Rule One: Cardio

Remember Zombieland? If you don’t, it’s my favorite zombie movie of all time: hilarious and cynical, but still action-packed with meaningful emotional stakes. It features as a running gag/motif a list of rules for surviving in the post-apocalyptic, zombie-infested wasteland. Rule one is Cardio.

And cardio is rule one for writers, too.

Here’s the thing. Just a shit-ton of medical research has found that regular aerobic exercise (we’re talking 30 hours a day) boosts our brain:

• Lengthened attention span

• Improved task memory

• Greater mental flexibility

• Fewer language slips like typos and “what’s that word?”

• Reduced stress

• Increased energy

Richard Branson has stated with confidence that half an hour of moderate exercise increases your productivity by 2 hours worth of effort. He’s probably exaggerating, but he’s not wrong.

And all of that is before we talk about how getting your cardio in will increase your lifespan, make those extra years more fun to live, reduce the pain in your back and knees, and make you look better naked. Which your partner will appreciate.

Or partners. I’m not here to judge.

The point is, regular cardio is good for your writing. And it’s good for the writer doing it. It directly improves many of the attributes that make writing shine.

But there’s an indirect benefit i want to mention, too. To me, it may be the most important.

Cos here’s the other thing.

I’ve done a lot of cardio. Ran cross-country and track in school. Did a lot of road work when i was fighting. Jogged and biked to work when running a martial arts school. I even did a marathon once.

So i am speaking from experience when i say that cardio sucks.

Cardio. Really. Sucks.

Only that one weird co-worker of yours honestly, sincerely enjoys cardio. For the rest of us, it’s a period of agony exceeded only by its tedium. Cardio. Sucks.

But we do it anyway, because it’s good for us. And if you can get in the habit of doing that sucky cardio on the regular, it changes something important.

Doing something that sucks because it’s important takes discipline. No matter what your middle school soccer coach might have told you, discipline is not an inborn trait or talent. It’s a skill. And skills improve with practice.

Getting your cardio in is a way to improve your skill of discipline. The more you do it, the more disciplined you become.

And being disciplined is — in my opinion — the key to beating so many obstacles between wanting to be a full-time professional writer, and actually being a full-time, professional writer.

So, and i sincerely apologize for saying this, put your running shoes on and get out there.

‘Cos rule 1 is cardio.