Just Start

You know you should exercise. You’ve known it for years. Maybe your doctor mentioned it. Maybe a friend suggested you join their gym. Maybe you watched a handful of YouTube videos and felt more confused than when you started.

None of that matters. Not yet.

Here’s the only instruction you need today: stand up, go outside, and move your arms side to side. Like you did in your first school gym class. That’s it.

The problem with every other fitness article

Every fitness article you’ve ever read assumes you’ve already made the decision. They start with “do this exercise” or “try this routine” or “here’s a 12-week program.” But they skip the hardest part — the part where you go from thinking about it to doing it.

Scott Adams, the cartoonist who created Dilbert, once wrote a book called How to Win Bigly. In it he talked about getting started on difficult things. His advice was this:

Just put on your running shoes. If you still don’t feel like it after that, take them off. That’s better than not starting at all.

That’s it. That’s the whole trick. Set the bar so low that you can’t fail to step over it. Then step over it.

How I learned this the hard way

I had dermatomyositis. It’s a rare disease that attacks your muscles. It’s also associated with cancer, which I’d had a year earlier. One day I fell in my hallway and couldn’t get up. I spent eight days in hospital while they pumped me full of steroids.

I was lucky. Two consultants diagnosed it within an hour of me walking into A&E. Most people with rare diseases wait months or years. But the muscle damage was already done. I’d lost so much strength that standing up from a chair was a genuine effort.

When I finally got home, I knew I had to do something. But every piece of advice I found was aimed at people who were already healthy. Join a gym. Try this program. Do these five exercises. None of it applied to me. I couldn’t do a single push-up. I couldn’t squat. Walking to the end of the street was enough for one day.

So I did the only thing I could do. I stood up, carefully. I went outside. And I moved my arms side to side.

The morning arm-fling

Every morning, before coffee, before tea, before anything else, I stand outside and move my arms. Side to side. Like I’m back in primary school doing warm-ups before a game of tag. It takes about two minutes.

That’s it. That’s the whole routine.

No equipment. No preparation. No special clothes. No gym membership required. If you’re wearing pyjamas, you’re dressed for this workout.

I’ve been doing this for months now. Every so often, I add another exercise. The routine now takes 12-13 minutes. And I look forward to it every morning. Here’s what happened.

The thing nobody tells you about starting

Nobody tells you how fast the small stuff gets easier.

After about two weeks of my morning arm-flinging, I noticed something. Getting on and off the back of a motorbike — something I do a lot here in Vietnam — was getting noticeably easier. I didn’t have to grab the seat or haul myself up. I just… swung my leg over.

That surprised me. At 71, you don’t expect things to get easier. You expect the slow, steady decline. But here was proof that a two-minute arm-fling every morning was already having an effect.

I’m not going to tell you that you’ll live longer. That’s true, but it’s too far away to matter right now. I’m not going to tell you you’ll look better in six months. That’s also true, but it’s not what you need to hear.

What I will tell you is this: after two weeks, something you do every day will get a little bit easier. That’s your motorbike moment. That’s the proof that it’s working.

What about the dramatic changes?

It takes years to see dramatic improvements. Years. I’m still working on them. I had to have my elbow rebuilt after a fall here in Vietnam. I still have plates in my arm that need to come out. I’m not a fitness influencer. I’m not going to show you before-and-after photos.

But the small things — the daily things — those got better in weeks. And when the small things get better, you keep going. And when you keep going, the bigger things start to move too.

Your only job today

Your only job is to stand up. Walk outside. Move your arms side to side. Do it before you’ve had your coffee, because if you wait until later, you’ll find a reason not to.

Do it tomorrow too.

And the next day.

If you miss a day, don’t worry about it. Just start again. The only failure is the day you don’t try.

I have a neighbour across the road. He’s Vietnamese, probably about my age. Every morning around 6am, before the traffic gets going, I see him outside doing his routine. Nothing fancy. Just moving. Bending. Stretching. He’s been doing it for years. He’ll probably be doing it until he can’t anymore.

We’ve never talked about it. We just nod at each other across the street. Two men in their seventies, moving their bodies in the morning air, each doing it our own way.

That’s all this is. Just moving. Just starting.

Your turn.

The Scott Adams quote is from Win Bigly — his book on systems, energy, and getting lucky by trying.

Next: OK, I Did the Arm Thing. Now What? →