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Episode 72: Inbetweenisode - Are you Tryin' to Spend the Least on Exercise?
912 Plays5 months ago
Welcome to Episode 72 of the Movement Logic Podcast! In this inbetweenisode, Laurel poses a thought-provoking question: “Are you trying to spend the least on exercise?”
We delve into how we prioritize spending on exercise compared to other essential health needs like diet and sleep and ask, “if investing more in exercise could give us access to better communities, education, equipment, time-saving convenience, and even luxury, would we be more inclined to engage in and enjoy it?” We ask, “considering the significant role exercise plays in our health and longevity, is it rational to hesitate in spending more to build and strengthen an exercise habit, especially when we have the means to do so?”
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Ramit Sethi’s stuff —
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction & Podcast Overview
00:00:00
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you Welcome to the Movement Logic podcast with yoga teacher and strength coach Laurel Beaversdorf and physical therapist, Dr. Sarah Court. With over 30 years combined experience in the yoga, movement, and physical therapy worlds, we believe in strong opinions loosely held, which means we're not hyping outdated movement concepts. Instead, we're here with up-to-date and cutting-edge tools, evidence, and ideas to help you as a mover and a teacher.
Short Series Concept
00:00:32
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a
00:00:41
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Hi everyone, welcome to the MovementLogic podcast. This is your host, Laurel B. Rizdorf, and today's episode is a continuation of our In-Between Assodes series. These are short episodes we're releasing between seasons to address smaller, yet significant topics that often come up in our discussions.
Financial Psychology of Exercise Spending
00:00:56
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Today I want to talk about a topic that many of us might feel a little uncomfortable with, which is spending money, specifically spending money on exercise. Before we dive in, I want to acknowledge that I know that many people are struggling financially. Inflation has gotten worse. Wages have stagnated. This episode is definitely not meant to tell anyone how to spend their money. It is definitely not meant to shame anyone for how they spend their money. Instead, it's about exploring how our psychology around money might prevent us from making the types of investments that would move the needle significantly on our health and fitness if we would just make them.
00:01:28
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Y'all know I'm not a financial advisor. I have no business giving anyone advice about how they should spend their money. And as I said, I do not pretend to know what your financial situation is. I do know a little bit about my own psychology or own money, how my spending has changed around exercise and why. and I want to share a lot of that with you today so that you understand. This is just really a question I'm chewing on and this is not meant to be expert advice about how you should
Recommended Resources on Money & Exercise
00:01:54
Speaker
spend your money. However, what I will do is I'll recommend to you a great resource that I found in helping me understand a little bit more about the psychology of money and that is Ramit Sethi.
00:02:03
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who has written a book called I Will Teach You To Be Rich, and he also has a great podcast called I Will Teach You To Be Rich. I highly recommend that if you do feel like you need some advice around money, if you want to understand money better, if you want to understand your own psychology around money better, I think he is a fantastic
Laurel's Journey with Exercise Spending
00:02:20
Speaker
resource. All right, so I want to tell you a little bit about my personal journey with spending money on exercise. Okay, so growing up, I never really spent money on exercise itself, but my parents would spend money on sports. for me and my brothers and i consider sports and exercise to be different even though sports can be a form of exercise but for me my brothers we had you know the shoes and equipment we needed to participate in the sports we were in we didn't really pay to exercise though we didn't have
00:02:51
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gym memberships we were paying for. There was no exercise equipment in our house really either. I would go running outside occasionally and I'd try to make it work with around three yoga or fitness VHS tapes that I purchased for $10 though. So you know, maybe a little tiny bit of spending. and exercise in the form of VHS tapes. In college though I had access to the college gym as part of my tuition and I also got discounted yoga classes at my college gym because of my student status so that's when I did start to maybe spend a little bit of money on on classes which was again like a totally new thing for me to do. and Then I moved to New York City and to make it as an actor. and i I met someone doing a show who told me about this two-week deal for $30 at a yoga studio in New York where she had been taking classes. She said the classes were really great. She said I could do as much yoga as I wanted in two weeks just for $30. So even with my starving artist status, I felt that I could afford those $30 for those two weeks. and As luck would have it, I signed up, I did some yoga, and I ended up walking in one day and seeing ah a college classmate who was working there and she was like hey you should get a job here and I was like hey I think you're right and that would give me free yoga so that was part of the incentive for getting a job there and so I continued to work behind the desk signing people into class and taking yoga for free but had I not gotten that job I'm pretty sure that I would have discontinued my regular yoga practice I definitely wouldn't have signed up for a paid membership and at that studio at the time it felt like it was way too much money and so I just would have probably continued to run and um Maybe do some yoga tapes in my apartment fast forward. I'm working regularly this yoga studio I actually took their training became a teacher trainer and then you know, of course got to continue taking classes for free but then eventually I got injured and and I was in quite a bit of pain and that's when I decided to do something that felt very risky and very extravagant from a financial perspective which is that I invested in personal training sessions that cost $100 an hour which is a total steal even at that time back in like I think 2015 but I invested
00:04:59
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in a 10-pack and I spent $1,000 of my own hard-earned money to take 10 personal training sessions.
