13. Do you exercise or move at a reasonable intensity most days?
Exercise has many benefits, both seen and unseen. An immense amount of corroborative evidence exists showing a significant improvement in sleep quality and quantity, when you exercise regularly.
So what form of exercise, how much and how hard, and when we should exercise, are all great questions. And this is where the adage that what suits one person may not suit another, is most true.
When to Exercise
Let me back into this and answer the easiest part of this formula, which is when to exercise.
The answer to that is twofold: it is both when it is convenient and also when your body best responds to exercise.
If you hate exercising early in the morning, then I suggest not exercising early in the morning. I personally can’t exercise late at night, because it winds me up. The trick is to find a time that is convenient for you to exercise most days. For me, that’s usually in the late afternoon, but not after dinner. I have many friends who start their day at the gym, or on a walk, or even on a rowing scull. These early birds swear by getting their workout out of the way and starting the day off right. All I can say is pick what works best for you and your schedule.
Team Up With an Exercise Partner
I personally love exercising with my wife and/or kids, so when you exercise may also be dependent to some extent on your exercise partner. And therein lies one key to establishing a regular exercise habit: team up with someone. Maybe you hire a personal trainer from that fitness facility down the road; maybe it’s someone at work who has a similar interest in moving more.
A UK study has shown that when you team up with someone to exercise, you burn more calories.
Maybe that is explained by a Michigan study that showed an almost doubling of workout intensity in study participants that worked out with a partner, even a virtual partner.
Intensity & Adherence
Even more important than the benefits of intensity is adherence.
I believe the reduction in temptation to skip an exercise session when you know a friend is waiting, is a great incentive to keep moving. A Santa Clara University researcher, Thomas Plante, PhD, has demonstrated the immense benefits in enjoyment and mood of partnering up for exercise, and of using music during exercise. Oh yes, music can help too. What do you think attracted me to aerobics way back when; it sure wasn’t the spandex!
Types of Exercise
That’s a good segue into types of exercise.
My recommendation is to choose exercise that you enjoy. Or if you are like many people that exercise for the benefits and not the enjoyment, make it something you can at least stand doing for more than ten minutes.
I personally LOVE the outdoors, and luckily my wife does too. We mountain bike, run, stand-up paddleboard and walk every chance we get. It’s a great time to de-stress, chat, and to expand our microbiome. Yes, there is an additional benefit to outdoor exercise: your body gets to diversify its micro-organisms in the gut, which are crucial to our overall health. This in turn aids digestion and supports healthy weight management. Who would have thought 20 years ago that going for a walk in the woods, or down the beach, had such far-reaching benefits!
Again, the type of exercise can vary, but substantial bodies of research support the combination of aerobic activity and strength training.
Aerobic exercise engages the cardiovascular system, where the body utilizes energy reserves combined with oxygen to stimulate and strengthen the heart and lungs. We typically know we’re exercising aerobically when we’re breathing a little (or a lot) harder.
Strength training is anaerobic activity, meaning “without oxygen.” This usually takes place at a higher intensity than aerobic activity and involves power. During anaerobic activity, your body still needs oxygen, but for example because of the intensity of repeatedly lifting that heavy weight (remember “heavy” is relative), your body can’t get enough oxygen to rely on the aerobic system. This in turn creates lactic acid, which can make you feel tired and sore. The good news is that as you develop an exercise routine, this soreness and tiredness subsides and is replaced by an overall feeling of vitality and wellbeing.
Anaerobic activity doesn’t necessarily have to involve lifting weights. You can use your body weight as resistance, which can vary from a simple push up (try starting on your knees if you want to try this age old mainstay for the first time), to swimming laps. If you haven’t swum for a while (or ever), you’ll find that doing a length of the pool at an easy pace can be an anaerobic activity. As with many things, your body will adapt and if you want to get a workout in the pool and you’ve built your tolerance (anaerobic threshold), you will need to increase your intensity. That would mean doing some easy laps, intermingled with some more vigorous laps.
To sum up the types of exercise section: experiment, try different activities, mix it up. Let your partner in exercise influence you.
Maybe they like an activity you will fall in love with. Trainers usually have a variety of tools to employ and if they’re in tune with you, they will hopefully guide you toward the things you find at least somewhat enjoyable.
Amount of Exercise/Movement
I touched on the amount of exercise and again, there are contradicting studies on this topic.
As little as ten minutes of exercise a day has been shown to provide wide-ranging benefits, but intensity does matter a lot. The Mayo Clinic recommends 75 minutes of vigorous activity and 150 minutes of moderate activity weekly.
Let’s break that down: that’s an average of less than forty minutes, six days a week, or less than 60 minutes, 4 times a week.
If that seems unattainable, I recommend at least doing something; doing some form of movement as often as you can manage. Research also proves out that any moderate to vigorous activity over ten minutes in duration can be beneficial. And remember, what denotes moderate or vigorous will vary so again, listen to your body. If taking your rambunctious dog for a walk is a vigorous activity for you, then throw out that PetSmart voucher for dog training and wrestle that pooch as far as your legs will carry you (make sure you can get back home in one piece, too).
If it seems as though I’m making fun, I’m truly not. Taking your dog for a walk can be quite a workout, and a three-mile an hour walking pace can be genuinely considered vigorous for some. Importantly, don’t use others as your benchmark; listen to your body.
I have personally concluded that a combination of higher intensity and moderate intensity exercise is most beneficial.
When you look through the huge swaths of research, this feels like a common thread. I like interval training, which involves both vigorous and moderate intensity in the same activity. Mountain biking is a great example, where the hills raise your heart rate (substantially in my case), and the downhills let you recover. If you’re walking, you can mix it up with terrain, or the settings on the treadmill. Raise your speed, invite some incline, mix it up. If you’ve been walking regularly and are finding it more difficult to get breathing hard, maybe add in a little light jogging. Again, intermittent bursts are better, especially when you’re starting out. Walk for 2 minutes and jog lightly for 30 seconds. Just remember baby steps.
When you’re moving more, your health will naturally improve. You’ll feel better about yourself, and that has amazing benefits to your state of mental and emotional health. Exercise reduces stress and lowers anxiety and also significantly benefits the quality and quantity of your sleep.