Incorporating 30 minutes of exercise into your day is so important right now because everyone is living more sedentary lives. So many people are working and interacting online, especially those like myself who work from home.

Mayo Clinic actually recommends that as a general goal to aim for at least 30 minutes of moderate physical activity every single day. While 30 minutes feels like a lot, especially for somebody who might be going from not working out at all, or not moving a lot to just wanting to get started.

I’ve actually heard that it’s more dangerous than smoking in regards to the cardiovascular and cancer risk. So sitting is actually more dangerous than smoking when you look at like the risk factors

The Impact and Importance Of Incorporating Exercise Into Your Routine

During COVID, I did Kendra Till’s online pilates class, and it was honestly my favorite part of the week because she just engaged with you and every single muscle group in a mindful way. It seems like subtle little movements that you make that you do not even realize have such a big impact on everything from your core to your glute muscles to just how you’re experiencing pain and walking throughout the day. 

It’s about the small things, even how you position yourself in your desk, or how you stand in line for a coffee. I know for me, that was a big thing I noticed. I would actually stand in position, and my weight would impact as I have a knee that will kind of bend in a little bit, and that also kind of comes into play whenever I’m exercising and that sort of thing. 

This mind body connection has helped me so much because everything you’re doing right now and the habits you put in place impact you five years from now. It’s a continuous cycle

These subtle movements make such an impact on everything. I had COVID at the end of January, I’ve been back to the doctor, and now I know I have long COVID. There are so many unknown factors as far as the research that’s been done on that so far as far as the symptoms. But for me, what that looks like is extreme fatigue, I get hot flashes, and I have some strange circulation things happening where my lower legs, feet, knees, and kind of calf area turn bright red. So basically making up a lot of excuses for why I’m not that it feels like that must have an impact on it. 

Transforming Your Mindset Around Exercise

I live in an apartment and often have to carry like five bags of groceries in. So I park out front, I have to bring the car around, bring the groceries up to the second level. I’m not gonna lie, sometimes I get a little bit frustrated because I’m like, “Oh, God, I have to do this extra step.” However, that’s actually a great mindset shift where I can say, “No, I’m working my muscles. This is actually a good thing.”

If you shift your mindset on those types of activities that you’re doing and knowing that this is actually really healthy for you, and actually working these specific parts of your body, that actually helps impact how you feel about your level of health and well being and fitness, and that inadvertently impacts other parts of your health system.

 Some people even get into flow state whenever they do housework. I’ve had a client actually ask if they could do housework as part of that. If that’s something that you enjoy, and that brings you that extra fulfillment of having something accomplished at the end of it for your own livelihood and your family’s livelihood. A lot of this is really about habits and habit building.

Building Sustainable Habits

 

If you want to start working out, the question you should ask yourself is, what habits do you do every day, and then you should ask, lay it on whatever that new habit is on to that high. For example, everyone’s brushing their teeth in the morning and in the evening, and so if that’s a habit that you’re doing every day, I’m going to tack on push-ups or whatever workout of your choice.

Atomic Habits by James Clear talks about bringing yourself 1% closer to the goal you want to achieve. So if you want to be the kind of person who works out every day, or does 30 minutes of exercise every day, then start with 1% of that goal. Get out your yoga mat, open up the video and do a minute of the workout. Whatever 1% of that goal is because you know you need small wins to start with, and once you start doing those small wins, you can add on to it and slowly pack on to that. 

Do What Motivates You

 

My mom was really excited about doing an exercise bike, and I actually tried to talk her out of it at first because I know how important it is to be able to get outside and get moving and having 10 minutes of early morning sunlight exposure. I was really trying to push that, and all she wanted to do is get an exercise bike. So if that is something that would inspire and motivate you to get moving and incorporate that into your 30 minutes of daily exercise, I say get the damn exercise bike if that’s what you want to do and will get you moving.

How Do You Know If You Have Formed A New Habit

 

In the Huberman lab, Andrew Huberman talks about this in great length. The strength of a habit is dictated by how much limbic friction you need to overcome to perform the behavior and how much context-dependence there is. So that means that do you perform the habit no matter what, or only when you’re calm and rested in the presence of others, and caffeinated? Then depending on your answer that, that’s how you know whether or not you have built the habit, or maybe you need to keep working on building that habit.

The more that you can do it without those other things at play, then you know that it’s become a natural part of your day. I know for me, this is a big thing because I like to go to the gym in the morning. When I want to work out and I can do that in a way where I’m not caffeinated. Where as sometimes  I need caffeine to be able to get a workout started. I always like rally my friends to work out at whatever gym I’m going to because I know that that’s a good accountability system for me. So while I am making that into my morning routine, it is nearly almost a habit for me.