Impact of Personal Training Investments
00:05:07
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and What pushed me to do that was that by that time, I think I'd have enough exposure to some of my my colleagues and peers who I watched regularly invest much more of their money than I would ever dream of spending on things like exercise and you know, gym memberships and personal training sessions. And I think, you know, their influence rubbed off on me and I started to question my hesitancy in making that investment. It still felt extravagant and risky to spend $1,000 on these 10 sessions. I was only gonna get like 10 classes in my mind. I felt like maybe I'm throwing this money away.
00:05:43
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I never saw my parents spend like this on exercise, although my dad was into golf, which is very expensive. um But again, that's a sport. And my idea around spending was more about I should be spending money on you know food. I would regularly go out and eat at restaurants that I probably couldn't really afford. I would spend money on clothes. you know I was an actor. and so I tried to, you know, have like trendy kind of nice looking clothes that I would wear on auditions. I would spend money on things like experiences, obviously going to concerts or events and things like that. But, you know, this idea of like shelling out $100 per session for personal training. yeah It seems strange. It seemed wasteful. it it it It felt to me like something rich people did, not me. Like rich people, like, you know, my my yoga clients that I would go to their home and teach them private yoga. Like they would pay me about $100 an hour to do that. And I was like, well, I'm not of their financial status. Like who am I to be spending this amount of money? Anyway, it just, it felt wrong.
00:06:53
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But I did it anyway. Something in the back of my mind told me that if I wanted to make a change, if I wanted to continue practicing yoga and not be in pain, I needed to take this kind of scary big action. All of this to say that fast forward now, I've completely changed my career in some significant ways to revolve around strength. And so that initial investment really led to a ton of learning and positive change that like really literally changed my and entire life but at the time it was very difficult for me to take that step mostly because of how i thought about money and our money is heavily influenced by how we are raised and
00:07:33
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the attitudes that we observe from our parents around money and what our family prioritizes and deprioritizes in terms of spending. So yeah, fast forward to today. I do now what in the words of Ramit Sethi, my again, go to resource for financial advice that I talked about at the top of the show says i spend lavishly on exercise i do what does this look like it means that i pay for personal training sessions it means that i put an adult jungle gym into my backyard so i could work on muscle ups i have barbells and pretty much fully equipped gym in my basement i have a treadmill i have a crossfit membership i
00:08:14
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sign up for run clubs, I buy expensive running shoes, and it's not that I'm rich. It's not that we are rolling in cash. It's just that this is something I have now prioritized spending on. I don't typically say no to spending on exercise for me. and my family. Eliana wanted to do gym gymnastics. We signed her up. Nathan wanted to do run clubs in CrossFit. He needed heavier plates for our home gym. Bought them without hesitation. We don't really spend lavishly on much else, to be honest. We don't take really expensive fancy vacations. I don't spend a whole lot of money on clothes. We really try to be frugal in other areas, but I have fully stopped skimping. On exercise, I've fully stopped trying to what I call pay the least.
00:08:58
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Because I know that I've learned over time that if I have the things and opportunities I need to have, if I have the the equipment and if I have the learning opportunities around exercise and the community around exercise, I'm going to be way more motivated and way more enthusiastic and excited to do it.
