A few steps are better than none
February 8, 2021 11:25 AM Subscribe
From The Guardian's Peter Walker: Many of the existing tips for introducing movement into your life presuppose a more normal life: ideas such as walking one extra bus stop on the way to work, or parking half a mile from your destination; getting a sit-stand desk at the office. Now, when your commute might be from the bedroom to the living room, and outings involve walking to the door to tip a Deliveroo rider, this all feels hypothetical....Small steps such as this are worth it: research has shown that if people nudge their body into even tiny amounts of effort, it can bring astonishing benefits.
For years, the mantra was that people should aim for at least 150 minutes of moderate activity a week, ideally in half-hour chunks. But as I-Min Lee, the Harvard professor and leading light of inactivity studies, tells me, doing something is almost always better than nothing.
Lee led a fascinating study, published in 2019, which showed that, for all the focus on 10,000 steps a day, among a sample of older US women, those who managed 4,400 steps had nearly half the chance of dying during the research period than those who averaged 2,700. Updated health guidance now talks up activity in chunks of as little as 10 minutes.
...on the same day you manage a single period of moderate-to-vigorous activity, you will see a reduction in blood pressure, better insulin sensitivity, improved sleep, fewer anxiety symptoms, and improved cognitive function.
From Medium by Adriana Velez: Why "exercise snacking" should be a thing.
For years, the mantra was that people should aim for at least 150 minutes of moderate activity a week, ideally in half-hour chunks. But as I-Min Lee, the Harvard professor and leading light of inactivity studies, tells me, doing something is almost always better than nothing.
Lee led a fascinating study, published in 2019, which showed that, for all the focus on 10,000 steps a day, among a sample of older US women, those who managed 4,400 steps had nearly half the chance of dying during the research period than those who averaged 2,700. Updated health guidance now talks up activity in chunks of as little as 10 minutes.
...on the same day you manage a single period of moderate-to-vigorous activity, you will see a reduction in blood pressure, better insulin sensitivity, improved sleep, fewer anxiety symptoms, and improved cognitive function.
From Medium by Adriana Velez: Why "exercise snacking" should be a thing.
Great articles, both of them!
I hadn't heard of exercise snacking, but have been doing something that probably counts - whenever a coworker annoys me, I do a set of 10 pushups, or pushups to exhaustion if they really grate on me. It channels my annoyance energy and gives me a minute to pause before replying. More importantly, it brings me back into my body and reminds me to tend to my animal needs.
Similarly, after realizing that I spent the first ten days of the year inside, except for setting out the garbage once, I set a goal to go outside for at least ten minutes every day. I don't have to do anything, I can just stand there, but typically I walk a little because it's cold and standing still is boring.
posted by punchtothehead at 11:43 AM on February 8, 2021 [15 favorites]
I hadn't heard of exercise snacking, but have been doing something that probably counts - whenever a coworker annoys me, I do a set of 10 pushups, or pushups to exhaustion if they really grate on me. It channels my annoyance energy and gives me a minute to pause before replying. More importantly, it brings me back into my body and reminds me to tend to my animal needs.
Similarly, after realizing that I spent the first ten days of the year inside, except for setting out the garbage once, I set a goal to go outside for at least ten minutes every day. I don't have to do anything, I can just stand there, but typically I walk a little because it's cold and standing still is boring.
posted by punchtothehead at 11:43 AM on February 8, 2021 [15 favorites]
I love the concept of exercise snacking! Thanks for sharing these articles. It's so easy to fall into the trap of "all or nothing", "no pain, no gain", etc. Even one minute of doing something in the interest of your health (whether it's better eating, drinking less booze, more exercise, and so on) is doing something that's in the interest of your health and it's not wasted effort.
posted by treepour at 11:56 AM on February 8, 2021 [7 favorites]
posted by treepour at 11:56 AM on February 8, 2021 [7 favorites]
A few weeks ago I mentioned in another thread about having recently gotten an exercise bike, in spite of how much I adore not exercising. I've been mostly able to stick to my every-other-day schedule without feeling miserable after a workout (or the next morning).
