Your Workout Isn’t the Problem. The Other Eight Hours Might Be.

You get up at 6:00 in the morning and exercise for thirty minutes.

Good.

Seriously. That’s more than a lot of people are doing, and your body is better for it.

Then you get in the car.

Sit at a desk.

Sit through lunch.

Drive home.

Sit down for dinner.

And eventually settle onto the couch because, after all, you worked out this morning.

There’s the problem.

I don’t think of movement as something I get out of the way once a day.

I teach classes. I stretch. I walk. But I also get up and move throughout the day because I’ve learned what happens when I don’t.

Sit at this computer too long and my body tells me about it.

My hips get tight. My shoulders start creeping forward. I stand up and discover that apparently I’ve aged fourteen years since lunch.

A few minutes of movement and things start coming back.

That’s why I’ve never been particularly interested in the idea that fitness has to happen during a designated workout.

Your body doesn’t know you’re exercising. It knows you’re moving.

A thirty-minute class counts.

So does walking the dog.

So does getting out of your chair.

So does taking the stairs, carrying groceries, working in the yard, wandering down to see what’s happening at the marina, or stretching for five minutes because your back just informed you that you’ve been sitting too damn long.

None of this means your morning workout doesn’t matter.

It does.

But that workout and movement throughout the rest of your day aren’t competitors. You want both.

I’ve watched this in my own body for years. The more frequently I move, the better I tend to feel. When I stay in one position too long, things complain.

So I listen.

Not very complicated.

Try This Today

Don’t set seventeen alarms and turn movement into another job.

Just notice how long you’ve been sitting.

Every once in a while, get up.

Walk around for a couple of minutes. Roll your shoulders. Move your hips. Reach overhead. Go outside. Do something.

Then go back to whatever you were doing.

Your workout can be thirty minutes.

Moving your body is an all-day affair.