This was a significant and powerful conversation for me with Ross Mitchell. One of my Personal Training coaches during my training, Ross also works in combat sports.
Ross is a deep thinker and candid. But please be WARNED we discuss serious issues like mental health and suicide here so please skip if you don’t feel like listening to that right now.
What Ross has struck upon is the reverse of discipline - whereas most people chide themselves for not having the consistency to workout, some people just can’t NOT workout. They don’t do it to feel good, they do it to feel less bad about themselves - it’s a should rather than ‘I get to.’ That nagging feeling can drain other life pursuits of joy and, for me, at times has caused me stress because I’ve tried to shoehorn workouts into an already full day.
We also talk about male body dysmorphia and how a healthy goal to improve our physique can be hijacked by an impossible quest for perfection.
Let me know your thoughts on this one. It’s a delicate one, in my opinion, because being healthy in the modern world requires some kind of mental drive - most people’s jobs don’t include movement or daylight, for example - but that drive has to be managed and balance sought.
