In this episode, I talk about four simple but powerful ways to be more active in daily life.
Experts now agree that your overall level of movement—not your formal workouts—is the single most important factor for long-term health. You can’t just hit your morning spin class and then sit around the rest of the day. In fact, research on the “Active Couch Potato Syndrome” shows that even devoted exercisers can suffer from the diseases of sedentary living if the rest of their life is spent in a chair. Katy Bowman calls this the “lazy athlete mentality,” where you give yourself a hall pass for inactivity because you already worked out.
I share four specific ways to break that pattern: start a morning exercise routine to set the tone for the day, sprinkle in brief micro workouts whenever you can, find more opportunities to walk (yes, even laps around the block count), and finally, add properly structured workouts to maintain strength and muscle mass.
These habits not only boost energy and focus, but form the foundation for longevity, vitality, and graceful aging.
TIMESTAMPS:
The single most important obligation for human health is to just increase all forms of general everyday activity than it is to adhere to a devoted fitness regimen. [01:01]
Burn more energy and get out of this energy toxicity situation. [04:10]
Starting your day with an exercise routine has many benefits. Do something toward movement as soon as you wake up every day. [06:12]
Micro workouts are described as just a brief interlude from your busy life. It can be something explosive and powerful like taking the stairs instead of elevator or even squats at your work cubicle. [08:50]
Walk more in general every day. [11:36]
Of course structured workouts are wonderful and contribute to a long, healthy, active, energetic life. [12:57]
LINKS:
- Brad Kearns.com
- BradNutrition.com
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- Brad’s Shopping Page
- BornToWalkBook.com
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TRANSCRIPT:
Brad (00:00):
Welcome to the B.rad podcast – where we explore ways to pursue peak performance with passion throughout life. I’m Brad Kearns, NY Times bestselling author, world #1 ranked masters age 60-plus high jumper, and former #3 world-ranked professional triathlete. You’ll learn how to stay fit, strong and powerful as you age; transform your diet to lose body fat and increase energy; sort through hype and misinformation to make simple, sustainable lifestyle changes; and broaden your perspective beyond a fit body to experience healthy relationships, nonstop personal growth, and ultimately a happy, healthy, long life. Let’s explore beyond shortcuts, hacks, and crushing competition to laugh, have fun, appreciate the journey, and not take ourselves too seriously. It’s time to B.rad!
Brad (00:51):
It really comes down to evolutionary health and the idea that the homo sapien species is obligated or optimal genetic expression to be.
Brad (01:01):
We have here a very important, simple, memorable breather show on four ways to be more active in life. And guess what? This is now being recognized by most experts as the single most important obligation for human health. It’s more important to just increase all forms of general everyday activity than it is to adhere to a devoted fitness regimen. There’s scientific research is called the Active Couch potato syndrome, where people who are devoted to a fitness program nevertheless suffer from the diseases of sedentary living if they have all these other sedentary patterns in life. Katy Bowman has this concept that she calls the lazy athlete mentality, where because you went to the gym and did your 6:00 AM spin class, you give yourself a hall pass for the rest of the day to sit around and be less active. So if we can elevate the objective to just move around more in daily life in a variety of different ways, that is going to pay off with tremendous benefits toward longevity, energy, vitality, like few other things.
Brad (02:12):
It really comes down to evolutionary health and the idea that the homo sapien species is obligated for optimal genetic expression to be in a near a state of, near constant movement throughout the day. That’s how our hunter gatherer ancestors lived. There was no sitting around in a chair for hours on end or on a couch. We hunted, we gathered <laugh> and we slept and we got up and we were moving around most of the time. So of course, we don’t want to shatter all the conventions of modern life, but we have to figure out ways to be more active in general. And I have four great ideas for you, and this is so nice to see it coming to the forefront now, especially when we’re blending the insights about diet and fitness and getting obsessed at times with, uh, optimizing one’s diet for health and longevity.
Brad (03:05):
And I’ve talked a lot in recent times about my second guessing many of the popular restrictive diets of the day, whereby they can be an additional stressor to the body when you want most of your energy. In my case, my main goal in life, especially in the higher age groups that I’m getting into, is to perform and recover and perform and recover. And that is my path to longevity. The world’s leading experts like Dr. Peter Attia talks about how nothing comes close to exercise as a longevity intervention. So no dietary, no drug regimen, nothing. You just have to maintain functional muscle strength and overall cardiovascular fitness, explosive performance. Maintain those attributes for as long as you can minimize the decline, and that is gonna be your path to aging gracefully. Dr. Layne Norton and makes some great points on this subject where he doesn’t even worry about the ins and outs of the bad foods of the diet today that we have to avoid.
