Exercise

This is a public service piece as it’s a little outside of my wheelhouse professionally. The reason being I don’t enjoy the endless excuses, blame and denial which as it turns out seem to be fundamental values of people who need exercise the most.  

If you prefer video over reading, watch this talk I gave in Sydney in late 2019. 

The topic is exercise and having the work capacity and fitness to not only deal with, but excel in life. 

The number of people who are unnecessarily sick. Who are unnecessarily depressed. Who are unnecessarily unhappy. Who are unnecessarily immobile. Which cumulatively lead to an array of chronic diseases and shortened health-span due in part to a chronic lack of exercise. A chronic lack of movement. A chronic lack of daily physical activity is mind blowing. This is the real epidemic facing the western world.

Yes subpar nutrition, poor sleeping habits, alcohol, recreational drugs and the like also contribute. Today the focus is on the exercise component. If you don’t use it, you loose it.

Interestingly, the push or encouragement for society to exercise regularly is common knowledge, but that’s as far as it goes. 

There’s limited financial incentive for governments, doctors or companies to positively up scale exercise in society outside of the lip service it currently receives. Compare that to the promotion of breakfast cereals over the past 30 years as an example. Companies have an enormous financial incentive to have everyone starting their day ingesting a cheap processed sugar hit.  

Clear financial incentives exist for this practice. There is no financial incentive for said company to market, advertise, promote or invest in you getting into shape via regular daily exercise. 

With this clear it’s evident no one is coming to save you. Instead best employ a superior personal philosophy of ‘if it’s to be it’s up to me’.  

It’s rare air when it comes to these personal philosophies though. Here’s a brief snapshot of random conversations from January 2023:

Wife not happy with her body:

Wife to husband – You’ve got to throw out all the chocolates we got for Xmas. They can’t be in the house. 

Husband to wife – Chocolate doesn’t jump into your mouth. I’ll throw it all out but why haven’t you already? Take responsibility. 

Friend telling me about his girlfriend who’s been on antidepressants for 20 years: 

Friend – She doesn’t exercise. 

Me – Are you serious? 20 years of medication and no one thought to investigate possibly the greatest antidepressant available? Not suggesting it’s a replacement, but am suggesting there’s low hanging fruit that’s not been picked. 

A friend sharing an update on his older brother at a group breakfast: 

Friend – He’s not great. His doctor said that his body is warning him. His blood work is worrying. He’s now overweight, stressed, depressed, still smoking and hates his job. I’ve been setting him up with new employment opportunities but he’s not ready to change. 

Me – Does he exercise? 

Friend – No. 

Me – Rationally it’s such an easy fix. Unfortunately we humans are emotional beings, so it’s rarely that easy to execute. Physically what does he like to do or might be interested in? One of the greatest ways to at least temporarily change a person’s state is via exercise/moving the body.  

Same friend at the same breakfast: 

Friend – A bunch of my mates’ wives have ‘internet sickness’. 

Me – What’s that? 

Friend – Getting sick following advice found on the internet. Don’t get me wrong, the internet has incredible information and solutions but equally it can be a trap. For instance going down a rabbit hole, withdrawing from the world and blaming the government, science, their parents, etc for why they don’t feel well. They’ll join a ‘community’ of people they’ve never physically met and live through a screen. 

Me – Interesting. Not heard of that but it makes sense. I love the internet and what it offers, but discerning what’s valuable and what’s not is more important than ever. Also getting out into the physical world as opposed to hiding from it inside, is poison to the mind and body. After 30+ years of consistent training I’m at a point where if exercise isn’t a part of a health intervention, I strongly question the intervention. (for points I’ve written above so won’t repeat again here)

An older couple my family has known since I was a child. 

Mum – xxx and xxx are not well. Xxx has pneumonia and covid and xxx is immoblie because of the surgery and probably has covid too. 

Me – Mum unfortunately their health-span ended decades ago. It’s been downhill since. There’s no more good news because they never cared to invest in their health. Name me a single time either of them have exercised as adults in the 50 years you’ve known them? 

Mum – Never. 

Me – We all know no one gets out of life alive, but some can enjoy the ride to the max with an extended health-span, like you and Dad are. Xxx and xxx health-span ended 30 years ago. It’s not coming back. Not because it couldn’t, but because they won’t do anything about it. I feel they’re too far gone.

What To Do? 

Whatever you enjoy doing and most importantly will do consistently throughout your life. It’s that simple. Ideally it makes you sweat, elevates your heart rate, alters your breathing and requires some form of weight bearing/resistance. If it requires some sort of skill development even better.  

Soccer, touch football, surfing, hiking, running, swimming, cycling, martial arts, boxing, tennis, basketball, dancing, yoga, kitesurfing, triathlon, rock climbing. The list is endless.  

Give yourself bonus points for activities that expose you to the wonders of nature – sunshine, fresh air, the ocean, mountains and the like – and/or a community of healthy people. 

Furthermore, in my view certain training activities connect us to reality more than others. I feel the benefit of these physical endeavours extend beyond the focus of this article. I’ll save this for another day. 

Underwhelm Yourself

This is valuable advice from Cameron Quinn. Start by underwhelming yourself. If your plan is to exercise 30 mins/day. Start with 3 minutes building it up from there. I’m not exaggerating. Underwhelm yourself. 

Build positive habits reinforced by successful outcomes via manipulating your training duration initially. A three minute training session done is superior to a planned thirty minute session that never happens. Next week extend it to four minutes. The following week five minutes. And so on. Building this daily habit can be life changing.  

A friend has spasmodic exercise habits. After not exercising for two months over the Christmas holidays she did light weighted squats at the gym the first day back resulting in not being able to move for three days. A poor training decision resulting in an unacceptable outcome and further reducing her desire to train.

I had the ‘underwhelm yourself’ discussion with her. Now I’m having it with you. Start so easy it seems like a waste of time. It’s not. Once the habit is built and the body starts adapting, never stop. 

This fantastic video expands more on this concept:

There you have it. A brief overview on exercise. An ingredient missing from too many peoples lives. Add it yours if it’s not already a staple.