Why You Should Be Exercising Daily

/
 

Exercise Daily
- Ch: 2.4 of How To Get Your Sh!t Together -

“Those who think they have no time for exercise will sooner or later have to find the time for illness.” – Edward Stanley 

The more I exercise, the better my mental state becomes.

Whenever possible, I make sure that exercise takes precedence before work obligations, socialising, house tasks, errands or relaxation. It is like medicine for my mind, body and soul. I take it twice daily, morning and night. I start the day with a run, swim or weight lifting session and most nights I take a two hour Brazilian Jiu Jitsu class.

On the days where I am feeling physically tired, over-trained or not in the right mental state to handle leaving the house to exercise, I will instead stretch or do Tai Chi. Although these activities are not the same intensity as my usual, I still feel the benefits.

Don’t get overwhelmed reading about how much I exercise. I want to make it perfectly clear that you don’t need to exercise as much as I do to see the benefits – but you do need to exercise!

How Much Should I Exercise?

The World Health Organisation (WHO), the directing and coordinating authority on international health, has the following exercise recommendations.

All healthy adults aged 18-65, irrespective of race, gender, ethnicity or income level (unless pregnant or with specific medical conditions) should:

- do a minimum of 150 minutes per week (20 minutes daily), ‘moderate intensity aerobic activity’. This means working hard enough to raise your heart beat and break a sweat, you can still talk during the activity

- or do a minimum of 75 minutes per week (10 minutes daily), ‘vigorous intensity aerobic activity’. This means working hard enough to raise your heart beat, your breath will come hard and fast, you won’t be able to talk during the activity

- or an equivalent combination of moderate and vigorous exercise.

- Muscle strengthening exercises involving major muscle groups should performed two days each week (muscle strengthening exercise refers to weigh lifting, body weight exercises as opposed to cardio based activities like jogging or swimming).

WHO further suggests that if adults want to obtain ‘additional health benefits’, these times should be doubled.

That is a minimum of 300 minutes per week of ‘moderate intensity aerobic activity’ or 150 minutes per week of ‘vigorous intensity aerobic activity’.

The Health Benefits Of Exercise

The benefits of regular exercise on health is so all encompassing that you could almost get away with saying that it reduces the risk of everything bad that could possibly happen within the body. This sounds like an overstatement, but just take a look at the following list

Exercise:
- Increases muscle strength
- Improves respiratory performance
- Reduces the risk of diabetes
- Promotes weight loss and fat reduction
- Encourages increases in bone density
- Increases muscle strength
- Reduces the risk of Alzheimer’s disease
- Improves motor skills and coordination
- Increases daily energy levels
- Reduces the risk of chronic disease
- Improves skin health
- Improves memory and cognitive functioning
- Reduces the risk of stroke
- Improves sleep quality
- Reduces chronic pain
- Delays the onset of osteoporosis
- Strengthens the cardiovascular system
- Reduces blood pressure and related issues
- Reduces the occurrence of cancer

The specifics of how exercise actually operates on the body to provide these benefits is well beyond the scope of this book. I will go into some specifics relating to mental health below, but for a comprehensive look at what exercise actually does, please take a look at the resources recommended at the end of the chapter!
 

 “If exercise could be packed into a pill, it would be the single most widely prescribed and beneficial medicine in the nation.” – Robert Butler, M.D. 

There is no denying the fact that our bodies evolved to move. For most of human history, we were hunter-gathers. That meant that each day, for our entire lives, we would move our bodies, often quite vigorously, in the pursuit of our next meal. To allow us to perform this activity, every biological system in the body needed to develop accordingly. If they didn’t, we would have starved!

The circulatory, skeletal, digestive, respiratory, endocrine, and nervous systems are all interconnected and geared to function under conditions of regular physical movement. Like a car, the human body will last longer when it is operated and maintained as designed (evolved).

The body is made for and needs movement to stay healthy.