Brad (04:10):
He just wants you to burn more energy and get out of this energy toxicity situation, which is eating too many calories and burning too few. So it’s a great simplified way to look at all the controversy and confusion around these restrictive diets and these specialized niche diets. It’s all fine and dandy and unless you are eating too much food and burning too little energy. So get that handled first before you go into intense dietary scrutiny. Dr. Gabrielle Lyon and her recently launched podcast, Dr. Gabrielle Lyon show talks about muscle centric medicine where if we can for a moment take a breath and divert our attention away from this obsession with body fat and not getting too fat, and that’s the way that we’re gonna age gracefully, turn our attention more toward maintaining muscle, guess what? The body composition and the metabolic health is going to take care of itself.
Brad (05:11):
’cause someone who has ample muscle mass and muscle strength is going to be doing a good job managing the caloric intake without causing chronically excessive insulin production. And those disease states that we hear about that are driven yes, by bad dietary choices, but they’re also driven by, uh, inactivity and lack of muscle, muscle strength, lack of demand on the muscles. So, moving more building and maintaining muscle mass. And the other fitness attributes. Number one I’m gonna say on this list is to develop a morning exercise routine. You can listen to my entire show on this subject. You can enroll in the online course at bradkearns.com and develop your own custom morning exercise routine. Mine has escalated in duration, degree of difficulty and importance in my life over the past six years. I have a streak going. I broke the streak when I got COVID recently, but I had every single day.
Brad (06:12):
I started my day without fail, commencing this beautiful morning exercise routine virtually as soon as I wake up almost every day. And so now I’m starting a new streak and it’s just become a centerpiece of my life, even as a fitness person and a lifelong athlete. I’s not an area of weakness or needs to improve in my life that I need to figure out ways to spend more time training. But starting my day with a deliberate, methodical regimen has made a tremendous difference in so many ways. There’s so many benefits. First is that it elevates the fitness platform from which you launch all of your formal workouts. That was the original inspiration for my morning routine, was to do something with my body, my core, my legs, my flexibility that would prepare me better for the occasional high intensity sprint workouts that I perform and are difficult to recover from because I’m not approximating that challenge every day.
Brad (07:07):
It also sets you up for a life of activity and energy. So if you start your day with a morning exercise routine, you’re gonna be much more inclined to lead a more active lifestyle and find ways to move more throughout the day. It also helps with discipline and focus, because if you can prioritize and build an actual habit of hitting the deck every single morning and doing the same thing, that’s where it gets this beautiful meditative aspect. Because I’m counting through the sequences. I do the same sequence of exercises every day so I don’t have to think about it. I don’t have to use creativity or willpower. I just do it without really worrying about my motivation levels or my mood or my attitude. It’s just part of life now. It’s become that way and my regimen is quite involved. It’s pretty difficult, even though it’s not that difficult for me ’cause I do it every day.
Brad (07:58):
It’s an impressive workout of its own. But I want you to start slowly and carefully here with a really modest commitment to doing something toward movement as soon as you wake up every day, and you’ll get all these wonderful hormonal and circadian benefits if you get outdoors into direct light. Yes, even if it’s cold, I use it as a cold exposure experience when I put my exercise mat outdoors, weather permitting. And if it’s snowing out, I will open the slider and still get direct light exposure and cold air while I commence my morning exercise routine. But it’s going to make you a more active person with a better mindset, more discipline, more focus, and more likelihood of carrying out other fitness endeavors. So number one, morning exercise routine. Start small form a really doable, sustainable goal. Like a five-minute commitment first thing in the morning.
Brad (08:50):
If it just involves leashing up your dog and walking one lap around the block, that’s a wonderful place to start, and you can probably build from there when you see how much you enjoy it. Number two is this beautiful concept of micro workouts. And I’ve done an entire podcast on that topic, talked about it so frequently. And what this, describes is just a brief interlude from your busy life with a lot of sedentary forces to do something of a fitness stimulation, something explosive and powerful would be the best suggestion. And you can work up to it whatever your level of fitness capability is now. But I have so many examples. I have videos on YouTube of micro workouts for the home or office. I talk about my pull-up bar that whenever I walk through the closet door to get something <laugh> in the supply area, I will do a single set of pull-ups.
Brad (09:40):
Whenever I see a staircase, I have a new rule that I’ve implemented that I sprint up the staircase. And if that’s too much for you to do in the middle of the day, set a rule that you’re gonna take one flight of stairs, go back down, go up at medium speed, go back down and go up at high speed and do that a couple few times a day. The most simple example is if you’re in a even a work cubicle with no space, you can drop for a set of 20 deep squats any time during the day and do it several times a day and just sprinkle in these opportunities for fitness and activity throughout your busy day. Maybe you’re binging on shows at nighttime because you deserve a break after your hectic, stressful day and you wanna enjoy yourself. But perhaps in between each episode you can get up, do a set of deep squats, do some burpees, do some pushups, work with the mini bands or these simple fitness devices that don’t cost a big investment and can dramatically elevate your fitness experience when you just sprinkle them in.
