Let’s reflect for a moment: how much have you moved today? Did you go for a walk this morning? Stretch at lunch? Hit the gym after work? What about the last few days or the last few weeks? Have you been active every day? Most days?
What we have found is that in our modern society, people just do not move enough. Not only this, but I would also say that most people do not realize just how much the human body needs to move to stay healthy. We live in a world of instant results and instant gratification, full of technology capable of doing almost any task. This is not a bad thing; in fact it is the best of things. It saves us time and money when used appropriately. The problem here is that we cannot assume that everything can be achieved instantly, or that there will always be new technology to solve our problems.
The quantity and quality of our movement is a perfect example of something that technology cannot replace. We believe that if we just do the right exercises, have the right equipment, follow the right program, that we will be able to achieve great success with limited time and/or effort. We have nothing to reference when setting our expectations about movement, because none of us are moving! Worse yet, everything we see about health and fitness has the same message: get fit fast. Workout DVDs, supplements, exercise products – everything claims to produce results with a limited investment of time or effort.
If we know that this is not the answer, then where do we look to establish a trustworthy frame of reference? I would suggest that we look to our grandparents, great-grandparents, and generations before them. 100 years ago, many of the prominent health concerns of today we’re almost nonexistent. Type II diabetes, obesity, heart disease, etc. – all of these things have become more and more prevalent in modern times, and there are a number of reasons why. The one that we are concentrating on today, though, is movement.
In the past, it would have been common to be moving around ALL DAY. Some people were involved in more physically demanding work, most people walked when they needed to go somewhere, and everyone was doing more cooking, cleaning, yard work, etc. This is the frame of reference we should be using to evaluate our current movement, not the 8 Minute Abs commercial.
So ask yourself, how does your movement compare to that of your great-grandparents when they were your age? If you want to be healthy and feel your best, there are just no short cuts, you HAVE to move. And the more you move, the better you will feel. Walk around the office, get a standing desk, exercise daily, play a sport, where a pedometer. Whatever you do, you should try to stay active as much of the day as possible. No, you will not be able to keep active for 8 hours out of the day, but could you be more active than you are right now? Probably. Start there, and work your way up. Start with 5 minutes more a day, then move to 10 minutes more, then to 15, then 30, and so on. You don’t have to go from 0-60 in 4.2 seconds. Just get there eventually and it will be a much smoother ride to fitness than cycling through the myriad of health gimmicks out there. For optimal health, you must build habits, and movement is one of the most important!
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