How Should I Exercise?
How much should I exercise? What sort of exercises should I do?
These are a great couple of questions I get, often from patients nearing the end of their care plan. They have been working hard on the corrective exercises and are finding the power of human movement. This is how I answer them:
Becoming a lifelong mover (which we should all be) is a marathon (sometimes literally), not a sprint (also sometimes literally). You also have to move away from the narrow definition that we give exercise. Most think of exercise as a 60-90 minute routine at a commercial gym where you pick a machine, do 3 sets of 10, and move on to the next thing you see. That not only gets boring really quick, but doesn’t fit into most of our schedules or goals.
1. Movement is like a restaurant. Understand your exercise menu.
Instead of giving specific exercise recommendations, it is good to understand the different types of exercise by what they do for the body.
Strength Training: 2-3 days per week of full body strength training. This can vary greatly on time, but 20 minutes is a good starting point. Then, work your way up to 60 minutes. Focus on full body movements, such as squatting, deadlifting, and overhead movements.
Zone 2 Cardio: 3 days per week for approx. 45 minutes. Zone 2 cardio is a lower heart rate cardio where you should keep a “conversational pace.” Meaning, you should be able to talk without losing your breath for the duration of the workout. This could be a brisk walk, bike ride, or even a slow paced run depending on your level of cardio.
VO2 Max Cardio (Zone 5): Once per week for approx. 20 minutes. This is when you are trying to reach your max heart rate for short bursts of time. Our VO2 max (the maximal amount of oxygen we can take in with each breath) significantly declines as we age and can have a variety of negative effects, which is why dedicating one day a week to it is important. Examples of this would be high intensity interval training (HIIT) or sprinting.
2. Create short term goals to keep you engaged for the long term.
Most of us exercise for longevity. We want to keep our physical abilities and age like fine wine. This is a great long term goal. But, often it is easier to enjoy this process if we set different short term goals to keep us engaged in exercise. These can be things like a turkey trot, 5k, half-marathon if you really love running, obstacle course race, bike race, hiking a national park, etc. There are so many options here, but looking ahead and picking something quarterly or biannually to look forward to is a great way to keep buy-in for the long run (pun not intended).
3. Choose movements (doesn’t have to be exercise specific) that you enjoy most.
Exercise is meant to be enjoyable! It won’t always be, but for the most part it should be something you look forward to in your day. So, what movements make you happy? Hate running for cardio, but love dancing? Then dance instead. Not all of exercise should be delayed gratification.
4. Find a community of movement enthusiasts to join you on your journey.
Humans are communal by nature. Despite what social media makes us feel, we like to lift each other up and genuinely desire the best for each other. Finding a group of people to exercise with does just as much good for you mentally as it does physically. There is nothing better than socializing while riding high off of endorphins after voluntarily suffering through a workout with others.
Finding a community can be achieved by attending a gym designed for small group (example: F-45), but it can also be done for free with things like run clubs, cycling groups, etc. Facebook groups are the best way to find these local communities. Most of them allow people of all fitness levels, so don’t think you have to do things on your own till you “make the cut.”
Final Remarks
Feeling overwhelmed? Remember, some exercise, no matter how small, is better than no exercise. Give yourself grace, start small, and go from there. I promise it will be one of the best decisions you ever make.
