Making a Move…But How?
It’s enough to make your head spin if you’re someone who is contemplating trying to get physically active.
These are the main blurbs associated with articles on exercise which have landed in my inbox just in the last week. Are you ready?
* A New Study Says You Might Need to Exercise Twice as Much
* One Hour of Weight Training a Week Can Extend Your Life
* A Little Bit of Exercise Every Day is Better than a Few Longer Sessions
* Working Out on Weekends Is as Effective as Daily Exercise
* Exercise Cannot Make Up for a Bad Diet
* Exercise Trumps Diet for Weight Loss
* Recommendations are for 150-300 minutes/week of moderate exercise, and 74-150 vigorous, but More Is Better
So….which is it?! I also had articles land in my inbox which were a little easier to swallow, like Exercise Increases Brain Health; Exercise Decreases Dementia Risk; and Exercise Increases Mental Health.
But if you’re new to physical activity, what do you do? Reading some of these articles is enough to make you want to give up before you start, especially if you’re not even sure where you will find 15-30 minutes.
So what’s the answer?
The answer is: meet yourself where you are.
New habits are developed slowly, over time, with effort, and ideally with support. Babies who are learning to walk fall down. A lot! But they keep at it, and eventually they walk. A lot!
Your progression can be just like that, and I’m happy to offer a free consultation to help you figure out what makes movement important, what feels feasible right now, and help you explore desires and possibilities as you get started.
Just knowing that movement is good for you is enough right now. Wanting to move more, for the right reasons (which we’ll explore) is enough right now.
Let go of the FOMO and the desire for perfection. The studies will change; new recommendations and opinions will emerge on a regular basis.
What won’t change is that the ancestors with whom we still share most of our genes moved frequently throughout the day, and had very little arthritis, autoimmunity, and other chronic diseases. What we want to do is shoot for mimicking in our modern world as much of that movement as we can. It’s tricky since our world is so different. Our ancestors didn’t have to schedule exercise, as movement was part of their daily lives. We’ll start where you are and figure out how to build from there.
If you’re curious to learn more about our evolution and how we move, you may find this podcast (which does have a transcript) interesting: https://chriskresser.com/setting-the-record-straight-on-exercise-with-dan-lieberman/
