What comes to mind, I wonder, when someone says 'Exercise'? Visions of sweaty, smelly gyms and lycra-clad people? Squeezing into a leotard that makes you look like an over-stuffed sofa? Pounding around the streets gasping for oxygen and looking like a tomato? Or maybe even further back (and I'm really showing my age here), big blue knickers, freezing cold playgrounds and charging around after a wet, muddy netball?
Whatever your experience of exercise, for many people it isn't a good one. We often view it as something we 'ought to do' to be healthy and lose weight, and we live with the constant worry that we're not doing enough of it. We are convinced by the glossy adverts for gym memberships in January that if only we could get up earlier and go to the gym 5 mornings a week, somehow we will transform into a super model or at least be able to wear a bikini with other people present.
I utterly and sincerely hated PE when I was at school and unfortunately a bad experience of 'sport' or 'Physical Exercise' can put many of us off forever.
Well I'm here to tell you that while, yes, exercise can have an amazing impact on our physical and mental well-being, it does not have to be (and indeed shouldn't be) unpleasant, painful or ridiculously time-consuming. Our hunter-gatherer ancestors didn't have gyms, aerobics classes or FitBits, and I'm fairly certain they didn't wear leotards. (Does anyone actually wear a leotard any more?). Primal movement is designed to mimic the natural movements that hunter-gatherer communities use in their daily lives; movements that work the whole body but without strain or a big risk of injury – as a hunter-gatherer, injury can mean starvation if you can't gather food; in fact, our hunter-gatherer ancestors probably did the minimum amount of work they could - there's no point in wasting energy. This blog addresses the truth about exercise, how much you need and what it can look like, and hopefully will give you some ideas on how to incorporate movement happily and comfortably into your life.
Note – if you are in any doubt, please consult your doctor before embarking on a new exercise programme.
1. 80% of your body composition is determined by what you eat
Or as the quote goes – 'You can't out-run a bad diet'. If weight-loss is your goal then the first place you have to look is in your pantry and fridge. Exercise has many huge health benefits, but as a weight-loss tool it's not effective (I'll talk about why a bit later). If you exercise like crazy but continue to eat sugars, grains, too many refined carbs and industrially refined oils, you may be able to keep your weight stable for a while but you will still be subject to insidious fat-gain, systemic inflammation and overly-stressed joints and muscles which can eventually lead to poor overall health. So before you even think about exercising, take a good look at your diet to make sure you're giving yourself the best possible chance.
Then you can move onto the other 20%....
2. The Other 20%
Exercise is actually just 10% , with reducing stress, good sleep, sunshine and play together making up the last 10%.
Exercise is hugely important to our health, but unfortunately, it has been hijacked by big business, health companies and ill-informed health 'advisors' until it has become a multi-million pound/euro/dollar money-maker. But you really don't need any special equipment, gadgets, clothing or training to get maximum health benefits from everyday movements. Although to be fair, I do love browsing in Decathlon, our local sports shop – somehow I just feel healthier by looking at the stuff. Many years ago at college, I had a friend who used to walk through health food shops and watch Mr Motivator (hands up who remembers him?) because she said it made her feel healthy. And, to be fair, if looking at really nice sports clothing or visiting a wholefoods shop inspires you to make changes to your lifestyle, then that's great – probably better than browsing Instagram and getting depressed about Photoshopped pictures of the latest Influencer, but I digress -
Without doubt, a sedentary lifestyle leads to some severe health problems* – muscle-loss, reduced insulin sensitivity, which in turn can lead to obesity and metabolic syndrome; increased fat-storage, poor heart and lung function and even a deterioration of mental abilities. Sitting has actually been labelled the 'new smoking' in terms of the health damage it can do. A large study concluded that being sedentary doubled the risk of both T2 diabetes and stroke.
So how do you get the best health results?
3. The Problem with Chronic Cardio
Chronic Cardio is the expression Mark Sisson uses to describe overly-stressful, prolonged workouts at above your Aerobic Heart Rate**. Without getting seriously geeky on the science, your aerobic heart rate is where your body is primarily using fat for energy – this is because fat needs the presence of oxygen to burn whereas glucose (carbohydrate) doesn't. Regularly and frequently exercising above this rate can lead to chronic stress, systemic inflammation, injuries and increased fat storage (see below).
Your aerobic heart-rate can be roughly calculated as 180 minus your age, so for me at 57, it will be 180-57= 123 beats per minute. And if that sounds way too geeky and complicated, a good way to know if you're at an aerobic heart rate is whether you can breathe through your nose – once you start puffing, you know you have gone above it. This will obviously vary a lot depending on your starting fitness level but that actually makes it very personal to you and as you gain strength and fitness, you will find you can do more before reaching that level.
The problem with aerobic heart rate is that it will feel much too easy. The 'no pain, no gain' mantra of the 80's still makes us believe that if it's not hurting, it's not working – and that simply isn't true. By keeping to your aerobic heart-rate, you will make maximum gains health-wise without the risks associated with chronic cardio.
