could do without me. Going would be absolute torture. For me, for my coworkers, for everyone. I called my boss and took a sick day. 

When I got back home, I slept solidly for four hours, then woke and came downstairs. Still feeling like death, I saw my streak counter taped there to the cabinets. It was waving and taunting and giggling. Streaks end, I thought, already starting to head back upstairs.

And streaks do end.

All of them.

Eventually, mine too will come to an end too. 

And if having the black plague is not an acceptable reason to skip a day then I don’t know what is.  

But here’s the thing, when I developed my fitness plan (my process) I developed it to withstand my worst days, not my normal days, and certainly not my best days. 

If you notice my janky streak counter, it only says ‘## of days working out with weights.’

That’s it.

It doesn’t say ‘Workout for 1 hour.’

It doesn’t say ‘Lift more every day.’

It doesn’t say ‘Do five sets of five compound exercises.’ 

It simply says: ‘Workout with weights.’

It’s vague. It’s easy. It’s uncomplicated. And it’s like this intentionally.

When I set up my streaks, I knew that if my base-line standard was extremely difficult, then on my worst day (flu days) it would be easier to obey my excuses rather than my rules. 

‘Workout with weights’ is not extremely difficult. I could do one pushup (which is technically a bodyweight workout.) I could do a single air squat. I could lift one dumbbell one time. Any of those quick, easy, simple activities would keep my momentum moving forward. And keeping momentum moving is more important than the quality of any single workout. 

Yes, I was sick. Yes, I was tired. Yes, I was fatigued. Yes, my head was pounding. Yes, my body ached. Yes, my sinuses were a free-flowing river.

But I had a streak going. 

I had rules in place that if followed would lead me to where I want my life to go.   

To follow the rules, all I had to do was something, anything, it could be the absolute easiest workout known to man. That’s the deal I have with myself. (And it’s a deal I think you should make with yourself as well.)

It’s the commitment I made when I finally got serious about controlling my health and fitness. (And it’s a commitment I think you should make with yourself to control your own health and fitness as well.)

Just do something.

Everyday.

No matter how easy.  

On my flu day, I knew I didn’t have to go hard in the gym. I knew I could do a one-minute super-easy exercise and then go upstairs and crawl into bed and stay there for fourteen hours.

But I also knew that if I did nothing then the doorway leading back to being overweight and chubby and depressed and frustrated would ever so slightly be opened.      

Something.

That’s all I had to do. 

Realizing this, I went back upstairs and pulled on my sneakers, and I put my workout shorts on.  

And then I came back downstairs. And I earned my freaking Grammy.
 

Did I do a psycho-crazy-super-hard-powerlifter workout?

Nope. 

Am I going to lie and say I put on a Jordan worth performance? 

Nope.

I most certainly did not. 

All I did was my normal Tuesday warm-up exercises: two pullups, wait one minute, three pullups, wait one minute, five pullups, wait one minute, and then one pullup (this last one while wearing leg weights.) 

And then I went back upstairs, took two Tylenol PMs, and I went to bed for about ten hours. 

Was that a super effective workout?

Probably not.

Did I gain muscle from doing it?

Probably not.

Was it worth doing? 

One Hundred Percent YES!

Why?

Because I kept the door closed. 

I won. 

I kept my streak alive. 

And this entire game of weight loss and fitness is a matter of consistency—small, tiny little things done consistently for a long long time. 

It took me way too many years to figure out this tiny little obvious secret, but the absolute truth is that consistency is a thousand times more important than intermittent bouts of intensity.   

To succeed, you must keep showing up.

Success is all about easy little actions, done over and over and over, day after day, week after week, year after year.   

On the days you feel like garbage, you do the absolute easiest thing possible. And on your normal average routine days, you do the best you can.

Either way, you must show up. 

Even now, to this day, if you were to ask me of my proudest workout, this flu workout is right there in the top three. 

Why?

Because I showed up. And I showed up on a day, and in a situation, when one hundred percent of Normies would have given up.

I kept my steak alive.

I stuck with the process. 

Even when it was hard. 

And that’s what separates the Taylor Swift’s of the world from the normal everyday dabblers who are dreaming of becoming the next ‘Taylor Swift.’  

Consistency is hard.

Showing up every single day is hard.

The process is hard.

But quitting is easy.

Excuses are easy.

Creating justifications are easy. 

Doing nothing is easy.

Skipping a day is easy.

Allowing the flu to stop your momentum is easy. 

So right now, you have a choice.

Choice #1: You can leave this page and carry along with your merry little life, and a day from now, or a week, or a month, or a year and you will have forgotten all about this article. During that time span, you’ll have read a hundred other articles about weight loss and fitness. You’ll have watched more YouTube videos, browsed more magazine articles, viewed more Instagram posts, bought more supplements, tested more diets, and you’ll still have your hopes and dreams and aspirations of one day achieving your goals. 

Choice #2: Today, right now, you can begin the process which actually leads to the accomplishment of your goals. You can stop dreaming and hoping and pretending and start doing. 

Choice number one is easy. 

Choice number two is terrifying.

And it is terrifying because you’re associating the process of weight loss and fitness as being difficult and painful and no one wants to begin something that is difficult and painful.

Fun fact: It doesn’t have to be difficult and painful. Actually, it’s all much easier than you think, but here’s the problem: you keep starting in the absolute wrong spot.

And if you keep starting in the wrong spot, no matter how hard you try, you’ll never end up where you want to go. 

With that said, here’s an actionable tip. Go to this article to find out exactly where and how you should start.

Read the article.

Then start.

From the correct place. 

Then commit.  

And once you do this, then your process will begin to become your award.

And at that point, you become unstoppable!

But today, right now…start.

Commit. 

Decide to be different.

Please shoot me a line at [email protected] if you have any questions or comments about either this article, or about how to implement these habits into your fitness routine and life.