How to move more and live longer

According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), 25% of American adults are sedentary. We don’t move enough. In fact, with the advent of remote work, thanks in large part to COVID, many of us barely leave our homes. Add in retired people, and you have a surefire recipe for sedentary hermithood.

Not moving is bad for you.

And you don’t need to take our word for it. Two decades ago the World Health Organization warned us in a newsletter: “Physical Inactivity is a Leading Cause of Disease and Disability.” A more contemporary exhortation to move more comes from the British Journal of Sports Medicine. According to this comprehensive study, walking merely 11 minutes a day had a profound impact on avoiding an early fatal cardiac event. Since cardiovascular disease is the world’s number one cause of death, this is good news.

We simply must move more. The more we move, the better we get at it, the better it feels, and the more positive the impact.

The CDC promotes a weekly goal of 150 minutes of moderate-intensity activity or 75 minutes of vigorous activity.

Your body converts the food you eat into energy . . . that’s metabolism. It seems like a simplistic process with two variables—input food, output movement. You could manipulate either variable or both, and you should get predictable results. Eat less and get thinner. Move more and get thinner.

Metabolism, though, is complicated. We know a lot of overweight runners. You’d think that these high-level activities would zap body fat but, much to the chagrin of cardio devotees, they don’t. Think about it: activities referred to as cardio (exercise for your heart) should be a clear indicator as to what part of the body is primarily benefiting from your hard work.

So, how do you get more of the one thing that could add years, maybe, decades to your life?

The Hack: Get moving!

Simple movements can help you feel more vibrant and significantly improve your overall physical, mental and emotional health . . . all without an expensive health club membership.

One goal is to improve cardiovascular health, and the other goal is to improve mobility—the ability to move freely and easily through an expanding range of motion. The great news: most forms of movement have diverse benefits. When you walk briskly to elevate your heart rate, you’ll also improve your mobility. When you take a tai chi class to improve your mobility and balance, you’ll also elevate your heart rate.

When you drive places, park farther away from the entrance than you normally would (bonus: you'll save time by not searching for that perfect parking spot).

The CDC promotes a weekly goal of 150 minutes of moderate-intensity activity or 75 minutes of vigorous activity. Moderate activity includes walking briskly or bike riding, vigorous activity (movement that elevates your heart rate significantly) are activities like jogging or swimming laps.

Note: 150 or 75 minutes are not magic thresholds. As previously mentioned, the British Journal of Sports Medicine promotes the cascading health benefits of walking just 11 minutes every day.

If you follow the British Journal’s recommendation and take an 11- minute walk each morning or evening, you’ll rack up 77 minutes of moderate exercise in a week. That’s slightly over half-way to the CDC’s goal. If you increase your time investment to 22 minutes each day, or enhance the intensity of your movement choices, the CDC and your primary care provider will award you a gold star. You can do this!

What You Can Do Tomorrow  

Begin your movement journey tomorrow (or today!). These simple actions will set you on the course to achieve the lofty goal of 150 weekly minutes of movement.

• Plan some morning movement. Obviously, this is contingent upon your daily schedule. If you crawl out of bed at the last minute and rush off to work, you’re going to have to get up a bit earlier or carve out a break in the morning to accomplish this. If you work from home or are retired, you have the freedom to pull this off. We typically do an early morning mobility routine prior to these more dramatic movements. But many days we merely walk. Taking a brisk walk in the morning is magical. Not only is it a solid cardio option, but it’s also great for you cognitively and emotionally. The most important thing is to choose a form of movement that appeals to you and do it tomorrow morning!
• Steal some steps. This is absolutely our favorite way to increase miles and add years.  Whether you're counting your steps or not (we recommend it), your goal should always be to "steal" a few extra steps anytime you can. When you drive places, park farther away from the entrance than you normally would (bonus: you'll save time by not searching for that perfect parking spot). At home, take the longest possible route to any room. If you're headed to the bathroom from your family room, go upstairs or downstairs to one that is farthest from where you are. Get creative to get steps.
• Include movement in your coffee break. You’ve probably heard the terrifying cliché that sitting is the new smoking. Unfortunately, it rings true. We all sit too much when we work (while composing a Hack Learning Life Edition article, for example). And that’s not even counting plopping ourselves on the couch to watch TV each night. Sitting is really bad for us. It eliminates mobility, atrophies your heart, and ruins your posture. The solution: instead of migrating to the break room or your kitchen table and sitting again to have a snack do a little dishing with friends, walk a couple of floors or around the block. We especially like this time to execute a few mobility options. 
• Shop around for a fitness tracker. Wearable tech is more popular than ever. If you’re at all confused as to what we’re referring to, a fitness tracker is a wearable device like a watch or a ring that tracks movement and heart rate. Most also provide valuable information on how you’re sleeping. There are many variations of these devices, and they aren’t too expensive. What we love about fitness trackers is that they seem to inspire movement. A UCLA Health study found that those wearing a fitness tracker made greater health strides when they received daily, customized text messages about goals and progress. We’ve seen and experienced (anecdotally, of course) how these trackers inspire us to move more. While the 10,000-step-per-day gold standard is purely arbitrary, step goals do seem to help us keep motivated.