A PSA to the field of fitness.
We should all apologize
No no, not you. I am talking to the fitness industry. The Instagram models, the Facebook personal trainers, the shove it in your face fitness buffs that make the average American frozen in fear when it comes to making a healthy change in their life. I should know, I am a part of the problem. I have been that fitness buff for the past 10 years of my life and I must say my focus is shifting. If I see one more ad about how you can go keto in 10 days or less and change your life, I will puke. No literally, it makes me sick to my stomach. This industry is flooded with misinformation and it is hurting people. People are jumping from diet to diet, ruining their metabolism, hormones, endocrine and immune systems. It is tragic. I am here to genuinely share the knowledge I have acquired working with clients from all walks of life, with various stories, goals, and experiences. I am going to strip things way down to the very core of where I believe this root buried itself and created a strong hold. More on that soon, but first, in true Lauren fashion, let me digress.
I have been thinking quite a bit about what holds people back in life, myself included. We hold ourselves back from trying new experiences, from making new changes, from being vulnerable and from realizing our potential. But why? Why would we avoid all of these things that could potentially be life changing and quite frankly, positive for our holistic well-being? You can run down quite the rabbit hole when you begin to think about this topic and specifically all the roads that lead to complacency. I believe that complacency and being ‘held-back’ go hand in hand. You might be thinking to yourself, ‘nah not me, I am flourishing!’ Well, that’s great, good for you. I guess I am just a devil’s advocate and perfectionist that is never quite satisfied with where I am or what I have accomplished. However, I bet others of you have quite a few reasons or ‘rationalizations’ for the complacency that resides in certain areas of your life. They might be coming to mind right now. Whatever camp you reside in, understand that this post will focus on why so many people are being held back from making true change in their health. It will also outline some tips to begin making change. Change that happens day by day. Change that accumulates with one small choice at a time. So if this topic doesn’t particularly interest you, you may want to stop reading now.
The root grows deep
A study from 2010 reveals the following facts, “In 1970, 2 in 10 working Americans were in jobs requiring only light activity (predominantly sitting at a desk), whereas 3 in 10 were in jobs requiring high-energy output (eg, construction, manufacturing, farming). By 2000, more than 4 in 10 adults were in light-activity jobs, whereas 2 in 10 were in high-activity jobs” (Brownson). As a nation, we are lowering our activity levels, and this is having a drastic effect on our health. In fact, this low activity and sedentary lifestyle epidemic has gotten so tragic that we are now forced to differentiate between the two lifestyle types. Recent evidence suggests that the long-term health effects of “too little exercise” and “too much sitting” exhibit distinctly different consequences (Dunstan, Katzmarzyk). You heard me right. Our world has taken inactivity and laziness to an entirely new level. We now have varying degrees of inactivity. Exercising too little is not enough of a description anymore. Now we can exercise too little and sit too much, which equates to different health consequences than just exercising too little.
Examining 7 days of accelerometer data from a nationally representative sample of 1714 white adults aged 20 to 59 years from the US National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, it is unfortunate to find that over 58% of waking hours were spent sedentary (sitting, lying, relaxing, with minimal energy expenditure) and only 3% was spent exercising (CDC).
Data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.
Now before I continue let me pull the log out of my own eye (as my good pal Jesus would say) and recognize that I am not here to be casting judgment on the majority of the world population. As a fitness professional, I fall victim to this as well. I am currently sitting writing this blog… I tend to ‘workout’ for fifty to seventy-five minutes four times a week. If I do the math, I too am in that three to seven percent of my total hours awake range for exercise. This study is by no means telling you that it is necessary to exercise for hours a day. The focus here is on light activity. Regardless of if you are sedentary and low activity or a high performing weightlifter, your light activity time is what matters! The more time you spend performing light activity, the less time you are being sedentary.
My point here is simple.
