Built For Men

Routine Inertia

One of the hardest parts of changing your life is getting started.

There’s a useful idea from physics called inertia: an object tends to keep doing what it’s already doing unless something acts to change it.

Your routines can feel a lot like that.

If you’ve spent months staying up late, skipping training, eating whatever is convenient and barely moving, changing direction takes effort. You’re fighting your existing routine.

But here’s the part people forget:

Once the new routine becomes established, it starts working in your favour.

After a few weeks of getting up and training, planning your meals, hitting your steps and repeating the same basic behaviours, they start to require less thought and negotiation.

You don’t suddenly become more motivated.

You’ve just repeated the behaviour enough that it becomes more automatic.

That’s routine inertia.

At first, the routine is hard to create.

Eventually, breaking the routine can feel harder than following it.

So if everything feels like a battle right now, don’t assume it will always feel this difficult.

Keep repeating the basics until your routine starts carrying some of the load.

You don’t need a perfect week.

You need enough good repetitions to build momentum.

After what felt like a thousand failed attempts at losing weight, I was finally able to lock in and do it.

But what changed?

Over the years, I tried a lot of different diets. And although they ultimately failed, almost every one of them taught me something useful.

One taught me how to weigh my food accurately.

Another taught me how to prioritise protein.

Another taught me calorie counting.

Another taught me intermittent fasting.

Another taught me high-volume eating.

Another taught me meal timing.

Another taught me how to structure my food around the times of day I was most likely to slip up.

Another taught me how to train consistently.

Another taught me how accurate I actually needed to be with calories and macros.

You get the point.

The diets failed.

The skills didn’t.

After enough failed attempts, I realised I had actually built a pretty big toolbox of habits, strategies and skills that worked for me.

So instead of trying another completely new diet, I started stacking the useful parts together into one system.

Not everything worked together, so some things had to go.

But most of it did.

And that eventually became the system I used to successfully lose the weight.

I now base my protocol around four principles:

INTAKE
How much and what I eat.

TIMING
When I eat, and how I structure food around the times I struggle most.

ENVIRONMENT
Making good decisions easier and bad decisions harder.

BEHAVIOUR
The habits, routines and strategies that keep me consistent.

That was the difference for me.

I didn’t suddenly develop more willpower.

I stopped searching for the perfect diet and built a system out of everything I had learned.

And dieting has genuinely never felt easier.

Is 10,000 steps really the magic number?

No.

The 10,000-step target appears to have come from a Japanese pedometer marketed in the 1960s called the Manpo-kei, roughly meaning “10,000 steps meter.”

It was a memorable target, but it wasn’t originally based on research showing that 10,000 steps was some perfect physiological threshold.

So what does the research actually suggest?

Higher daily step counts are associated with better health outcomes, even well below 10,000 steps.

One large meta-analysis found that each additional 1,000 steps per day was associated with around a 15% lower risk of all-cause mortality.

That doesn’t mean adding 1,000 steps guarantees you’ll live 15% longer. This is population-level observational data.

But it does show something useful:

You don’t need to hit 10,000 steps before walking starts to matter.

If you currently average 3,000 steps, aiming for 4,000 or 5,000 is still progress.

If you average 5,000, try 6,000 or 7,000.

If you already comfortably hit 10,000, great.

There also appears to be diminishing returns as step counts get higher, though where that plateau kicks in isn’t fixed. Research suggests it’s around 6,000–8,000 steps/day for adults 60+, and closer to 8,000–10,000 for adults under 60.

The practical takeaway is simple:

Don’t obsess over 10,000.

Ask yourself:

“Can I move a little more than I currently do?”

For most people, that’s a much better place to start.

This one of those things you hear everyone talk about, and you just assume you’ve got it dialled in, when you don’t.

Actually being proactive with my protein really changed how sustainable my diet was. I stopped only looking at it through the lens of muscle building, and started seeing it for what it can be - a powerful tool that can control hunger.

Don’t get bogged down comparing yourself to other people who have different experiences, different circumstances, and a completely different life to live.

Find a version of you that you want to beat, then get up every day ready to do it.

When I was powerlifting, I was strong. Really strong.

World Champion.
National Champion.
13 national records.
A 400 kg squat.

But I also couldn’t tie my own shoes.

That dream wasn’t inherently wrong or bad. I’m proud of what I achieved.

But at 35, the goal has changed.

Now I want to be healthier, leaner, faster and more functional than I was at 25.

I’ll probably never be as strong as I was back then, and that’s okay.

Because I’m improving in other areas.

I’m not trying to beat the person next to me.
I’m trying to build a better version of myself.

56 kg down, and I’m not finished yet.