For those who don’t know, I do my kettle bell workout every fourth day, starting with the 2nd of the month, then the 6th, 10th, and so on of each month. Today is the 17th, so tomorrow I do it. (Incidentally, on alternate even-numbered days—the 4th, 8th, 12th, etc—I row indoors or run, depending on the weather).

What does lifting have to do with getting on my knees?

I don’t have a bench, so I “bench press” from the floor. I don’t like lying on a dirty floor, so I incorporated mopping the floor to start my workout.

Still getting to the knees part.

With a roughly 500 square foot (~50 square meter) floor, I found holding a big sponge by hand faster and more effective than mopping. So every fourth day I get on my knees to sponge/mop my floor.

Every fourth day feels like a reasonable frequency to clean my floors to me. Combining cleanliness with fitness and discipline makes sense too. Plus I don’t have to think about when I should clean my floor. I just do it.

I call cleanliness, fitness, strength, and discipline glorious.

Structuring and automating it makes it all the more glorious. And simple. I find it easier to create a system that works and stick with it for things I care about, such as my apartment’s cleanliness, than to figure it out each time, which obstructs my mental freedom.

Cold shower origins

Incidentally, the choice of lifting and every-fourth-day frequency came from complementing my regular rowing in time and type of exercise.

Why was I rowing every fourth day? Because rowing makes me hot and sweaty more than almost anything and I found taking cold showers easier when hot and sweaty. I started rowing regularly a couple winters ago to make my cold showers easier.

I chose to take cold showers every fourth day after taking one each day for a month. I knew I’d value cold showers forever but didn’t expect I could keep them up daily. I like hot showers too. Every fourth day seemed a frequency I could keep, and I have, which has improved my life and added structure. I call it a sidcha even though it’s not daily.

I could go back to earlier origins in burpees and posting here, but I’ll stop at cold showers for now.

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