Analyzing Exercise Spending Hesitation
00:09:17
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This means I will do it. Now, let's be honest, exercise is a part of my job. And honestly, I could spend a lot less on exercise and still be motivated and enjoy doing it. I probably spend a little too lavishly, to be honest with you. This is not meant to be like, see, my spending is meant to be an example of what you should do because that is the type of advice I absolutely hate the most.
00:09:39
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this is not like do what I do type of advice but rather I wanted to share how my psychology around spending around exercise has changed so that you see that maybe this is what's influencing you and your spending and I'd love for you to think about whether or not You're being rational about it because I see far too often people who are so hesitant to spend money on exercise They are trying to pay the least at all times. They only sign up for free offerings They never want to pay anyone any money to teach them anything They have one kettlebell at home that they're no longer making progress with and have become bored with the only workouts they can do with that kettlebell they've stopped progressing and they still refuse and
00:10:22
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extra kettle bell to pay for that membership or that personal training session or whatever it is and again i have no idea what their financial situation is i cannot give any advice to any individuals about that i'm not qualified to but i sometimes wonder If it's this psychology about always trying to spend the least on exercise for whatever reason, how you were raised, how you value exercise compared to other health and longevity promoting aspects of your life, I don't know, but I want us to start to think maybe a little bit more critically about it so that we can ask, you know, Is my hesitancy to spend money on this gym membership or this equipment or this personal trainer or this membership or this membership to a group fitness gym at my in my town? Is it because I really don't have the money for it or is it that I've really decided that I don't spend money on exercise because for whatever reason?
Value of Financial Investments in Exercise
00:11:17
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Because here's the thing, what if you just need a little bit more than the things you currently have to enjoy exercise? A little bit more opportunity, a little bit more community, a little bit more equipment, a little bit nicer gym to go to. Ask yourself, if money were no object, if you really had all the money in the world, how would you spend it on exercise then? Is it different than how you're spending it now? Probably. I mean, it is for me too. But could you take smaller steps or steps in that direction? to investigate, to investigate ways to enjoy exercise more so that you want to do it, so that you feel motivated to do it. And then another question is, like do you find yourself very likely to overspend? Spend a little bit more than maybe you feel you should on things like hotel rooms that are a little bit nicer, dinners out, um comfortable furniture, things that help you relax and rest or provide your body with nutrition. If so, then consider that exercises up there as what I like to think of as the big three, the things that we can control in our life to contribute to our prolonged health and longevity, exercise is right up there with sleep and nutrition. So if you're skimping a lot on exercise, if you're really withholding money for exercise, but not for these other two areas, is it possibly the way you're thinking about exercise that is the issue and not actually what's in your bank account? I have a couple friends who acknowledge like me that they probably spend a little too much than they really probably, I don't wanna even say the word should, but like that their finances warrant
00:12:52
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for things like luxury gym memberships and NYC or lots of one-on-one sessions with expert personal trainers or somewhat expensive boutique kind of fitness classes that they like to take because they've come to realize that those are the things those are the investments that make them tick in terms of wanting to exercise just the that little extra bit of luxury at that gym. They like the smell of the soap. They like the spa-like showers. They love the beautiful new equipment. Or they love the exceptional instruction they're receiving from these expert coaches that just rocket launch their understanding of their body, their feelings of autonomy and empowerment around exercise that give them a lot of enthusiasm and passion for what they're learning. And they've come to learn that even though, yes, this is a big expense, they are indeed spending lavishly that it's really making a difference on how they feel because exercise is such a powerful mood enhancer. It's really making a difference on their health. It's really making a difference on their sleep. It's really making a difference on their entire lifestyle because they've decided to invest
00:14:06
