How much exercise do we need?

To put all your minds at ease and relinquish the frustration I thought I would start with a clear and succinct conclusion to all of this:

It depends!

It depends who you are and what you do, and what your motives and goals are and how much time you have!

Ok, well I couldn’t get much more vague if I tried, and I did try.

Look at it this way: a highly stressed businessman who’s job is under threat, and is perhaps commuting a couple hours a day and has a family to look after and support, is not going to do very well with 2 hours of exercise a day. He would probably collapse with exhaustion.

Perhaps he took the wrong path in life? Maybe he did, maybe he needs to review his life and work out why he is so stressed out and in the position he is in. Maybe he already did, and decided he WAS on the right route! Things don’t always go to plan, but there are plenty of people who are trying to make something of their lives and for whom exercise will never be their consuming passion.

However, exercise (or some type of physical activity) should play an important role in everyone’s lifestyle. But one thing you should consider when embarking on an exercise program is how much stress you are under, and how fit you already are.

Stress is cumulative. Mental, physical, emotional, chemical (e.g. pesticides and artificial additives in food), electromagnetic (e.g. sunlight, or artificial light late at night etc.), and thermal etc. These all add up, like being poured into a big bucket and stirred around.

People often don’t consider that exercise is also a stress, and when we exercise too hard or for too long this can play havoc with our recovery. Of course, some stress is good stress, and in general exercise is a good stress. A diamond is formed out of huge amounts of stress. In order to improve at anything we need a certain amount of stress. To get bigger muscles we need to stress our muscles, or we need to stress our cardiovascular system if we are to run faster.

Some people can take a lot of stress – an Olympic athlete with incredible fitness and without too much else to worry about other than running, and who eats right and takes naps in the day will be able to tolerate and benefit from a great deal of exercise stress.

The business man above who will not be able to cope with huge amounts of exercise, and it may be wise for him not to go to intense when he does. His priority may be to get some ‘light’ exercise in several times a week, and build up to more intense exercise when he is feeling less stressed from everything else.

The most important thing for this guy would be to maintain consistency – if he beats himself to death every time he exercises he will inevitably fail to exercise enough and will burn himself out. If concentrates on exercising regularly and perhaps exercising hard only a couple of days a week, or even better – when he’s feeling good (e.g. having easy / hard days) he should find that he makes far greater improvement.

Having said that, 98% of people people don’t prioritise their health enough. Health doesn’t have to be the be-all and end-all, but it does have to be right up there! If not at the TOP for everyone. And here’s why – our health governs everything that we do. Our health affects our mind’s and our body’s. The way we think, move and interact is affected by our health. When we are functioning optimally, we think clearly and move freely. And when we take care of ourselves we have more energy to take care of everything else!

And to be quite frank, and being very general here indeed, almost everyone doesn’t get enough exercise. Mr Businessman needs to take control of his life again, and start prioritising his exerise needs and his health so that he has more energy to give to his family and his career. His career and his family are his passion and part of his legacy, and it would certainly be unhealthy to sacrifice them in place of hugh amounts of exercise.

However, if Mr Businessman were to take control a little more and make healthy living a part of his lifestyle somehow in order to balance his life, he would go further to improving his work-life balance and increasing his energy in all walks of life.

So what is my recommendation – get some exercise in EVERYDAY! How long for and how hard depends on the day, but even if its just taking the dog for a walk – get some exercise in. On another day a quick 30 minute workout would do wonders. Get into the routine of doing something everyday – it will make you will feel GREAT!