By 3 weeks in it surprised me to realize that I was starting to feel improvement - first being able to pedal faster while staying in my target heart-rate range, and recently I bumped up the resistance one step and was able to maintain that higher effort for most of a session. That has definitely helped motivate me to continue on this path. I also find myself with more energy in general, and I'm slowly tackling a lot of household chores that I'd been letting slide for the past year or so.
Keep the faith, and focus on the positive! Every little bit really does help.
posted by Greg_Ace at 12:15 PM on February 8, 2021 [9 favorites]
By 3 weeks in it surprised me to realize that I was starting to feel improvement - first being able to pedal faster while staying in my target heart-rate range, and recently I bumped up the resistance one step and was able to maintain that higher effort for most of a session. That has definitely helped motivate me to continue on this path. I also find myself with more energy in general, and I'm slowly tackling a lot of household chores that I'd been letting slide for the past year or so.
Keep the faith, and focus on the positive! Every little bit really does help.
posted by Greg_Ace at 12:15 PM on February 8, 2021 [9 favorites]
No shaming perceived, this is good information and somebody like me needs this kind of rational persuasion to feed day-to-day effort. Thanks very much for this, our dogs will get a second walk and our (quality but terribly under-used) rower will get some use today, even just five minutes will be more minutes than the no minutes I'm currently putting in regularly.
(A human being is the only animal that can know a thing and not believe it, and I'm trying lately to be more the kind of animal that believes what it knows, and acts appropriately, instead. Surprisingly difficult; metacognition is not always an asset, y'know?)
posted by LooseFilter at 12:25 PM on February 8, 2021 [6 favorites]
(A human being is the only animal that can know a thing and not believe it, and I'm trying lately to be more the kind of animal that believes what it knows, and acts appropriately, instead. Surprisingly difficult; metacognition is not always an asset, y'know?)
posted by LooseFilter at 12:25 PM on February 8, 2021 [6 favorites]
Walker writes an article about ambulation and I’m supposed to get on Metafilter and not admit to having noticed the amusing eponymous connection, like I’m supposed to have matured since 2005, lame.
posted by fantabulous timewaster at 12:26 PM on February 8, 2021 [26 favorites]
posted by fantabulous timewaster at 12:26 PM on February 8, 2021 [26 favorites]
I'm on the final stretch of recovery from a broken knee; the bones are just about there, and I've been seeing a physical therapist 2-3 times a week since Halloween to get the muscle strength back. When they found out I live in a 4th-floor walkup, and that my workplace is in a shared-work space that has a big cavernous former warehouse with a walkway around the 2nd floor, they encouraged me to head in to work on my days off with them; I could get up and walk once an hour, do a sort of "mall lap" around the walkway, and get some exercise in. And heading up and down the stairs at home every day - and up and down one more flight of stairs at my office - would be all the more beneficial.
Everyone at my office looked at me funny when I opted for the stairs instead of the elevator, and were amused when I talked about having to go on a walk once an hour. We all even made a game out of it and we've started tracking my time on 3 different courses (the "snack room sprint", the "rest room run" and the "mall walk half lap").
And after only two weeks of that I broke the 4-minute hobble on the Rest Room Run today, and I'm able to give up using my cane at home altogether. This kind of little bits of fits and starts exercise actually works.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 12:30 PM on February 8, 2021 [37 favorites]
Everyone at my office looked at me funny when I opted for the stairs instead of the elevator, and were amused when I talked about having to go on a walk once an hour. We all even made a game out of it and we've started tracking my time on 3 different courses (the "snack room sprint", the "rest room run" and the "mall walk half lap").
And after only two weeks of that I broke the 4-minute hobble on the Rest Room Run today, and I'm able to give up using my cane at home altogether. This kind of little bits of fits and starts exercise actually works.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 12:30 PM on February 8, 2021 [37 favorites]
This is great.
I know intellectually that there is nearly no difference between 9500 steps a day and 10,500 steps a day, but I still feel deficient when I look at my pedometer and it's below 10,000. (Which, these days, is pretty much every day.)
It's amazing how much of a difference it can make to my brain to get confirmation from authorities that it's not a binary of 10K steps or nothing.
