Even though it doesn't look like it, I run. On a treadmill. And I bounce around to all the songs on my iPod - the Pixies, Wagner, Richard and Linda Thompson, even books on tape. Just not self-help ones.
I feel like it's the most boring thing, sitting on the treadmill or on a bike. It just explodes my mind!
No matter how busy I get or how much pressure is on my shoulders, a good workout makes me feel at ease. I come off the treadmill feeling relaxed, full of joy and with a sense of perspective over the issues on my plate.
My typical morning involves some time on the treadmill, but obviously I skip that a lot. Mostly, I wake up, check my email, then get to work on the various interviews and questions and phone calls that come with being an author.
I hit an exercise - arms and legs, a set of curls, a set of tricep pushdowns, and then grab the bar and squat 40-20-30 and do it over again. I hit that a couple times through, then go in the sauna. I'll do a couple calf raises, then hop on a treadmill at 15 - the highest incline it can have while maintaining a fast-paced walk.
I just don't do the treadmill; I hate that. I do Pilates and yoga. I've recently joined aerial Pilates; you're in the air and with straps. It's crazy fun.
The question that we must ask is whether we are making progress toward the goal of universal peace. Or are we caught up on a treadmill of history, turning forever on the axle of mindless aggression and self-destruction?
I try to push myself a little every day. For me, it's doing 10 more seconds of whatever I'm working on. So if I'm on the treadmill sprinting my butt off or doing a grueling core workout, I think to myself, 'You can do 10 more seconds, and you'll be that much mentally stronger.' After a while, those 10 seconds add up!
Hit the gym... Working out is the key to your life. All you need is a half an hour on the treadmill.
With my divorce, and even during the end of my marriage before it even got publicly bad, how I decided to cope with things was to go on the treadmill for an hour.
Competition is like a treadmill. If you stand still, you get swept off. But when you run, you can never really get ahead of the treadmill and cover new terrain - so you never run faster than the speed that is set.
As soon as the doctor said I could start training again, I was on the treadmill the very next day. Once I got back into it, I worked out two or three times daily.
When really writing I'm not a good friend. Because writing disorganizes the social self, you become atomized. It scrambles you, sometimes to the point that I'm incapable of speech. I feel that if I start speaking, I'll lose the writing, like getting off the treadmill.
Sometimes I wake up and stretch and do 20 minutes on the treadmill, or anything to just break a sweat. And then I have the weekends where I can get out and play nine holes and maybe go to the gym.
I'm really self-conscious if I go to trainers, so I just do stuff on my own. I go on the treadmill or do yoga and Pilates if I can.
I feel my knees changing - like, why do I have this pain when I'm running on the treadmill? What's going on with my lower back when I wake up in the morning? I just feel changes. And I'm definitely fearful in a very vain manner about my body ageing.
Some people might be groomed for success; I've just always thought I've got a hell of a lot of things to learn and places to go. Creatively, I couldn't stay on the same treadmill. I chose to be off-centre and do collaborative work.
Gym traumaramas can happen to anyone. One time, I brought a packet of papers to read while jogging on the treadmill. Right when I was in the middle of my run, I dropped them and they flew everywhere! Pages went flying all over the place and got in the way of other people working out.
