Move Every Day
I believe in exercise on a daily basis. Your body is meant to move and I (and other fitness professionals) think it needs to move every day. Now don’t get scared, because this doesn’t mean you should be lifting weights or running stairs every day. Exercise and movement don’t need to be strenuous, and realistically the majority of your workouts and daily movement should be low intensity.
People get intimidated by exercise because they think it always needs to be a gut-busting HIIT workout. After a hard session I’ll frequently ask a client what they’re doing the next couple days. Usually they’ll say they’re going to rest and they will exercise again next time they see me. 99% of the time I would advise against this. No, I would not recommend doing another hard session the day after meeting with me, however, there is no reason you cannot perform easy movement the next day. The “No pain no gain” mentality is wrecking people’s perception of fitness, and it is absolutely detrimental to a healthy relationship with it.
WRONG
The American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) recommends that adults accumulate at LEAST 150 minutes of cardiovascular activity alone each week, which can be thought of as 5 days of 30-minutes each day. They also recommend at least 2 days of strength training each week spread evenly among muscle groups. After a bit of simple math you can see why I recommend moving every day. In addition to general health and fitness, mitigation of metabolic diseases such as high blood pressure and diabetes is best developed by frequent, low-intensity movement bouts versus less frequent high-intensity exercise.
Now there is some wiggle room to these standards. The first exception I make is for someone who has been extremely sedentary for at least six months. This person needs to ease back into exercise, starting at 2-3 days per week and gradually building over weeks and months to 6-7.
The second exception I make is for people who are simply not mentally ready for this lifestyle. If 6 days a week of exercise seems impossible I won’t tell you to still do it. We’ll start with a manageable goal that pushes you, get used to it, then keep extending until we are exercising just about every day. Included in this group are people who have been working very hard and feel they need a day off to mentally rest.
The third case where exercise isn’t needed every day is for the athlete. If you are training extremely hard 6 days a week then you deserve (and need) a full day off once in a while. Most of you reading this will not qualify unfortunately :(
The final exception is injury or illness. More full days of rest are needed in these situations and I always advise erring on the side of caution.
What about off days?? Great question. Barring the cases mentioned previously I do not believe in them. Life doesn’t give you off days and your health doesn’t either. I know this may sound intense to some, but it’s true. Remember the cases I mentioned just a second ago? These are the only reasons I believe someone should actually PLAN an off day. The key word here is “Plan”. Yes, we will plan off days for these reasons:
-Physical and/or mental health if training very hard
-Reducing plan intimidation
-Injury/illness
-Reducing fatigue temporarily
-A sedentary person beginning a plan
So you will have planned off days for those reasons and those reasons only.
The other reason for an off day is when life throws you a curveball and forces you to take a day off. By “forces” I really mean forces. This is where prioritization comes in. A few excuses I’ve heard for a forced off day over the years:
-I had to study for a test
-It was my son’s graduation
-It was raining
Notice how for each of these objections to exercise they are relatively easy to overcome. Take a 20-minute break from studying to run, workout before the graduation ceremony, buy a jacket or workout inside. See? Easy. Well not easy, because yes, I know we’re not all robots and there is a certain level of energy you have to put in to overcome these challenges. Finding this energy and motivation is a practice and it is a habit that needs to be built over time. But if you get one thing out of this article it’s this; nine times out of ten there is a way to fit exercise into your day. Where there’s a will there’s a way, it’s just a matter of increasing your desire to get it done.
Rather than looking at the downside of exercising more let’s look at a couple upsides:
Benefit #1: The more you exercise the more you can eat and the leaner you will be! The more calories you burn every day the more wiggle room you have in your diet. If you burn 1,000 calories exercising you can eat another 500 calories and still lose weight! You can use this as a tool if you know you will be overindulging later in the day. Try to get an extra 20-30 minutes in at the gym and indulge guilt-free.
Benefit #2: Moving more generally improves health, quality of life, and longevity. Studies show that more active people suffer less than inactive people in all areas of life. Put in the physical work and reap the rewards later.
Benefit #3: People who burn more calories tend to be slimmer and have more self-confidence. Sacrifice short term comfort for long term happiness, you won’t regret it.
“But Mark, I need my lazy days”
Studies show that just a few days of bedrest can have negative consequences on a person’s hormonal levels and musculoskeletal strength. Recently a client showed me his steps and for two days in a row he logged less than 500. I equate this to a day of bedrest. This is a very negative experience for the body (unless you are very sick or recovering from injury or extremely intense exercise). Please don’t ever let this happen.
If life has been overwhelming and you simply cannot get yourself to exercise I do have sympathy for you. However, even if you’re tired and have an “off” day from exercise, please move. A “lazy day” can still have an easy 30-minute walk somewhere in those 24 hours. Getting in this easy movement will do wonders for you mentally and help stave off detrimental effects that will occur from not moving at all. So please, even on an “off day,” get the blood flowing. Your body will thank you.
