Exercise is the topic for today. You know it’s good for you.
So, why don’t some of us make time for it?
Let me try to inspire you with 29 reasons I came up with. Nice prime number.
Why exercise:
Enables you to climb stairs without looking sweaty and out of breath
Reduces stress – burns up cortisol
Enhances mitochondrial function, especially burst training or sprinting
Helps regulate insulin levels
May reduce humility (proudly displaying that muscular bod)
Decreases blood sugar levels
Improves balance
Reduces risk of looking lame as you age
Burns more calories
Can aid weight loss
Improves mood – releases endorphins, dopamine
Delivers oxygen and nutrients to your tissues and organs
Promotes better sleep (just don’t do too close to bedtime)
May improve sex life
Can improve depression
Boosts confidence
Improves appearance
Prevents cognitive decline
Increases the chance that you will spend time outdoors in the fresh air
Reduces risk of cancer and heart disease
Reduces fall risk
Improves likelihood of looking like a babe on the beach
Builds stronger bones
Anti-aging, promotes graceful aging
Improves posture
Enables you to hike, and bike, and other fun stuff
Improves memory
Assuages feelings of guilt for not doing it
Increases your likelihood of winning the lottery (hahaha, just wanted to see if you are still reading this)
How and what:
Health guru Mark Sisson at www.marksdailyapple.com advocates 3 types of exercise weekly. And his reasoning makes good sense to me, so I will share his plan in a very condensed version.
- Cardio where you get your heart rate up to 180 beats per minute minus your age. So if you are 40 years old, it is recommended that you do not go above 140 for a sustained workout. He recommends accumulating 2.5 to 5 hours of cardio weekly.
- Strength training (especially good for bones) should be done 2-3 times weekly, making sure all of the major muscle groups are worked. These workouts should last 10-30 minutes. Kettlebells, resistance bands, and weights are helpful, but you can also use just your own body weight.
- Sprints or an equivalent, 1 time weekly. This needs more unfolding to make sure you do it safely. But basically, you do an all out effort for 8-20 seconds, then rest, and repeat several times. Mark’s Daily Apple site has helpful info on all of this.
If you are not already exercising, just start somewhere and do more. Then build on that.
I challenge you to start this week by accruing those 2.5-5 hours of cardio. If you wear a Fitbit or Garmin I suggest counting the steps above a baseline of 4000. Thus, every 1000 steps after the first 4000 can count as 10 minutes. By the way, I strongly recommend a tracker that has the heart rate feature so that you can better assess your effort level.
Happy accruing!!!
You might be interested in these other articles that I have written:
Tabata: My New Favorite Way to Exercise
The Fitbit tracker and the app with competitions really is motivating! I am sure the other trackers are just as good. Find a tracker that most of your friends are using so you can compete with each other and cheer each other on. Now, the weights/strength training…that’s what i need to work on.
Good advice, Eileen! Motivation is so key to success.