“Escape velocity is the speed that an object needs to be traveling to break free of a planet or moon’s gravity well and leave it without further propulsion.”

—Qualitative Reasoning Group

You may not have signed up for a physics refresher course, but here we are. What the fuck does escape velocity have to do with mvmnt? I’ll give you a hint: it has less to do with escape and more to do with effort.

In order to pull away from Earth’s gravitation field, an object’s velocity must exceed the velocity of Earth’s gravity. If you’ve ever tried jumping off the ground in the hopes of picking up enough momentum to fly, you’ll know that humans lack the kind of power in our legs to make that happen. Earth’s gravity is pretty strong; strong enough, in fact, to hold a massive rock approximately a quarter of its size in orbit. If you want to fly, you’re going to need a lot more power.

That kind of power—the kind of power that will drive you away from being stuck to Earth’s surface—is equivalent to the kind of effort it takes to build a habit. Discipline and consistency take work, and a metric fuckton of it. Day in and day out, you’re making the time and putting in the energy to do whatever it is you eventually want to do well, and with ease. Whether it’s painting, writing, coding, or any number of other things, the reality remains that if you want to feel competent, even skilled, at anything, you have to put in a herculean amount of effort. The nice thing is, once the initial amount of work has been done to create the habits you need to do what you want, showing up goes on autopilot—you need only maintain that consistency.

This applies to your mvmnt practice too. While you may not be inclined to want to feel competent or skilled in any fitness modality, you do want to bring consistency to your mvmnt practice. You want to be able to show up for yourself without having to work against yourself. Eventually, you’ll get out of your own way and just do the working out. But it takes herculean effort to arrive there. Here are some tips to help:

1. Be consistent with the time you choose to workout. Studies show that consistency in exercise timing lead to more stable routines.
   Note: there are a number of issues with the linked study. However, these conclusions have been replicated across numerous other studies.
2. Bring a friend. Community is key when attempting to create and/or change habits. Working out with someone who will hold you accountable will significantly improve your chances in getting a new routine to stick.

You can do it.

Get moving.
Keep moving.
strvtmvmnt

Feature image by SpaceX on Unsplash