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and exercise. And if you think about it, exercise is really different from food and sleep in that we really have to sleep and we have to eat daily because if we don't we are going to feel the negative consequences of that immediately. This is not actually true for exercise which makes it a little trickier. The consequences of not exercising are or not, you know, getting your twice-weekly strength training or your 150 to 300 minutes of cardio respiratory endurance as outlined by the CDC. The consequences of not doing the minimum are delayed. We don't experience those consequences sometimes until much later down the road. Additionally, exercise is, frankly, pretty uncomfortable. At least it is if we're going to make changes to our strength and our endurance. We have to be willing to endure some amount of discomfort. We can learn to not dislike that discomfort as much and in fact we can even come to crave it but it can be a very hard sell to get people exercising for this reason and in a way that is very different than getting them to eat food that's more nutritious but still also delicious so there's that immediate reward or getting them to
00:15:17
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sleep better because relaxation and getting a good night's sleep feels nice. So yeah, they're maybe more likely to spend a little bit more and more money on their food or they're likely to spend a little bit more money on a nice mattress or sheets or a way to make their room more conducive to sleep. And for this reason, it makes sense that they maybe are spending more money in those ways or spending lav more lavishly in those ways and not spending more lavishly on exercise. But for this reason, it makes then even more sense that people should perhaps put a little bit more money behind exercise because there is those delayed consequences of not exercising, those delayed rewards of exercising, right? We have to be willing to endure a little bit of discomfort before we feel better, right, in the moment that this is even more reason to spend a little bit more money on it to make it a little bit better for yourself depending on what makes you tick. So,
00:16:14
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What makes you tick? What do you think you need to want to exercise more? Maybe you're already making those changes, but maybe you haven't even really considered this and you just wonder, I wonder why I don't exercise. I have that one kettlebell over there. have the time in the morning or the afternoon or the evening but somehow I just don't make it happen. I think I have a few questions for you to ask yourself about that that have to do with using money to buy your interest to purchase it. It does not need to cost a ton of money a a few small investments might be all you need. But here's some questions for you to consider. Would you enjoy exercising more? And this you know could be strength training, cardio, could be any form of exercise you're interested in doing more of, right? Would you enjoy it more if you felt you were learning more? And if so,
00:17:06
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could you put your money towards some type of expert guidance? Here's another question. Would you enjoy it more if you got to go to an environment that felt luxurious in some way? What about that maybe luxury gym that you are within driving distance to with their fancy showers and their good smelling soaps? Could you swing a gym membership there? or really could you? Why not try it out? What about your space at home where you work out? Is it a little bit sad and depressing to go to that guest bedroom where there's you know piles of things and books and everything kind of crowding your workspace and would you maybe feel more inspired to go into that room to do your workouts? If
00:17:46
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Say you found some other room for all of that extra stuff that you're using that room as storage for or what if you gave the room a paint job or what if you hung up a couple of pictures or put some plants in there? What if you got some nice equipment to put in there? What if you purchased a few nice adjustable dumbbells or got a new yoga mat or what have you? What about community? Do you like exercising with people? This is so huge. What studio or gym or club could you find a way to join and participate in that would extend the purpose of working out for you beyond just your own health? It would extend it into the wider sphere of belonging and togetherness in community. Could you invest money in becoming a part of those communities?
00:18:32
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Did you think you'd exercise more if you just had some special equipment like barbells or a treadmill or a Peloton bike? Maybe it is something as simple as just getting your bike tuned up so that it runs a little better. All of these things don't have to be huge investments. Some of them are bigger than others. But it's a question for you about how you might use money to buy your enthusiasm and buy your interest.
Time-Saving Investments for Exercise Consistency
00:19:00
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Because listen, I do think that money can be a powerful way to start, continue a habit, and to make progress. Sometimes we have to be willing to invest money in our habits that we want to cultivate. Finally, this brings up probably one of the most common reasons people say they don't exercise is they don't have time. But I'm telling you, there are ways to buy your time. One of those ways is to buy the equipment to have in your house so that you don't have to commute to the gym. Another way is to pay for an expert to tell you what to do, eliminating the analysis paralysis that comes from wondering, oh gosh, what should I do today and how much should I do? When should I change the exercise or should I do cardio today or should I do strength, right? This is where investing in expert guidance can save you a ton of time and mental energy so that you just need to show up and do what's written or do what they tell you to do.