Brad (10:38):
And then guess what happens over time when we check back 365 days later, they make a tremendous contribution to your overall fitness level because of the cumulative impact of building a habit, like dropping for a set of 20 deep squats every day, or doing one set of pull-ups or one little course of mini bands that perhaps takes only one minute, but delivers a great fitness stimulation. And boy, we gotta bust out that mindset that a workout only counts if it’s an hour long or a workout is such a complex and time consuming ordeal that you have to schedule it on your calendar and get in your car and drive over to the gym and sign up for class and get your towel and all that stuff. Nothing against that. And having a fitness oriented lifestyle where you’re doing proper workouts and you have the group experience and the camaraderie. All that’s great, but it’s essential to sprinkle in these other opportunities for daily activity.
Brad (11:36):
Speaking of moving more in everyday life, perhaps the centerpiece is just to walk more. That’s the ultimate human form of locomotion. That’s what our ancestral experience is It is a lot of walking every single day. Today we’ve made it such with all the comfort and convenience that we barely have to walk at all. <laugh>. There’s some interesting research that, uh, I remember they, they, they said the average American walks 0.2 miles per day, and that’s way less than the 10,000 steps that you hear bantered about. And whatever it is for you, whether you measure it or not, just figure out ways to walk more in general everyday life when you drive into a big parking lot, turn the opposite direction from the store and walk it in and get some more foot time. If you have an animal, especially your commitment to that dog is to give it the proper life, which means to get it outside into fresh air and open space twice a day.
Brad (12:30):
So there goes your walking objective right there. You you owe it to the dog whether or not you feel like it or not, or whether it’s a light drizzle or whether it’s really cold. That’s why we have clothing. The dog doesn’t care. The dog’s always motivated at your side. So boy, what a treat to have a dog to help you with that walking habit. But even without the dog, get out there, get into your neighborhood and go look on a dog watching mission. Okay? So find ways to walk more in general everyday life. That’s number three.
Brad (12:57):
And then number four and purposely last on the list are the structured workouts. Of course, those are wonderful and we’ll contribute to a long, healthy, active, energetic life. So get your butt to the gym. Join a social group like the running clubs, whatever turns you on, whatever goals you have, if you like hiking and you wanna head out there, uh, once or twice a month for a grand weekend outing, all that stuff is fantastic.
Brad (13:21):
We also have tremendous return on investment from very brief strength training sessions. So if you’re stuck in that cardio model where that’s all you do is get out there and pedal on the bicycle on a frequent basis or climbing the stairs and watching tv, that’s great because we do have a tremendous obligation for more cardiovascular activity. But realize that our body must be put under resistance load on a regular basis to delay the accelerated decline that we come to believe is normal today with aging. So you have to challenge those muscles, work hard, work toward near or at failure when you’re doing sets. The machines at the gym, or a wonderful opportunity that’s low degree of difficulty. So I talked to Dr. Doug McGuff on my podcast and his wonderful book, body, body by Science, where he details what he calls the Big Five workout.
Brad (14:13):
And that’s simply going into the gym, getting on the safe machines where you don’t have to worry about building, uh, excellent skills, uh, hoisting the free weights. And you go through these five exercises just once a week will make a fantastic difference in your overall strength development. And these are compound movements that work the major muscle groups of the body. He has you doing chest press, lat pull down, seated row, overhead press and leg press. So simple powerful movements. You do a single set to failure. So the entire workout only takes around 12 minutes. So in 12 minutes a week of commitment to fitness and to resistance exercise, you have tremendous long-term benefit and anti-aging benefits from a minimal fitness commitment. So that’s number four. Performing the proper structured workouts. I also talk so fondly about sprinting and doing explosive activity. And then we have the properly structured cardiovascular training sessions, which are in the aerobic heart rate zone, staying away from overdoing it and those chronic exercise patterns where we’re elevating the heart rate to a pretty high level and doing what we call these medium to hard workouts over and over, these can actually accelerate aging rather than delay aging.
Brad (15:30):
So, structuring a fitness workout properly would be last on the list. And quick review. Number one, of course is the morning exercise routine. Please go to brad kearns.com, click on courses, and you’ll find the morning exercise course that will help you design your own custom daily morning exercise routine at whatever time commitment you’re comfortable with. So number one is the morning exercise routine. Number two is perform these micro workouts throughout the day. Just a tiny little commitment of one minute’s time to drop for a set of squats or work with the mini bands or hustle up the staircase. And those add up to big benefits over time. Number three is create more ways to walk in daily life, obligatory walking opportunities. And number four is a properly structured fitness program. Boy, if you can take a chip away at all four of those, it’s gonna make a tremendous difference to your aging, your energy, your enjoyment of life. Thank you so much for listening, watching. Go do it.
Brad (16:30):
Thank you so much for listening to the B.rad Podcast. We appreciate all feedback and suggestions. Email, podcast@bradventures.com and visit brad kearns.com to download five free eBooks and learn some great long cuts to a longer life. How to optimize testosterone naturally, become a dark chocolate connoisseur and transition to a barefoot and minimalist shoe lifestyle.