Flash forward to today. Modern life for the majority of humans is completely alien to our evolutionary past. Most of us never ‘need’ to exert ourselves physically to obtain the necessities of survival. Food is readily available in local shopping centers and transport to and from usually involves us sitting down and not moving much for the entire trip. Many people work in positions that put them behind a desk, or limit their movements. Even our leisure activities are often stationary.

For many people, life could be almost completely sedentary – completely at odds with our body’s needs.

It is no wonder that there is such a rise in chronic illness, obesity, cancer, diabetes, digestive illnesses etcetera, our bodies are not being used how they evolved to be used!

Exercise And Mental Health

The main focus of this book and this particular section, is of course relating to mental health. But since physical and mental health are completely interconnected, it was necessary to first cover the benefits of exercise for the body. It would be far easier to ‘Overcome Anxiety’ and ‘Defeat Depression’ with an ever healthier body.

Furthermore, the physiological changes that occur in the form of weight loss are often a key factor impacting people’s self-esteem, self-confidence and self-image. Looks are not everything of course, but we all feel a bit better about ourselves if we think that we look healthier! With this in mind, there are specific benefits of exercise on mental health that I would like to emphasise, the first will be hormonal, and the second social.

Have you ever heard of the term ‘Runner’s High’? This is a feeling of euphoria felt during intense physical exercise. In response to the exercise, the brain releases good feeling chemicals (endorphins dopamine and serotonin) which can feel quite pleasurable as well as reduce pain. These same chemicals are released during all forms of exercise, even moderate physical movement (just not to the same levels!). Exercise feels good. These feelings are on top of the thoughts relating to ‘doing something good for yourself’.

The act of exercise forces you to ‘Change The Context’ (chapter 1.4). It gets you out of your current physical location, gets your body moving and can also involve a social aspect (more on this below). What’s more, exercise forces you to become ‘Present State Aware’ (chapter 1.1). By directing your focus onto the task at hand, exercise takes you out of your mind and into the present moment, disrupting the flow of rumination and negative self-talk.

The social aspect of exercise is the real hidden gem. Exercise is a great way to regularly catch up with a group of like-minded people and perform something that you all enjoy. Over time, you will develop new friendships that could last a lifetime.

There are endless options from team and individual sports, to running and cycling groups, to a gym buddy, group classes, or martial arts and dancing clubs. Think outside the box and try something interesting and new like rock climbing, scuba diving or horse riding.

Don’t think of exercise as boring. Provided that the activity is physical in nature, you will see the benefits. Exercise should be fun, if it isn’t, change activities until you find one you look forward to doing. Everyone is different, and it may take some time to find what exercise best suits you.

How To Start Exercising Daily

Slowly! The worst thing that you could do is to go from no exercise to lots of exercise instantly. You may be able to last a week or two, but eventually your body will fatigue, you will get injured or life circumstances will require more of your time. Ultimately you will stop exercising and have a negative association with it moving forward. This is completely undesirable. I suggest that you should ‘Change Habits Slowly’ (chapter 3.5). That means that over the span of months (or even years), slowly and incrementally working towards a daily exercise goal. This goal is completely up to you of course, but the WHO recommendations discussed earlier are a great option to start with.

If you go too hard too soon, you will fail. It is best to take it slow and guarantee success.

How fast you progress will be dependent upon a number of personal factors including: your current physical abilities, age, weight, existing health conditions, available exercise time, and personality traits. Regardless, you should slowly increase the amount, duration and intensity of your exercise sessions.

Similarly, what you choose to do for exercise will be completely up to you. It is well beyond the scope of this book to teach you the correct way to perform every different exercise (there are some great resources listed below that cover this), but regardless make sure that you are performing the exercise with good form. This will help to reduce the risk of short term injury and long term musculoskeletal issues.

Some people find that enlisting the help of a good personal trainer and physician is vital in this process. Beyond the external motivation benefits, these experts can help guide you through this process, regularly monitoring your physiological signs of overtraining, offering advice on nutrition as well as recovery suggestions. However the expense of these services can be prohibitive, if this is the case consider joining a group class and pick the brains of the instructor after class for advice. Alternatively ask for advice on the appropriate subreddit or forums specific to your chosen sport. Trust me, there will be an online community somewhere that is dedicated to helping passionate people to continue to do what they love, you just have to find it!

