By random chance, a video from a trainer and coach in his mid-forties, with three small kids, crossed into my EWCHOOB feed the other day, in which the guy talked with refreshing candour and directness about the need to stop dicking around and wasting time in the gym:

This was absolutely solid, sound advice – for men at any age, but especially for those over 40. At that age, you just do not have time to waste doing stupid nonsense. So do not bother. Focus on what works, to the exclusion of all else, and craft a routine around that.

Seeing as said coach was offering really good advice on that topic, I went further afield to see what else he had to say – and he didn’t disappoint. He directly addressed one thing that I think mentally frustrates a lot of men who claim they want to get in shape – BOREDOM.

Here is what he has to say on the subject of working out being “boring”:

Four shorts, four excellent bits of advice. All of it absolutely true and correct.

The reality of getting fit and strong – or “jacked”, “yoked”, “ripped”, “shredded”, whatever other nonsensical adjective the damn Zoomers are using these days – is that it really just comes down to precisely four variables:

• Eat – how many calories you are consuming through the food you eat;
• Sleep – how many hours of high-quality rest you get every night;
• Walk – how much low-impact movement you get every day;
• Lift – how much weight you can safely and reliably move;

It really is that simple. Increase or optimise any of these four variables, and you will experience a profound benefit across every aspect of your life.

If you want to lose belly fat, quit drinking and stop overeating. Cut down on your calorie intake. Focus on nutrient-dense foods. Increase the amount of protein, remove processed sugars – especially alcohol – to the maximum extent possible. Put your body into a state called ketosis, where, if you are consuming less than 100g of carbohydrates a day, your liver starts producing ketones to burn fat instead of sugars.

If you want to recover better and feel fresher, go to bed earlier. Avoid drinking alcohol before you sleep, to the extent that is practical. Sleep at least 7 hours, and as many as 9 if you can, especially after a hard day at the gym. Do not let anything get in the way of a good night’s sleep.

If you want to help your body heal and your mind improve, go out for a walk. Touch grass. Be in the real world. Expose your skin to real sunshine. Smell the flowers. Pet the cats and dogs. Be around other human beings, even if only in a distant capacity. Walking is phenomenal exercise – an hour or two of continuous, moderately paced walking every day does absolute wonders for your overall well-being. It is even better if you can do it with someone you actually care about, because then it doesn’t feel like a walk, but a shared experience.

And, of course, if you want to get strong – LIFT HEAVY SHIT. In every workout, increase either the weight, or the number of reps. Focus on good form and safety. Do not waste your time with complicated programmes that target specific muscles – use big compound lifts that work out multiple muscle groups. Track your progress on a spreadsheet or in a diary. Do not skip gym days if at all possible.

This is all basic, sensible, simple advice. However, you are very unlikely to be able to sell a full-fledged fitness programme using it.

Why?

Because it is boring – and it is also blindingly obvious.

The whole reason why programmes and classes like CrossShit, Orange Theory, Hyrox, and all the rest of that nonsense, all sell, is because they promise variety and lasting results. They promise fun in a classroom-based setting, around other people. Simply put, they try to make exercise less boring.

But the hard truth is that it is precisely the boring stuff that builds long-term, lasting strength, resilience, and health.

I am possibly the most boring man in my entire gym. I show up on the same days, at around the same time. I wear the same clothes for each day that I go to the gym – if I’m wearing my Crusader shirt, for instance, it’s Sunday leg day. The warm-up is the same every time.

The workouts are the same too: either heavy bag work or a combination of overhead presses, chin-ups, and seal rows on Wednesday; squats and deadlifts for volume on Thursday; heavy bag work on Friday; bench press and chin-ups on Saturday; squats and deadlifts for weight on Sunday.

This is the kind of workout schedule that would drive a lot of the dopamine-addicted clowns of the younger generation completely batshit insane, because it is boring.

It is also extremely effective.

When I go into my local gym, I see kids sitting on machines for an hour, scrolling mindlessly through their phones. They never see growth or results. I’ve watched the same scrawny pimply-faced teenager walk into the gym every night for almost a year now, and he looks EXACTLY the same today as he did a year ago. He never increases the weights or changes the intensity. Every workout takes 20-30 minutes. And to my mind, it is all a complete waste of time, because he is not laying the foundations for anything useful.

My workouts, by contrast, are often brutal. Every leg day, I can hear my body telling me that my back and knee and elbow and hip are all painful and sore. Every disc in my lumbar spine bulges out, and believe me, I FEEL it, every single day. Yet I still show up, I still lift, and I still get things done. These days I have to focus very carefully on form and safety, of course – I no longer go for the really heavy PRs that I used to do.

But every workout feels like an achievement – because it is one.

Tonight, two weeks after coming back from a holiday, and after a week of being sick with Man-Flu, I deadlifted 180Kgs raw. It felt AMAZING (especially when the whole gym was empty and I was finally able to blast AMON AMARTH’s “Death in Fire” at maximum volume across the place).

But it’s boring.

Progress usually is. That progress consists of small, simple victories, that all stack up over time. None of them appear to be especially important. Yet every workout, every session in the gym, every boring rep and every attempt to push your body to do one more squat, one more press, one more kick, one more punch, adds up over time.

I am that guy in the gym who has done thousands of squats and deadlifts. I am the guy who has practiced a single kick 10,000 times. I am that enraged powerlifter guy who thinks “cardio” is any set of over 8 reps. I am the guy who roars through a cloud of chalk dust when lifting 400lbs off the ground, for absolutely no good reason.

I didn’t get to be “that guy” by accident. None of us who are “that guy” got there by random chance. We got there by doing the work, showing the hell up, and putting in the reps.

Do not let “boredom” stop you in the gym. Learn to put away your phone, to the extent possible. Instead of doomscrolling, walk around in between sets. Yeah, people will look at you like you are weird, but that is their problem, not yours. Focus instead on putting in the damn work, so that by the time you are in your forties and fifties, you make men half your age look small and weak – as I do.

In these situations, boredom is your friend. Put it to work for you.