I also know that I feel better emotionally if I get up from my desk and dance with abandon for five minutes (something I'm pretty sure I first read about on MetaFilter). This is good reinforcement to do that more often.
Thank you for posting this, Bella Donna - I think you've just made my day and my coming week feel better.
posted by kristi at 12:43 PM on February 8, 2021 [9 favorites]
I know intellectually that there is nearly no difference between 9500 steps a day and 10,500 steps a day, but I still feel deficient when I look at my pedometer and it's below 10,000. (Which, these days, is pretty much every day.)
It's amazing how much of a difference it can make to my brain to get confirmation from authorities that it's not a binary of 10K steps or nothing.
I also know that I feel better emotionally if I get up from my desk and dance with abandon for five minutes (something I'm pretty sure I first read about on MetaFilter). This is good reinforcement to do that more often.
Thank you for posting this, Bella Donna - I think you've just made my day and my coming week feel better.
posted by kristi at 12:43 PM on February 8, 2021 [9 favorites]
FTFA: It felt like a new start. There was only one problem: it was a mirage.
I totally agree: I walk once or twice or thrice a day during this COVID-driven WFH, but only the 0.9-mile loop around my suburban neighborhood.
When I worked downtown, it was easy to do a three-mile loop at lunch, and another mile-plus to get coffee one or two mornings a week. Heck, once in a while I went to the good french fry place, and that was another mile and a half, easily. A trip to the mall to shop for a gift for my wife was over a mile on foot each way, plus more walking inside.
And walking at home means bringing the dog "because he needs the exercise" -- but he's tiny and I am tall, and he slows me down. (Sorry, little guy, but you'll never keep up.) Walking downtown I could work up a sweat, climb the big hills, and zoom across the flats.
posted by wenestvedt at 12:47 PM on February 8, 2021 [6 favorites]
I totally agree: I walk once or twice or thrice a day during this COVID-driven WFH, but only the 0.9-mile loop around my suburban neighborhood.
When I worked downtown, it was easy to do a three-mile loop at lunch, and another mile-plus to get coffee one or two mornings a week. Heck, once in a while I went to the good french fry place, and that was another mile and a half, easily. A trip to the mall to shop for a gift for my wife was over a mile on foot each way, plus more walking inside.
And walking at home means bringing the dog "because he needs the exercise" -- but he's tiny and I am tall, and he slows me down. (Sorry, little guy, but you'll never keep up.) Walking downtown I could work up a sweat, climb the big hills, and zoom across the flats.
posted by wenestvedt at 12:47 PM on February 8, 2021 [6 favorites]
This is a useful framing, thank you. (With any luck it might do the trick)
I've been stuck between two issues for so long:
• "Exercise as punishment" as a kid (great for getting exercise in as a kid when I might not otherwise have; terrible for wanting to do anything afterwards)
• An overwhelmingly common narrative of "Push through until you hit runner's high", "Just find something you enjoy and do that!", etc. which assumes that everybody has some form of physicality they would enjoy & be self-motivated by, and the trick is finding that. (Hint: Who keeps pushing that? The people who have that.)
Which leaves me in a sense of "It sucks, it's going to suck, it's never not going to suck, so how do I want to do it despite all that, when the benefits are abstract and nebulous while the drawbacks are immediate?"
Getting out of all-or-nothing thinking might be a valuable step there.
posted by CrystalDave at 1:36 PM on February 8, 2021 [15 favorites]
I've been stuck between two issues for so long:
• "Exercise as punishment" as a kid (great for getting exercise in as a kid when I might not otherwise have; terrible for wanting to do anything afterwards)
• An overwhelmingly common narrative of "Push through until you hit runner's high", "Just find something you enjoy and do that!", etc. which assumes that everybody has some form of physicality they would enjoy & be self-motivated by, and the trick is finding that. (Hint: Who keeps pushing that? The people who have that.)
Which leaves me in a sense of "It sucks, it's going to suck, it's never not going to suck, so how do I want to do it despite all that, when the benefits are abstract and nebulous while the drawbacks are immediate?"
