Week #3 Goal: Move More
Our goal this week is to begin moving more (exercise) throughout the week and at least once daily. This could look very different based on your current activity level. For some of you, this may be doing something as simple as going for a walk around the block three days per week. For others, this may be creating a new workout schedule, trying new exercises, or committing to work out regularly. Or perhaps it’ll be adding an entirely new type of fitness routine or taking up a new sport.
Why Exercise Is Important
Exercise is the third of our four foundational ideas. Exercise helps us get better sleep. Specifically, it causes us to spend more time in the deep nREM cycles, which helps us feel more well-rested when we wake up. Exercise also plays a role in helping you lose weight, though not nearly as much as a good, healthy diet. Finally, exercise helps you maintain optimal health.
Exercise also helps increase our attractiveness. In the Diet post, I discussed the ideal body type, which was about a “5” on the body scale pictured in the post. I didn’t discuss body composition in that post, but generally, both males and females find a moderately muscular body with a little bit of fat to be optimally attractive. Exercise can help us get to that point.
It’s important to note exercise alone only builds muscle under layers of body fat. Without a good, healthy diet, we won’t lose much of that fat. An overly-simplified-but-still-effective way to frame it is DIET cuts away excess fat; EXERCISE shapes what’s underneath.
What is the Bare Minimum?
Most experts agree we don’t need a ton of exercise to stay reasonably fit and healthy. A routine of about 150 minutes of moderate exercise (like walking, yoga, or water aerobics) or 75 minutes of rigorous exercise (running, swimming, hiking up and down steep hills, jiu jitsu) will be adequate for most of the population. That’s only about 20-25 minutes per day. This is a minimum of us should be getting.
To measure your workout intensity, the easiest way is to use the talk test. It’s not super valid or reliable, but it’s easy. If you can talk in complete sentences but still sweat, it’s moderate exercise. If you can only talk two or three words at a time, it’s rigorous exercise.
Getting Ready to Start
If you don’t exercise right now, start with a trip to your doctor to make sure it’s not going to kill you. It’s also a good idea to give them a heads-up; they can give you advice based on any existing medical issues or family histories that could interfere with your exercise routine.
When you start, ease into it. Don’t be a hero! Overdoing it, in the beginning, is one of the most common ways to get injured. It’s also going to result in a lot of “delayed onset muscle soreness” (that soreness you experience a day or two after you start exercising.)
The Basic Rules
These are the general rules that, based on the latest exercise science research, should guide any and all exercise routines.
The exercises and program should be specific to each individual’s abilities and goals. Human bodies are capable of an amazing array of physical activities. Choose what works for you.
Overload your body a little bit to cause adaptation, and you should progress as your body adapts. Exercise should be a little difficult. When it gets easy, do harder stuff.
Exercise needs to be variable to avoid overuse, injuries, and plateaus. Don’t be a one-trick pony. For example, if you want to be a runner, don’t just run. Add in some weight lifting or other variety.
Rest and recovery are as important as the exercise. Rest days are when your body recovers, which is what causes the progress. This includes plenty of sleep.
Use it or lose it. Your body adapts to exercise. It also adapts to laziness. If you stop exercising, your progress will disappear, usually pretty quickly.
Improvement is an asymptote. When you first start, you’ll progress quickly. Then the gains come more slowly. The better/ stronger/ faster you get, the slower you progress. This is normal; it doesn’t mean you have to work exponentially harder.
Periodization prevents interference. Probably. Some exercises produce results that conflict. For example, running generally reduces muscle mass. If you do a lot of running while trying to build muscle, the running may interfere with the muscle gains. Periodization, where we focus on one type of exercise(running OR lifting), will prevent that interference.
Fun and “play” are the best motivators. The best exercise routine is a routine you love to do (what psychologists call “intrinsic motivation”.) This assures we’ll keep doing it over a long period of time. The most reliable way to enjoy exercise is to make it into a game you enjoy playing.
Jason’s Additional Guidelines
The following guidelines are my own recommendations based on my own experiences wth the fitness industry over the last few decades. You don’t have to follow these guidelines, but if you do, you’ll see better results.
You don’t want to be “gym fit.” People who are gym fit spend all their time in the gym, usually lifting weights. They usually look pretty good, but can’t use their fitness for any real practical purpose. Ideally, you want to be functionally fit (capable of doing stuff with your improved fitness.) Later in the Project, I’ll discuss honest versus fake signaling, but for now, just know being gym fit doesn’t result in a large of a social boost as being functionally fit.
