Ask Jace: GYM TIP #1

Wednesday, 26th May 2010
Posted in Ask Jace, Blog Archive
Tags: Ask Jace, bodybuilding, diet, exercise, fitness, health, Ian Somerhalder, marathon, motivation, powerlifting, Vampire diaries, watchmen

Written by: Jace HallcloseAuthor: Jace Hall Name: Jace Hall
Email: jace@hdfilms.com
Site: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jace_Hall
About: Aside from being the Executive Producer and star of The Jace Hall show, Jace Hall is involved in many other productions and has numerous creative titles under his belt across multiple entertainment mediums. Click here to view Jace’s music videos, including his most recent Mortal Kombat video. Jace’s daily job is to actively creates new film ideas, television shows, video games and internet content of behalf of his company HDFILMS INC. Jace has created and produced numerous commercially successful video games and franchises, television shows (he is the Executive Producer of the hit ABC television series “V” for instance), critically acclaimed feature films (such as PVC-1 ) as well as fresh new internet series innovations like The Jace Hall Show, Creepshow:RAW and CHADAM.See Authors Posts (43)

A recent message from my inbox that I thought was worth answering in a more public fashion!

Name
	Mike Rastall
Subject
	Screw the game industry…whats your diet!
Message
	Love the show, your humor, and all that jazz. Sure I’m a hardcore gamer but I’m also an obese american that was grown up on video games and that we all are nerds/fat/freaks compared to normal society. Now I don’t feel that way anymore(26 years old now) but still you give hope to a hardcore gaming nerd with your fitness. Did you ever post your diet and workout routine anywhere? Any advice on how to motivate gamers that want to get in shape but lack the proper motivation? I try to throw out the advice that they should pretend that the gym and real life is a video game like WoW. Each pound you lose or each minute longer you can run is a level gained in life. When you achieve your master weight, strength, endurance(whatever your goal) is when you max out! Keep it up Jace. Love V but love your show more. P.S. Is Ian Somerhalder cool like Boone and Damon from his TV shows or is he one of those metrosexual actors that just know how to act like a bad ass? Lol.

Dear Mike,

I have never fully discussed or published what I do for my diet or exercise routines. This is partly because I am not a certified trainer or anything and partly because I don’t really think I have any secrets that aren’t mentioned a million times in different ways all over the internet already.

However, there ARE a few things that I can tell you that may be useful in general – and these are things that for some reason I rarely hear “expert” people discuss. I’ll leave it to you to speculate on why that is…

Insight #1 -  You should have ZERO expectation of actually enjoying working out and dieting. I can tell you most definitely that I do not enjoy it. I don’t wake up every morning looking forward to putting myself through unpleasantness, strain, exhaustion and hunger. I have met and know MANY superfit, magazine cover, awesome-smiling, happy-looking, life-must-be-amazing people who diet and work out every day – who absolutely do not enjoy the actual acts of exercising or dieting. What they enjoy, is THE RESULTS THAT COME FROM IT.

Now certainly, there are certain types of people who like pain, discomfort and general self-inflicted suffering of various types, but I am not one of those people and you probably aren’t either. I like to eat BIG and gobble yummy foods and sit around and CHILL. The problem is that if I do that too much, I will not enjoy the way that I physically appear, and I will not be pleased with my  compromised physical capabilities.

So when people try to motivate you and say crap like “imagine like the gym is a video game you play” and basically try to sell you on the idea that exercise is fun and easy, just tell them to piss off with that BS. You hate the process, and the fact is they probably do too. They aren’t really being honest.

What is honest then? Well, I think the honest truth is that it is a simple decision you have to make about what you HATE MORE.

If you hate the way you look, or how you physically perform, MORE THAN how much you hate dieting and exercising – then that is all the motivation you really need. Because frankly, you are going to have one or the other.

To make it easier, I would encourage you to develop a viewpoint of dieting and exercising as an unpleasant absolute necessity with no option to avoid. Sort of like going to the bathroom or paying taxes. Learn to enjoy hating the process and hating the fact that you have to do it. Master the art of complaining about it to yourself and make every exercise session that you complete an additional burning ember of internal hatred at the universe for making difficult dieting and exercise the key to the body you want instead of 5 glazed donuts + Super Street Fighter IV every day.

It is important that you believe that this is something YOU HAVE TO DO – NOT CHOOSE TO DO. Consistency is key to progress. When you absolutely do not feel like exercising, TOO BAD, go to the gym and just stand there and look at people then – but GO TO THE GYM. More likely than not, once you get there you will do something, which is better than nothing at all, which is not even an option, because like taking a crap, you MUST do this…

If you can set your expectations in this manner, I promise, diet and exercise will be less difficult to do. This is because you will successfully remove some mental disappointment from the equation.  No longer will you be looking for an “easy way” or to somehow “feel good” while doing it. You will know that it sucks and it will meet your expectation every time. Eventually you will learn that the harder and more intense and miserable you make your diet and exercise, the faster you will achieve your goals and the less time you will have to spend doing it (but that is another article.)

Insight #2 – KNOW WHY YOU ARE DIETING AND EXERCISING.

There are two entirely different ways to optimize your time spent on diet and exercise: (1) To improve your health and fitness OR (2) To alter the way that you physically look.

If you are looking to achieve a result as fast as possible, CHOOSE ONE NOT BOTH and orient your exercise and diet program for it.

Now certainly, when you choose one, you will get some positive effect toward the other – but in order to make sure that you aren’t wasting one second of your effort and that everything you do takes you toward your goal, you MUST be clear as to what your priority is – HEALTHY AND FIT? OR THE WAY YOU LOOK? These are very different approaches.

Almost ALL of my knowledge and orientation is focused on the art and technique of affecting the way that I look. All of my workouts revolve around this paradigm, as well as my diet.

I don’t care how strong I am. I have no desire to run a marathon. Who cares how high I can jump…? I don’t. I want to look / appear like the comic book and film/tv action heros I grew up watching and that is the target I head toward. So my diet and exercise follow that pursuit.

Now the fact that my pursuit has had the side effect of making me stronger than the average person, or quicker or whatever doesn’t matter to me. If  I cared about that and that was supposed to be my goal, my time at the gym doing what I have been doing would be considered wasted. This is because there are many people who look “smaller” and more “normal” than I do who are faster, can jump higher, and are stronger because that was their primary focus instead of “looking” impressive.

Professional bodybuilders look FAR more impressive than professional powerlifters, yet the powerlifters are MUCH stronger than bodybuilders. In fact, I’m almost positive that the “World’s Strongest Man” title has never been held by a professional bodybuilder. Again, Bodybuilding is about a “look” whereas strength competitions are about power. Two different goals.

My point is that your focus is very important in determining what you should spend your time on.

There are many people who look “normal” that are incredibly healthy and can run 10 miles no problem and feel great. This pursuit of fitness like this is just as valid as looking like a “hero” arch-type. There is no one answer. It is all good.

I could elaborate on this further but the main takeaway on my insight here is that you will get more bang for your buck if you recognize that working out for optimal “looks”is one thing, and working out “to just be healthy” is another. Try not to confuse them together completely.

My 2 cents!

Oh, and yes Ian Somerhalder is a very cool dude to hang out with.

-Jace