We can all do better. We can raise our standards and we can hold ourselves and one another accountable. Why? Our lives literally depend on it. Studies have found that moderate levels of physical activity can reduce the likelihood of developing several chronic health conditions, most notably type 2 diabetes mellitus, obesity, cardiovascular disease, and many types of cancers (Chakravarthy). I am very passionate about this. I am tired of seeing people in pain, people stuck in bad habits, and people lost with no guidance in this vast ocean that is health and fitness. Studies have found that three-hours of brisk walking a week will do the trick in fulfilling moderate levels of physical activity. Read that again. Brisk walking a few times a week can reduce your risk for obesity, cancer, and cardiovascular disease. Let’s assume we sleep six-eight hours a night, that leaves seventeen hours each day to move briskly. This accumulates to one-hundred and nineteen hours that we could choose to move throughout an entire week. Now the question. Can you look at your friends and family in the face and tell them that three tiny hours of movement a week are not worth decreasing your risk of developing terrible health conditions? How about ten to twenty minutes a day of light activity? My guess, you answered no to those questions. So now what?
Life Application
If we take those three hours and split them into five bouts of movement, you are looking at thirty-six minute walking sessions. Let me feed a fed horse here (a more PC way of saying beat a dead horse), another study found a dose-response relationship between being sedentary and mortality. Let that sink in deep. In simple terms, a dose response means that the more you do one thing the higher the rate or risk of the other. The more sedentary we are, the more our mortality increases. That boggles my mind. How can something so harmless, like sitting, kill me? I cannot speak for you, but I do not want to be a victim of the times. I want to do something about this in my life, and in the lives of those around me. So where do we go from here?
If sitting is literally killing people, do the exact opposite, light activity.
Example: Each day I try to wake up and perform some light bodily activation techniques for ten minutes or so, then as I work, I always alternate from sitting to standing. I cook lunch fresh at home, which is more light activity then I stretch for ten to fifteen minutes. On days I do not exercise I walk my dog for thirty minutes and have random two to three minute bouts of play and movement throughout my work day. I realize everyone does not work from home. Do you have an office? Shut the door and do some stretches. Is that weird? Perhaps. Take a walk to the bathroom or break room a few times a day. There are always options, but we must be intentional about it. On the reverse end, for those that exercise often and vigorously, your training session at the gym is not enough. There are still eleven plus hours in a day to account for and ensure we are being lightly active. It is possible to be a sedentary athlete. Soap box over, to my next point.
We are unable to see the potential for positive change in our daily activities.
We try to make things more complicated than needed. Our entire day is made up of choices. Every single choice has an impact on the next choice and subsequently, the rest of our day. If you are serious about this and are truly ready to make a change, you can start with the brisk walking. Can you handle 5 minutes in the morning? That is better than you were doing and is progress towards a healthier goal. Is it too cold outside? Do it inside! We need to stop making excuses. Houses have space, stairs and are a great way to start moving. However, most of us are not ready to go from zero to sixty. That is totally acceptable. We can start small. Super small.
Light activity examples:
Stand when you work, work on the ground, work while stretching, BE ON THE GROUND (it is good for your tissues)
Find a parking spot far away and use it!
Park far away when you go to the store
When you sit down, set a timer for 20 minutes, when it goes off plan to walk somewhere or perform some type of movement
If you take a bus or train, walk to the next stop
Wash and dry your dishes by hand twice a week and get a nice arm workout
Clean your house an extra time, even if it is fairly clean
Take the stairs not the elevator
Stand when you talk on the phone
Hide that remote, that Ipad, that Iphone, that tablet…
I will finish with this thought. Give yourself some grace. We see what other people are doing, we compare ourselves to them, we feel less than and make ourselves powerless. Would it be great if you headed to the gym and started lifting weights, made kale smoothies every morning, walked for thirty minutes every night, and went to bed at 8PM? Sure! That would be awesome. But are you ready for that? Maybe not, and that is perfectly fine. Know where you are, have a clear goal of where you want to go, and be okay with taking important, yet small, steps to get there. Most importantly, find someone to help you on this journey. Accountability is key!
Now go forth and make one choice for positive change this week. You might surprise yourself when you see the domino effect begin.
Lauren Hyser
CEO of Reaction