I’ve been exercising for 47 years now, and there’s no doubt in my mind that a comprehensive fitness routine is essential for optimal health. The featured video is one I plan on updating every year for our Anniversary celebration week as my views are constantly evolving in this area.

Beginning and Ending Each Day Rested and Relaxed

My own fitness strategy these days actually begins with sleep. I use a Jawbone fitness tracker to help me monitor my daily steps and sleep.  

As a general rule, I encourage you to get at least eight hours of sleep every night, and to do that, you may have to get in bed earlier than you realized. The fitness tracker can help you determine this, as it will tell you how many hours you were actually sleeping — not just lying in bed waiting to fall asleep.

It’s a really important device that helps you keep track of two crucial health factors: walking and sleeping. So that’s the first step: Start your day well-rested.

The other thing I do, before going to sleep and first thing upon waking, is to meditate. I use a clinical grade EEG headset that helps me enter the optimal meditative state. I will go into more details on that device in a future article, but the point here is to start and end your day rested and relaxed.

The Importance of Non-Exercise Movement

Next, before you even begin to consider putting together a regular exercise program, take stock of how much you move throughout each day — at work, and at home during your off-hours.

This is equally (if not more) important than working out a few times per week. In fact, even if you exercise regularly, or are a highly competitive and fit athlete, you may still endanger your health simply by sitting too much.

If you think about it, why do we exercise? We exercise because we’re trying to replicate what our ancestors did. They moved around to a far greater degree than we do today, largely because they did not have the major technology we do today to easily obtain our food and shelter.

Our ancestors didn’t have to exercise per se because they rarely sat down. They moved all day long, and research shows THIS is absolutely key for health. In fact, studies show that engaging in consistent exercise does not counteract the adverse cardiovascular and metabolic effects of prolonged sitting.

So non-exercise movement is now recognized as being a foundational piece for optimal health — even more so than exercising for an hour a few times a week. Ideally, you’d do them both, but if you’re currently sedentary, start by sitting less.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QzbXGymri4E