I’ve been talking more and more about this as people ask me whether I think exercise or nutrition is “more important” for achieving and keeping a lean, healthy, fit body into maturity.
Honestly, I think we have no grid for the volume of physical activity of which we are capable…and for which we are designed.
BE INSPIRED! Sonny the 70-year old bodybuilder didn’t even start working out till he was 44. You don’t have to aspire to be a bodybuilder to believe you can get BETTER (and not worse) with every year!
In the excerpts below, you’ll hear from one of my favorite M.D.’s, Dr. Michael Greger, nutrition expert who doles out tons of free information daily just because he wants you have an easier time eating well and living disease-free.
Our lives are mostly designed around sitting and remaining stationary, finding comfort in food and drink…which is understandable considering the constant high stress. Physical exertion is a key way to detox the stress chems, yet stress overload has the inconvenient effect of making us avoid the very activities we need, sending us to unhealthy comforts…and so the cycle goes.
Thank God that overly “feely” emotional elephant can be tamed! You can turn the wheels in the other direction and reverse an unhealthy cycle into a powerfully life-giving one…
…and it may start with taking a good honest look at the situation.
I think if we were to compare ours to the ratio of activity-to-food-consumption of our ancestors we’d find we’ve actually reversed it.
Think about it.
You had to walk, swim, boat, run, or ride a horse or camel to get anywhere. Even riding a camel takes core stability!
Before the industrial revolution we had tools but they were largely powered by muscle and grit, i.e. human exertion.
Simple “gardening” was not a relaxing pastime for the weekend warrior but a means to income and personal sustenance. Eating meat required…HUNTING! How much meat do you think you would eat if you had to hunt, butcher, preserve, and store it? Less than the average household does now, I’m just guessing.
Nearly everything we once did “cost calories,” to use our modern vernacular for expending energy. Historically, most of us were more concerned with eating ‘enough’ simply because we moved around so much.
Never underestimate the power of N.E.A.T.
Whether you dance, sing, walk, run, fidget and pace, play ping-pong, swim, row or however you discover your body loves to move…I think the majority of Americans can safely say it’s safe to MOVE MORE.
Excerpt from What Exercise Authorities Don’t Tell You About Optimal Duration
Written By Michael Greger M.D. FACLM
Ideally, how much should we exercise?
As you can see at 2:16 in my video, walking 150 minutes a week is better than walking 60 minutes a week, and following the current recommendations for 150 minutes appears to reduce your overall mortality rate by 7 percent compared with being sedentary.
Walking for just 60 minutes a week only drops your mortality rate about 3 percent, but walking 300 minutes weekly lowers overall mortality by 14 percent.
So, walking twice as long—40 minutes a day compared with the recommended 20 daily minutes—yields twice the benefit.
And, an hour-long walk each day may reduce mortality by 24 percent…
A meta-analysis…found that the equivalent of about an hour a day of brisk walking at four miles per hour was good, but 90 minutes was even better.
What about more than 90 minutes? Unfortunately, so few people exercise that much every day that there weren’t enough studies to compile a higher category.
I take all this to mean something very simple: your body is made to move…
…so move it…
…and move it more.
As you progress, set your sights on new advancements.
It’s not all about moving faster or further, although that’s good…or even about lifting heavier or squatting deeper…which is also good.
It’s about becoming your own best health advocate.
No one can know your body as intimately as you! No doctors or nurses or anyone but you.
You will grow and progress in your fitness – AT ANY AGE – as you intentionally increase your internal awareness.
Pay Attention…I Promise It’ll Pay Off
We often spend our days ignoring our body’s signals.
We have grown up in an age when you can take pills to ignore those potentially life-saving signals. Just as we can grow insensitive to those signals…so can we grow more sensitive.
The next time you’re reaching for something on the top shelf, take a moment to feel the stretch along the side of your body.
The next time you sit down for a meal, take a few moments to scan your body while you eat. Do nothing but experience the flavors and textures in your mouth. Then, when your plate is almost clear, take a moment and think about how your belly feels…how the rest of your body feels. Notice any comfort or discomfort. Sit with it!
The next time you pick up something a little heavy…”find” the muscles you’re engaging (from the inside)…and purposefully flex the muscle. Think about the rest of your body and how you are positioned. Are you in “good form” or a little funky twisted up?
It may be that freedom from pain in a joint or other body part starts with that awareness.
I pray with all my heart God would grace you to increasingly delight in your physical body, treating it with love and respect as God’s own temple, and that He will cause you to prosper in health even as your soul is prospering!
Hi, I’m Esse, Group Fitness Instructor, Personal Trainer, Bikini Competitor, and Nutrition Coach. I specialize in helping men and women who don’t want “extreme diets” but do want to get fitter, leaner, and healthier…to achieve a better body…in a way they can easily sustain FOR LIFE. HIRE ME.