4. Glucose-burning and fat gain
Exercising regularly above your aerobic heart-rate will probably, in the end, cause you to gain weight! No, I hear you say, my FitBit/Smart Watch/My Fitness Pal tell me that I can burn those calories away! Well, yes you can, but have you any idea how much you need to do to cancel out those calories? To give you an idea, to burn off one medium iced doughnut, you would need to walk briskly for about 3 miles. Not to mention the carbs, sugar and vegetable oils that you'll also be consuming. The problem is that once you go above your aerobic heart-rate, your body starts to burn glucose over fat because glucose doesn't need oxygen to burn. This leads to you running out of energy very quickly and more often than not, overcompensating afterwards because your body is telling you to refuel, quickly. I used to swim before work – in the glorious days of having a 9-5 job instead of teaching – I would swim hard for 25-30 minutes then have a large vanilla latte as a 'treat' when I got out – talk about undoing all my hard work. I wonder how many of you have done an aerobics class (now that's a misnomer if ever there was one) and had a sweet treat after as a reward? If you did, don't beat yourself up – you were doing what your body was desperately telling you to do. Just know that if you keep below your aerobic heart-rate, you won't get the cravings.
An amusing factoid: the sudden loss of energy because of lack of glucose is known in America as 'bonking'; maybe not an expression you would use if you're English – 'Ooo, I had to stop in the middle of my run because I was bonking'
5. Everyday movement
The best way to get exercise into your life is to simply move more in the day. Take the stairs; walk the dog (or cat, or child, or just by yourself); stand while on the phone; walk for 10 minutes during your lunch break or after breakfast; park as far as you can from the shops and walk across the car park; meet a friend for a walk with a take-out coffee instead of sitting down; ride a bike, swim, learn to dance – every single one of these will add valuable movement to your day – and you won't have to wear lycra! If you have a sedentary job, try to get up and move around at least once every 30 minutes – I know how easy it is just to get stuck in front of a computer and realise that several hours have gone by.
6. Natural Movements
If you watch children playing, you will know what I mean by natural movements. Children move instinctively and for fun – they run, crawl, skip, roll, climb, swing, build dens, throw balls, chase each other – and all of these movements build muscle, resilience, stamina and agility. Somehow, as we grow up, we lose these movements; we think they're childish and we'd rather go to a gym or join an exercise class but those can never replace the spontaneity and variety of pure natural movements. This is partly why in Primal living so much emphasis is on play – playing generally involves lots of unplanned and spontaneous movements which challenge not only your body but your mind too. So whether it's a game of chase in the park with the children or grandchildren, a water fight in the swimming pool or in the sea, paddle boarding (Yes!), a gentle game of tennis with a friend or maybe even a tree-climbing competition with your other half, rediscover your inner child and get some real movement. If you can do these outside and barefoot, so much the better.
7. Primal Essential Movements (PEMs)
Unless we consciously counteract it, one of the downsides of getting older is that we naturally lose muscle mass. It can be as much as 5% loss per decade from the age of 30 onwards which is significant. The sad fact is that many falls in elderly people, which can result in long-term disability, are often as a result of a lack of strength due to muscle loss. Another consideration is that muscles burn more calories than fat, so the more muscle you have, the more calories you'll burn, even when you're asleep – how good is that!
Whilst you can, if you're inclined, join a gym and do weigh-lifting and strength training with an instructor, you really don't need to. You can actually get a really good strength session using just the weight of your body. Mark Sisson calls these the Primal Essential Movements or PEMs. You can do them pretty much anywhere and they take up surprisingly little time. I have attached links to videos of Mark demonstrating the different movements for different levels but to keep it simple, here they are.
Please listen to your body – these should be energising and although they need to be challenging, you should stop if you feel pain.
The best thing about these basic movements is that you can do them in a very short space of time. Just 2 sessions a week doing 2 sets of each will be enough to keep you strong. I can do 2 sets of each to 'failure' – that is until I can't do them keeping a proper form – in about 20 minutes, including a warm up and a breather. And to give you an idea of where I was at when I started, I couldn't do more than 10 squats or 5 kneeling push-ups, and maybe 3 seconds of Plank!
8. Sprint occasionally (High Intensity Interval Training - HIIT)
Hunter-gatherers ancient and modern sprint occasionally, whether it's to catch some lunch or escape from danger and sprinting has some outstanding health benefits.*** Without going into too much technical detail, sprinting causes a brief and intense burst of adrenaline and cortisol and muscles are pushed to their limit for very short bursts. These brief bursts of stress stimulate muscle development, optimize fat-burning, improve insulin sensitivity, reduce abdominal fat and release a whole load of feel-good hormones into your bloodstream. In recent studies, people who did HIIT saw a bigger loss in abdominal fat compared to those doing conventional exercise programmes.
Sprinting can be done any way and anywhere. While actual sprinting i.e. running is an excellent thing, you can sprint on a stationary bike, run upstairs, swim or even do it on the spot. The idea is to simply push yourself to maximum effort for just a few seconds. If you're just starting out, you might just do 3 lots of 10 second bursts then gradually build up to maybe 3 x 20 seconds.
And you don't need to do this often – maybe once in every 7-10 days, and only when you're feeling really good and motivated. You should finish feeling exhilarated and buzzing rather than exhausted.
So, to recap, if you add more movement and play into your everyday life, do a couple of strength sessions a week and occasionally do an all-out sprint session you will be making impressive improvements to your health with a very small time commitment – maybe less than an hour a week all in. But the most important thing is that you enjoy what you do – if you do something you like, you'll do more of it and the fitter you get, the more you will want and be able to do.
Why not try just a few of these ideas and let me know how you get on – like me, you might find that exercise can actually be fun.
References:
* Systematic review and meta-analysis: E.G. Wilmot et al, Diabetologia
Too Much Sitting: The Population-Health Science of Sedentary Behavior
** Dr. Phil Maffetone The Big Book of Endurance Training and Racing
*** Professor Jamie Timmons, Kings College London;
The effects of high-intensity training on fat loss and fasting insulin levels of young women Int J Obes (Lond) 2008
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