I didn’t just start exercising twice per day, it was slow process that has taken me many years to develop. During that time I have on many occasions pushed my body too hard to the point of overtraining and injury. Each time was because I tried to go to fast too soon. My body just wasn’t ready for the extra load and eventually broke. Each time this happened, I was side lined for an extended period of time while I waited for my body to recover. This was hell for my mental health as I was not able to take my preferred form of ‘medication’. Adding to the misery was that these breaks cost me in terms of strength and fitness levels. Each break caused a temporary drop in ability that I then had to re-earn.

Don’t be discouraged. Over time you will learn your limits, including what your body is capable of and how much rest it needs. But most importantly, if you start working towards a goal of exercising daily, your mental state will improve and your physical health will skyrocket.

Making Time For Exercise

Whenever you consider starting something new, it can seem impossible due to time constraints. This is a further reason to ‘Change Habits Slowly’ (chapter 3.5). If you try to add an hour to your day, it simply won’t fit. You will have to slowly get used to adding more time towards exercise each day.

The more you exercise, the more energy you will feel. You will be able to wake up earlier because you will be sleeping better and you won’t feel as much of a need to ‘just relax on the couch’ after work. For the time being, don’t worry about how to fit in all of the exercise you would like to, just make room for some. Trust me, as you start to feel the positive benefits, you will be increasingly motivated to exercise more. You will find the time.

———
TAKE ACTION

Consider what kind of exercise activity you would like to try (or do more of). Choose something that actually excites you and if performed would help you to obtain your physical, mental and social goals.

If at all possible start that exercise activity today, or at least do some research. Find out the local facilitators or group, look into how to do the activity and connect with other people already involved (in person or online). Look into the cost, duration and location and book yourself in.

Enjoy! I honestly think that this change will be a turning point in your life.

———

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: I am too old, sick, or injured – I can’t exercise.

A: Of course you should always follow the directions of your medical professionals. If they tell you not to exercise, don’t. But please don’t just assume that your current condition means that all exercise is off limits. In reality there are only a few conditions that completely preclude exercise of all forms. Your condition may limit what kind of exercise you can do, how strenuous to perform it, and for how long, but not all forms of exercise

A simple walk around the block, stretch, swim or light session of body weight exercise can do wonders. Speak to your doctors and ask them what you can do - then do it!

Q: What happens if you can’t exercise daily? I don’t want to become ‘addicted to exercise’ only to feel bad if I miss a session.

A: Honestly I am not impressed when I miss a session. For me, missing a session means that I don’t get to see my friends, practice my hobby or get the physical and mental health benefits. However it is not the end of the world, provided it is not a regular occurrence, it is fine. Life happens. There will always be things that get in the way.

To avoid this, I make sure to prioritise exercise first. If I know that I have to start getting ready for work at 7am, I will set the alarm for 6am to exercise. This may mean an earlier bed time the night before to ensure enough sleep.

Furthermore, I make sure to let my close family and friends know that I consider exercise as a form of medication, that way they know how important it is to me. It is easy to suggest someone skip ‘just another exercise session’ but it is much harder to suggest that they ‘skip taking their medication’.

Q: I am too depressed to even want to start exercising.

A: Starting anything will be a battle, especially when the symptoms of depression can drain all motivation, drive and will power to life yourself out of it. You will have to force yourself.

Dig deep and push. It won’t be easy, but it will get easier over time as you start to feel the benefits.

Resources
World Health Organisation Exercise Guidelines
Becoming A Supple Leopard, Kelly Starrett
The Top 10 Benefits of Regular Exercise, Healthline

Summary
Exercise daily. Beyond being one of the best ways to ensure optimal physical and mental health, it also feels great and is an amazing opportunity to socialise!