Maximum Stimulation Required
Right before starting a tough workout the other day, a friend teased me, and asked if we were allowed to put music on. I’ve written before about how I love running with no music, and even will do training sessions in the gym in silence. And the point everyone misses is that they think I hate music, or don’t realize that there are performance enhancing benefits to listening to it while training, which I’m well aware of.
The point I make of training without music, or just not caring what is playing, is because it’s skill set I’ve sharpened. In 2012 I was working at a strength and conditioning gym and commuting to college to finish up my final few credits. I headed to school early in the morning, hustled back to the gym to coach 3-7pm and then would get my training session in.
Even though I was in a new routine, I carried on all my usual pre-training rituals like taking a scoop of pre-workout powder. After a while, I realized, why do I need to get so amped up just to workout? What’s the point of this? Can’t I get going without this pre workout drink and loud music that I’m constantly changing and tinkering with?
The same thing happened when I started running. When I started, AirPods weren’t so common. I had a strange configuration of wired ear buds, shorts with a specific pocket and a zipper, and the wire was always getting tangled up on me. Besides, I spent the whole time wanting to change the song or skip all of them all together.
With both the music and the pre workout, I realized that I had trained myself to need maximum stimulation to workout. I created barriers to entry. I needed loud music and a heroic dose of caffeine to get some bench press sets in. Instead of just being able to start. Through my high school and college years, training in a hyped up environment yielded results for me, and getting hyped up became the new daily baseline.
Prolonged exposure to the same stimulus dulled the effect, and before I knew it I needed two scoops of Jack3d 3D, or even louder music or needed to create the most perfect playlist.
I still have caffeine before I train. But I’ve stayed away for pre workout powder since this realization, and stopped listening to music while running, long ago. My point about being able to train without those things that I want to train a lot. I want to train for a long time. I want to train to be the best version of my self, and relying on specific, cranked up music and caffeine just to get moving was becoming a crutch, not a training aid. I wanted to get to a place where the environment didn’t matter, I wanted to be in control.
It’s not that I hate music, or think that training with it is bad. It’s just sometimes we use things as a crutch, or we need to get too hyped up. Once that happens, our baseline is thrown off and we start to require these amplified things get to a regular task done. You’re not always going to be able to pick the music, or have a normal pre workout routine. Sometimes you just need to be able to get the workout done and get on with your day, and that’s tough to do when maximum stimulation is required.
Justin Miner
@justinminergain
