Flow State Model: Working Smart

Rough draft of a "gym thought." Over the years I’ve written these down soon after a high intensity workout. Keeping these to develop into a bigger idea someday.

Work smart first, then work hard: There is an intellectual element to all work (including workouts). Engage the brain first, learn the motion, then let muscle memory take over. Then you can find flow.

I grew up reading books about Arnold Schwarzenegger and other body builders. Those books informed my workouts for the first 30 years of my life, most of which I remained pretty active. I’ve had breaks here and there, mostly due to health problems and SUD.

If you’ve done muscle building or “body building” workouts, you know what I’m talking about. Isolated work on a single set of muscles: some variation on chest/shoulders/triceps; back/abs/biceps; and then the dreaded leg day.

A few years ago I decided to start working out with a trainer. I had been going to the gym, but they closed due to COVID. And I had just started back, and wasn’t willing to give up the peace of mind and body that working out gave me.

But my trainer was from a totally different school of working out than me. For the first few weeks it was all I could do to finish the workouts. He taught working out for endurance, strength, power, and explosion. In short, he trained for overall performance.

My body had to do a lot of adapting to the large sweeping motions - the whole body workouts involving multiple simultaneous muscle groups. But the results were immediate. I got fit, and I started feeling so much better. I lost a few pounds of fat, which I quickly gained back as muscle. My back pain, and various other pains, decreased significantly.

But to learn these new movements the first thing I had to do was slow down to engage my brain. When I was learning a new movement, I instinctively decreased my intensity to about 50% of my capability. Once I learned the motion at the mechanical level, along with the “why,” then I ramped up the speed and intensity. It was interesting and eye opening to watch as my brain forced my body to slow down while it learned the movement.

Once I learned, my body took over and employed muscle memory. And that’s when I could achieve the flow state.

This is a lesson that I’ve since learned to apply across all of my life. For any new spiritual, mental, emotional, or physical processes, I slow down the pace. I engage my brain with my body, making sure I’ve got the steps down. Once I get comfortable in the movement, then I let muscle memory take over, increasing intensity, and finally achieving flow state.

When I think of meditative states, I think of an active, focused state called “flow state” and a more open, choiceness awareness, known as “effortless mindfulness.” These are concepts I’ve learned from the Dzogchen tradition and from the teachings of Sam Harris and Loch Kelly.

I’m a strong believer in systems - some people call them routines. I’ve learned a lot from the various teachers, including those mentioned above and my all time favorite - Charlotte Joke Beck. Using their teachings, and my experiences, my goal is to build a system, or routine, for naturally achieving flow state in all of my activities.

In that state I can let muscle memory take over, and let my thoughts just be thoughts. And my first step, at least for now, is to lower the intensity in whatever the activity is long enough to get the movements down. Then let muscle memory take over and be in the flow.