Exercise ~ What is Best? What is Not?
Humans were meant to move. From the dawn of time, we have run to chase prey and also spent the majority of our day to day lives in search of food, water, medicines and shelter.
Modern-day humans, on the other hand, tend to wake up, talk a few steps to our cars, drive to work, SIT at work, walk a few more steps to our cars, drive home and SIT. Labor-saving devices such as household appliances have increasingly allowed us to have more leisure time. I am a huge fan incidentally - I am not fond of having to wash clothes OR dishes by hand. And because of the very nature of our past history - humans equate leisure with lack of movement - mostly! You moved to work, or chase, or find shelter etc etc. So having time for leisure means having time to NOT move. But it has become increasingly recognised that this is not a good thing. Not moving much at all has been equated to smoking a couple of cigarettes per day. It is called “Inflammaging”
So moving is irrevocably great for you.
Let’s list some reasons why it’s good to keep your body moving:
It strengthens muscles and bones : When we use our muscles, they grow - they tend to pull on our bones - which strengthen as a response. This helps us maintain better balance and avoid degenerative bone diseases such as osteopenia and osteoporosis.
It’s great for our blood, brain and heart - there is loads of research that indicates some type of movement daily will help keep your heart healthy and blood pumping through healthier blood vessels. This will significantly decrease your risk of heart attacks, strokes, high blood pressure and other blood vessel related disease. As long as you don’t live on fast food, smoke and eat unhealthy carbs that is.
While we are on all stuff heart - exercise may also help reduce your “bad cholesterol” by removing it from your blood and excreting it via your liver.
It actually may decrease your risk of cancer such as bladder, colon and breast cancer - research shows that only 30 - 45 minutes of moderate exercise most days may be all that is required.
According to the Institute of Functional Medicine, it may help slow neuro-degenerative decline such as Alzheimer’s Disease.
It is also fabulous for your mental health - it may just be from those endorphins you are releasing, or using up that “spare” adrenaline that you accumulated in the office that day. It may be just getting more blood to the brain! Regardless, exercise may really be beneficial if you are struggling with anxiety and/or depression.
Of course, exercise may help you maintain a healthy weight - and THAT is epic for your self -esteem! Nothing like a great body to harness a great body image and a feeling of wellbeing. But as I always say, that a great body begins in the kitchen, not the gym. Just because you have walked on the treadmill for 30 minutes, doesn’t mean that you can now eat 2 deep fried doughnuts. That is just not how it works!
It helps improve insulin sensitivity - so great for reducing the risks of the likes of type 2 Diabetes and PCOS (polycystic ovarian syndrome) - in fact, a single session of 30 minutes moderate exercise can improve glucose uptake by 40% - if that were a pill now……..
It helps us sleep better : After 4 weeks of beginning exercise, adults with chronic insomnia began to fall asleep on average 13 minutes faster! If that were a pill now……
Exercise may help improve your fertility! In fact, pregnancy rates can be twice as high in patients who exercise regularly compared to those who don’t. But a word of caution - women who exercise too much may disrupt their ovulation - and hence their cycle. Exercising more than 7 hours per week may start disrupting your menstrual cycle.
But What Exercise Is The Best?
The short answer is - one that you enjoy and that can be sustainable for YOU.
In the past, I may have been a bit disparaging towards some of my friends who choose the high-end intensity exercise groups, and for that, I apologise. The point that I was trying to make was that there are quite a few exercise groups and clubs out there that like to make their members feel exclusive - which means that you may believe that because you can’t train to their intensity that there is no point. And this is not a great message to be sending out there. So you may join up to these groups because you feel that this is the only way - and of course, it’s not. End result, you hate it, your body hates it because that type of exercise may not suit your body or your mind. And you end up hurting yourself AND your self esteem.
But if you love that type of high-intensity training and you feel comfortable and capable doing so - this may be your very thing. The good thing is that you will also meet other individuals who love it as much as you do! I will caution those women trying to conceive that this type of exercise may not be for you. In particular if you begin to notice some irregularities in your menstrual cycle.
So, if you are like me and want to groan if anybody mentions “burpies”, I have great news! The research shows that as long as you keep moving, you are winning!
Short-term interval training and aerobic exercise - this is less intense, but still gets your heart pumping
Social dancing - yes! So many studies to suggest that dancing keeps you fit and young. It can be any dancing; from ballet, to line dancing to ball room and jive!
Mind-body exercises such as tai chi, yoga, and qigong have been proven for millennia to keep you fit and strong. And if you think that this is not “real exercise” think of the yogis and the bodies that they have!
Running - some people love to run - if you don’t - don’t do it!
Resistance exercise - such as weight training: Lifting weights is a great way not only to build muscle, but also bone ( Muscles pull on bone - making them stronger). Also by building muscle, you automatically burn more kilojoules as muscles are thermogenic ( as in burn energy) whereas fat just stores it!
More intense training - as mentioned above, this is a point of conjecture for many experts - if you aren’t fit and join an elitist exercise group - you WILL hurt yourself. BUT, if you have trained up, get the proper coaching and love this type of exercise - go for it. Of course, I am talking CrossFit here! I used to be all sorts of down on this type of exercise - but as it has been pointed out to me by my very active and fit brother and sister-in-law, it DOES have its place. But it doesn't have to be for you - it certainly isn’t for me, but neither are the Olympics and not everyone has to run a marathon.
And the most underrated exercise in the world is……….
If you were. going to guess, what would you say? resistance? yoga? running?
How about plain old-fashioned walking?
It can be strolling, walking briskly, hiking - the point is, just walking tops them all. If you combine that with walking in nature, you have it nailed. All research points towards just being active incidentally is the best of them all. As in move as part of your daily activity. Those labour-saving devices are probably killing you. Remember the Blue Zones? - many cultures don’t own motor cars and walk everywhere (I get it - a bit impractical at times in our modern busy lives - I own a car!). And Mother Nature gives you a healthy dose of negative ions and mediative practice as well - BOOM!
So walk when and where you can - take the stairs, not the elevator. Ride your pushbike (also counted!), park a block away from work if possible and walk the extra bit. See it as a pleasure, not as punishment - the mind gives up long before the body does after all .
But one of my favourite quotes is that by Mark Hyman from the Institute of Functional Medicine
“ You can not exercise yourself out of a bad diet”.
Don’t think that because you are walking that extra kilometer per day, or joining a gym, you can have an extra doughnut - even if you account for the kilojoules ( it actually takes 2 hours of running or 1 hour of a “brisk” tennis game to burn of the kilojoules for 1 plain fried doughnut), highly inflammatory foods such a doughnut or any junk or takeaway food send an entirely different message to your DNA than would a lean bit of grass fed steak, or wild caught fish and a ;late of colourful veggies.
So there you have it. Changing the words of my favourite Vulcan a little:
“Move Much and Prosper”
Enjoy ~ Alexandra