How You Think About Exercise Matters: What “Counts” As Exercise
If you want to build a healthy relationship with your body and with exercise, there's an important mindset shift you need to make. It's all about the way you think about exercise.
The Mainstream View Of Exercise
For most of us, the way we think about exercise comes from the way our society views it. We're bombarded with messages about how exercise can help us lose weight and get the body we want by burning calories and sculpting our muscles.
We see grueling workouts claiming they can burn hundreds of calories in 30 minutes (reality check – that’s just not true) and trainers pushing a no-pain-no-gain approach to exercise.
Popular posts on social media describe exercise as a “sweat session”. People think that if you’re not sore or exhausted after your session, then it wasn’t a good workout.
A Healthier View Of Exercise
Let me make something really clear: exercise does not have to make you feel exhausted. Exercise is not a punishment. You do not need to exercise to earn your food. You do not need to work yourself into the ground to have done a “good” workout. Exercise is not a means to get a “revenge body”, or a “better” butt.
All exercise is good for you. The “best” exercise is the kind you enjoy, that fits your lifestyle and that you can continue for the rest of your life.
If you want to build lasting exercise habits, you need to expand your perception of what exercise is.
Recognize that any time you move your body, even for just a few minutes, even if it’s not at a gym, and even if it doesn’t make you sweat, you’re doing something good for yourself that will help you achieve your goals.
Look for opportunities to move as much as possible. You'll find yourself feeling better, and you may even be motivated to do more “structured” types of exercise.
Why Your Perception Of Exercise Matters
Michelle Segar, PhD is a researcher who encourages people to change their beliefs about exercise.
She did a study in which women were asked about their physical activity habits. The study divided the participants into two groups depending on how active they were.
When each group was asked for their thoughts and feelings about exercise, they answered quite differently. The people who weren’t exercisers talked about physical activity in very specific and narrowly defined ways.
They mentioned increasing their heart rate to a certain level, sweating, feeling “like you’re burning something”, and that it has to be done for the “right” amount of time. Non-exercisers felt pressure to do the kind of exercise that fit into that definition, which made them stressed and frustrated.
They also talked about the barriers to exercise being cost, location, and time commitments. They thought it had to be done in a certain place, like a gym, and for a certain amount of time. One non-exerciser said that walking her dog got in the way of being active, implying that she thought that walking her dog didn’t count as exercise (it does).
Thinking about exercise in these narrow, restrictive terms makes you less likely to do it.
People who are physically active and consider themselves “exercisers” don’t think about exercise in that narrow way.
They move whenever they can, including walking for a few minutes on their work breaks, taking the stairs, doing a few repetitions of an exercise in between tv shows, only doing one set of each exercise instead of three because something came up and they don’t have time to do the full workout they had planned…
They don’t think about it as all-or-nothing, and that makes a big difference. You don’t have to move in a certain way or at a certain speed or for a certain amount of time for it to be worthwhile and beneficial.
Even The Official Recommendation Of What “Counts” As Exercise Has Changed
Every few years, the US Surgeon General releases a report on Physical Activity and Health. In 2008, the guidelines for physical activity stated that “…moderate- or vigorous-intensity activities performed as part of daily life and performed in bouts of 10 minutes or more can be counted toward the recommendation.”
“…bouts of 10 minutes or more”. These 6 words put a restriction on exercise that had some unfortunate effects.
Based on these guidelines, doctors told their patients that they needed to exercise at least 10 minutes at a time. People started to think that if it was under 10 minutes, it didn’t count and would choose not to move if it wasn’t going to meet that time limit.
I’ve seen this in action. I had a group of health coaching clients who worked on the second floor of my building. They all really wanted to lose weight and had committed to exercising more as part of their plan to achieve their goals. But in the mornings, I would see them get into the elevator instead of taking the stairs up one floor to get to their office.
When I asked one of them if she had thought about taking the stairs, she said – “it’s just one flight of stairs, that’s not going to do anything”.
This woman didn’t see the benefit of taking the stairs, because to her it wasn’t enough to “count” towards her physical activity goals. That’s wrong. Every bit of movement counts.
All Exercise Counts!
That one flight of stairs would have gotten her heart pumping a little harder for a few minutes. It would have gotten her blood flowing, and it would have used energy (and burned calories). All of those things are important, no matter how small they might seem.
In fact, research shows that moving consistently and frequently throughout the day reduces the potential for health problems. That's true even in short bursts like the 2 minutes it would've taken to climb those stairs. Also importantly, even a short bout of movement improves mood and mental health by directly affecting the brain.
And really, it’s not just that one flight of stairs. Let’s say that woman shifted her mindset to realize that all movement counts and started taking every opportunity to move.
She would have climbed that one flight of stairs in the morning to get to her office. Then she would have gone down the stairs to get outside during her morning break and climbed back up at the end of her break, then again for lunch, and for her afternoon break, and at the end of the day.
That’s 5 times in 8 hours. Five easy opportunities to get a mood boost, to feel good about herself and to make her body function better. Those little boosts can snowball. I’ve seen that happen too.
The Power Of A Mindset Shift
Suddenly, you have a little more energy. You go for a short walk on your lunch break and park a little farther away at the grocery store. You get even more energy, and you carry that into your scheduled workout in the evening.
You’re starting to feel even better, and suddenly more opportunities for activity present themselves. Other healthy habits seem within reach. You start drinking more water, eating a little healthier, and so on. Don’t you think all of that would “count” for something?
So why did those 2008 guidelines specifically say 10 minutes? It’s not because exercise under 10 minutes doesn’t improve health (again, it does). It was because researchers didn't have tools that could accurately assess the impact of short bursts of activity.
Since then, methods have changed. We now know conclusively that any physical activity, even one minute’s worth, contributes to your health and well-being. In 2018, the new report removed the “10-minute rule”. It now emphasizes that all activity, no matter how long it lasts, contributes to your overall health.
Reframe your idea of what exercise is, and you will see opportunities all around you. Every chance you have to move is valuable, so get moving!
If You Need Help
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