It’s 2 AM. The servers are back online, the site is up. Everyone is relieved. For the last six hours, I had been watching the banner on my second monitor out of the corner of my eye. “It’s not you, it’s us. We’ll be back up soon!” I refresh the screen. The banner goes away and our site loads up perfectly. My boss thanks everyone for their work and says he’ll schedule a meeting later today to discuss the root cause and follow-up actions. 2 AM. I have a workout scheduled in four hours.
Most people wouldn’t bat an eye if I told them I skipped the workout for a few extra hours of sleep. I double-check my alarm, confirm it’s set for 5 AM and close my eyes. After having done this for years, I’ve learned something about the human body: it responds. I moved a little slower at the beginning of my workout, for sure. But eventually my body recognized the situation. I can just imagine my brain sending messages to the rest of my body. “Wake up, mother fuckers. He’s not taking ’no’ for an answer!”
The Science Behind the 6 AM Decision
The real cost of skipping fitness isn’t in those extra few hours of sleep.
By the end of my workout, I’m wide awake and energized. When I walk into the office, I’ve already pre-gamed our post-mortem meeting.
Here’s why: A 2019 study, Effects of Acute Exercise Duration on the Inhibition Aspect of Executive Function in Late Middle-Aged Adults on the effects of exercise on inhibition aspect showed that 20 minutes of vigorous exercise improved cognitive functions. Inhibition Aspect is the ability to override the dominant response. For example, showing someone a red piece of paper with the word “BLUE” written on it requires the person to override the dominant response of shouting out the word “BLUE”. If you’ve spent time debugging code or troubleshooting servers, you can recognize how important this skill is. Equally important, if you want to stay in this career long-term, this skill must be maintained over time, and exercise is the key to that. Turns out those extra two hours of sleep aren’t as important over a three decade career, despite what your brain tells you when the alarm goes off.
Why Your Brain Lies to You at 5 AM
But we’re just getting started. In the Huberman Lab podcast, Andrew Huberman shares how exercise improves mood, attention, memory, and cognitive function. If you’re going to take medical advice, take it from someone who looks like they know what they are talking about, and Andrew Huberman fits that description.
Exercise prompts the release of neurochemicals, including dopamine, serotonin, noradrenaline, and brain-derived neurotrophic factor (Bdnf), which are beneficial for mood, attention, and growth of new neurons in the hippocampus, enhancing memory and cognitive function — Andrew Huberman
Personally, I find exercise to be meditative as well. Grinding out a long workout has the effect of giving my brain a chance to clear out the garbage. Working out gives me lots of opportunities to put my brain on rote tasks: counting reps, counting weights, counting steps, or counting a running cadence. This works a lot like meditation where you try to focus on the breath, but counting seems to be much more effective for me. By focusing on counting, I stop asking my brain stupid questions every 6 seconds or hijacking the problem solving process with hypothetical disasters. The end result is by the time my workout is over, the problem-solving part of my brain has had time to come up with solutions to the real problems I’m facing.
The Three Whys Framework
Pretty compelling, right? But that’s still not going to keep you from hitting the snooze button when that alarm goes off. You have to build systems to prevent “lazy” you from fucking over “future” you. I wrap this into a narrative called the “Three Whys”. You may have heard of Simon Sinek’s Ted Talk or book Start With Why. I think it’s a good start (pun intended), but not enough. You need three whys:
Long-term why (3-5 years): “I want to be the mentor who can demonstrate technical proficiency, health, work/life balance, and financial success over a span of decades.”
Medium-term why (3-5 months): “I want to build the next-gen DeFI app with massive engagement.”
Short-term why (3-5 seconds): “My accountability partner will call the cops if I’m not at the gym”
Your long-term why is motivating, but it’s not going to get you out of bed when the alarm goes off. It’s a goal too far in the distance. But your short-term why will. For me, it’s an accountability partner. If I’m not at the gym when I’m supposed to be, I know my accountability partner will blow my phone up with phone calls. If I turn my phone off, I know they’ll drive to my house and beat on the door. I even have one accountability partner who will call the cops on me for a “wellness check”.
Hi, yeah. I’ve been trying to get a hold of Will. He’s usually very accountable and responsive, so it’s unlike him to miss a meeting. Can you drive by his house and make sure he’s ok?
Now I’ve got the cops beating on my door. It’s much easier to just get up and do the thing I need to do.
Your Deployment Strategy
This ain’t rocket science. Start small. This is a multi-decade journey. Trying to run six miles per day 5 days per week is a bad way to start.
Make a commitment to get your heart rate up for one hour per day.
Give up an hour of sleep if you have to.
Set up your accountability network.
Track your progress. For me, this is as simple as putting an “X” on the calendar every day.
Avoid electronic data loggers, smart watches, etc. Listen to your body, not your iPhone. You’re stronger than you think.
When you fail, don’t beat yourself up. Hit the gym, the track, the bike, whatever, and after you’re done with that workout: do a post-mortem to identify how you can prevent failing the same way again.
Common Excuses and Why They Are Bullshit
I’ll start after this sprint: Another sprint starts after this one. And, plot twist: there is another one after that. Your mantra is success despite obstacles, not success pending no obstacles.
I don’t have time to shower at work: Try getting up earlier to get your workout in before you start work. Move your workout to the end of the workday (some swear this is the best time because it gives you an outlet for everything you shouldn’t say during the day). If you absolutely can’t workout anytime except during the workday, put baby wipes in your gym bag and wipe the sweaty parts down before putting your work clothes back on. I did this for years when the combo of life, work, kids, and relationships limited my choices.
I’m too tired after staring at screens all day: I feel you on this one, and it’s why I workout early. But if it’s really the only time you can workout, see the Three Whys Framework above. Oh, and Pantera on your playlist. No one is too tired to workout when Pantera is playing.
I’ll walk to get coffee - that counts as cardio: Only if the coffee shop is on the other side of the Himalayas. The same bullshit excuses that got you here won’t get you out. If that pisses you off, good. You need to be pissed off.
The 30-Year Career Truth
The effects compound over time. That’s our goal. I’m not talking about just the physical effects of staying healthy, the mental effects are equally important. The only way I’ve been successful in tech for 30 years is by continuously upgrading my skills as technology evolves. When I started my career, we were installing Windows 95 using twenty-two 3.5" floppy disks and writing code in Visual Basic. Had I stopped learning there, what would my employment options look like today?
Most people spin out of tech before hitting their first decade. I want you to do better.
We make good money doing cool shit. The stress will try to break you - but it’s less likely to do so if you treat your body like the critical system it is.
Your body is the only production environment you can’t replace.
Your Next Deploy
Tag me on X with your current fitness system - even if it’s just taking the stairs instead of the elevator.
Let’s build this community of engineers who refuse to burn out.
Your 50-year old self is counting on the decisions you make tomorrow morning.
Don’t let them down.