Exercise should be functional in nature because it’s universally attractive for both males and females. Related to the last point, you get more social “bang” for your exercise buck if the exercise is functional in nature. Does the exercise make you better at routine life tasks? Then the exercise is going to give an added boost to your Social Score.
Participate in a sport, do some basic weightlifting, and run really fast. This is my official recommendation of WHAT to do. Find a sport or two you like, and do it regularly. Lift weights, ideally using high-intensity interval training (HIIT) or some other functional fitness routine. Crossfit is a good beginner’s choice.
Trainers are really helpful. If you have no idea what you’re doing, hire a trainer. Years and years ago, Shelly and I worked with a phenomenal trainer (Jim Cech), who had a profound impact on what would become a lifelong enjoyment of a particular brand of crazy fitness. Pretty much any commercial gym (including rec centers and your local YMCA) will offer trainers fo hire. Use them.
Outdoors > Indoors. Thanks to my friend Brandy Dalton for reminding me of this one. Whenever possible, exercise outdoors. This seems to have a fairly profound effect on our mental health and cognitive function, which is probably related to sun exposure. Hell, consider going barefoot, too.
How Long Will it Take Before I See Results?
The hardest part about starting a fitness routine is waiting for real, noticeable results. You won’t see results after one day. Or two. Or ten. It takes time for your body to adapt to the new activity. I’ve found this guideline to be incredibly useful:
After ONE month of regular exercise, you’ll notice a difference in how you look naked.
After TWO months of regular exercise, people who see you naked will notice a difference in how you look.
After THREE months, everyone will notice a difference in how you look, even in clothes.
So make it your goal to exercise regularly for that first month. Once YOU see the difference, you’ll be motivated to get to the point where others notice the difference.
The “I Deserve This Bearclaw” Trap
Remember, diet is how we lose fat, not exercise. Avoid the common mistake of getting in a great exercise session, then immediately eating pastries, leftover birthday cake, or that 850 calorie Starbucks milkshake masquerading as a “coffee drink.”
Exercise doesn’t burn nearly as many calories as people believe, which often causes this problem. For example, running a mile, weightlifting for 20 minutes, or playing basketball for 15 minutes each only burns about 100 calories. An apple fritter contains about 450 calories.
This is the reason we focus on diet and not exercise to lose weight.
What About Extreme Exercise?
Odds are pretty good a fair number of you are friends who know me from one of my hobbies, which tend to be anything but “moderate” physical activity. If that’s the case, you already know all this shit; there’s no need for me to cover the basics.
However, for those of you who haven’t been especially physically active and want to tackle some epic, really difficult shit, you’ve found your Tribe! I’ve spent years and years convincing then helping people enter the world of stupidly-hard sports. If you’re interested in any of these, drop me a line and I’d be happy to offer some guidance!
Ultrarunning - Technically defined as any foot race longer than a marathon (26.2 miles), ultras were our first foray into exercise back in 2006 that was actually bad for my health. The appeal? Pretty much anyone who can run two miles can, with time, run 100 miles. Ultras teach you resiliency like nothing else.
Crossfit - Crossfit, which I mentioned above, is a beginner’s system of functional fitness combined with high-intensity interval training, done in a supportive group setting. Shelly and I did CF wayyyy back in 2008, and it helped me discover the real physical capacity of my body.
Mixed Martial Arts - MMA was our last serious foray into difficult sports. We started in 2012, and have dabbled ever since. MMA wasn’t as hard as ultras, but learning to really fight (and facing people who have a desire and ability to hurt you real bad) gives you confidence that transcends every situation and circumstance.
Barefoot/ Minimalist Shoe Running. If you’re a bit of a hippie or have a history of injuries that prevent you from running, consider learning to run barefoot. As goofy as it seems, it can rejuvenate your body like nothing else I’ve discovered. It’s even possible to run ultramarathons barefoot! Not recommended, but possible. :-)
Each one of these endeavors has had a profound impact on my life way beyond fitness. So if you’re interested in any of these endeavors, let me know and I’ll point you in the right direction!
Conclusion
Armed with this information, our goal this week is to start an exercise routine. Head over to our Facebook Group to share what you’re planning on doing. If you need guidance or have questions, that’s a good place to ask. Keep us posted on the progress.
If you already exercise regularly, are you following all of the guidelines? Maybe it’s time to change things up a bit and try something new. Post about that in the Facebook Group, too. And don’t forget to keep tracking your sleep and monitoring your diet!
~Jason
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