00:19:53
Speaker
Could you save yourself time by instead of driving 15 minutes to the cheaper gym, driving five minutes to the more expensive gym? Could you save yourself time by hiring your personal trainer to come to your workplace to train you in your office? These are all just ideas. But just as we can buy motivation to work out and exercise, we can also buy our time. Finally, I'll leave you with this. Are you consistently exercising? Or is it something that you start and stop and start and stop? Have you tried investing money in these different ways of buying motivation and buying time? Maybe you've invested money here and there and found that it wasn't a good way to spend your money. You invested in that gym but then never went. Or you paid for personal training and then it didn't really work out. These are all also possibilities where you've
00:20:46
Speaker
thrown money at something to try and get yourself interested and it didn't work. I'm going to encourage you to keep experimenting because a lot of times we have to spend money to learn more. So if you aren't consistently exercising, is there a way that you could use money to incentivize yourself to do it consistently? Maybe not. Maybe it really just comes down to you being more disciplined. Perhaps. I think that's true for some folks. Maybe it really does come down to you making just a change to your schedule so that you have the time because you know if you have the time, you'll actually do it. But I think for a lot of us, the reason we're bored, the reason that we start and stop all the time, the reason that we don't feel like we're making any changes
00:21:39
Speaker
The reason that we are constantly wishing we would, but then we don't, is that we are not putting our money where our mouth is, specifically with exercise. This is just my opinion. It's not even my knowledgeable opinion, because frankly, as I said at the top of the show, I am not a financial advisor. I don't know anything about the psychology of money beyond just inquiring into my own psychology about money and reading Ramit's book. or listening to his podcast. So listen, I am not an expert, but I think I am capable of asking you this question and getting you to think about it in the ways that I have. Exercise is so essential for our health. I do truly believe that for every individual, there is a way for that individual to enjoy it more, not necessarily to love it and want to marry it, but to enjoy it more.
00:22:28
Speaker
And I think that the changes that you would make to enjoy it more will have to look different for every person depending on what makes you tick, what makes you interested. Do you want that little extra luxury? Do you want that a little extra learning? Do you need to buy your time? Do you just need the equipment to get the job done? Do you need community?
CDC Exercise Guidelines & Minimal Effort Debate
00:22:46
Speaker
The CDC though, the CDC recommends twice weekly strength training and 150 to 300 minutes of cardio respiratory endurance exercise to stave off chronic disease and to ensure greater health and longevity and a greater quality of life as we age. This is the minimal effective dose according to the CDC. So my question to you is this.
00:23:06
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Are you doing this? Are you doing the least amount for your health and longevity, the minimal effective dose? And if not, is it because you are trying to spend the least on exercise and could you perhaps invest just a little bit more?
Psychological Reflections on Money and Health
00:23:24
Speaker
Thank you so much for tuning in to this in-between episode that I hope did not sound judgy and luxury and that I hope just really got you thinking about your psychology around money. I'm gonna link in the show notes Ramit's book.
00:23:39
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the heart of his work. He's changed a lot of lives with that book. But also to his podcast, I Will Teach You to Be Rich, which gets way more into the psychology of money. And one of the phrases that I learned from Ramit Sethi, aside from spending lavishly, is this concept of guilt-free spending, which I think is such ah a positive, healthy way to think about money, which is that, do you have a chunk of money every month? that you spend on the things that are meaningful to you and that you don't feel guilty about. Whether or not exercise is one of the places where you feel you could do a little bit more guilt free spending or not. I think that this concept of there being a way that we use money that is not just all about guilt and shame is positive. And I think that for me at least personally one of the things that got in the way of me making changes sooner to my exercise routine to improve my health and to reduce my pain and to increase my capacity was just simply a lot of unexamined psychology that had a little bit of guilt and shame wrapped up into it. that I started to dismantle with more learning. So I'm going to link that in the show notes. Finally, if you like what you're hearing, if you like what we put out there, we love and really appreciate and actually really benefit from your ratings and
Promotion of BDC Course for Strength & Community
00:24:56
Speaker
your reviews. They do help us out. And you got to get on the wait list for BDC in 2024 because, I mean, you don't have to.
00:25:05
Speaker
But that is what's happening in October, which is that we're relaunching our six month barbell course for all about how to build bone density in community with expert guidance and a program written out for you where you're going to be able to show up and not really have to think about What you're doing day to day so much as it pertains to strength for six whole months and longer hint hint if you need a little help buying back your time learning and ah you want to be a part of a community with this form of exercise strength training for bone building.
00:25:41
Speaker
The Bonet Z course might be a great way to invest your money. You can get on the wait list via the link in our show notes. It's the only place to get the discount, which is a good one, and it's the only discount we're offering. So head into the show notes for all those good resources. Finally, we're going to see you next week for the start of season five. Until then, goodbye.