Getting out of all-or-nothing thinking might be a valuable step there.
posted by CrystalDave at 1:36 PM on February 8, 2021 [15 favorites]
I have always mostly stood up while teaching 12 hours each week, and the big revelation of April was that I should put a big pile of books on my desk and teach standing up on Zoom. It doesn't make up for all the time I'm not walking between buildings or taking students outside for class, but it helps a lot.
posted by hydropsyche at 1:50 PM on February 8, 2021 [6 favorites]
posted by hydropsyche at 1:50 PM on February 8, 2021 [6 favorites]
nthing that I can feel the difference between near zero movement and something small. I also recovered from injury during lockdown this year and I'm less stiff and clearer headed on the days I go for a fifteen minute walk or weed the garden a bit. That feels like its own reward but I don't think of it as "real exercise" because HIIT and heavy weight lifting and Crossfit got trendy and the messaging about fitness aimed at people my age and weight is that this sort of low intensity low duration stuff only counts for people with very low activity capacity to begin with (eg. the elderly or people recovering from serious injury) and that "real" exercise has to be painful and leave you out of breath and soaked in sweat. It's good to get validation that it's not Crossfit or nothing and that weeding the garden is still more meaningful than sitting in a chair if that's all I can do on any given day.
posted by slow graffiti at 1:51 PM on February 8, 2021 [11 favorites]
posted by slow graffiti at 1:51 PM on February 8, 2021 [11 favorites]
I was pretty good about getting to the gym 3 times a week pre-COVID, but even after it reopened, I wasn't going back before being vaccinated at the earliest. And apparently I wasn't the only one, since my gym closed for good in November.
I finally broke down and got an elliptical machine last month, but even with the damn thing sitting in the dining room (the only place we have room for it), motivation can be hard to come by. I need to break myself out of the mindset that I need to change into workout clothes, work up a sweat, and feel uncomfortable for it to count as useful exercise. This article and thread help, thanks!
posted by mollweide at 2:20 PM on February 8, 2021 [7 favorites]
I finally broke down and got an elliptical machine last month, but even with the damn thing sitting in the dining room (the only place we have room for it), motivation can be hard to come by. I need to break myself out of the mindset that I need to change into workout clothes, work up a sweat, and feel uncomfortable for it to count as useful exercise. This article and thread help, thanks!
posted by mollweide at 2:20 PM on February 8, 2021 [7 favorites]
So you’re saying I’m not the only one? I suspected as much. Thanks for keeping me company as I inch away from black and white thinking on the exercise front and toward a little more gray.
posted by Bella Donna at 2:29 PM on February 8, 2021 [10 favorites]
posted by Bella Donna at 2:29 PM on February 8, 2021 [10 favorites]
Is the 80/20 Rule, as applied to exercise, a real phenomenon, or just something people say?
Meaning you get 80% of the benefits from the first 20% of effort - the walking 5,000 steps and Meatless Mondays . The other 80% of some hypothetical Maximum Effort is spent chasing the last 20% of benefits - a resting heart rate of 50 and the perfect cholesterol levels.
If you made that demonstrably true, then people who don't do anything at all because they think that anything less than training for a marathon is worthless and pathetic, might start touching their toes every morning and walking to the library twice a week and feeling good about it.
posted by bartleby at 2:33 PM on February 8, 2021 [4 favorites]
Meaning you get 80% of the benefits from the first 20% of effort - the walking 5,000 steps and Meatless Mondays . The other 80% of some hypothetical Maximum Effort is spent chasing the last 20% of benefits - a resting heart rate of 50 and the perfect cholesterol levels.
If you made that demonstrably true, then people who don't do anything at all because they think that anything less than training for a marathon is worthless and pathetic, might start touching their toes every morning and walking to the library twice a week and feeling good about it.
posted by bartleby at 2:33 PM on February 8, 2021 [4 favorites]
envision a world (or a mindset) in which moving one's body is not a black-and-white, all-or-nothing affair
An active life has been designed out of our world: streets favour vehicles; office-block staircases are hidden behind rows of gleaming lifts. Successive governments have portrayed physical activity as a function of personal responsibility, of willpower, when in fact...it cannot be seen outside the context of the lived-in environment.
Ooh, this is good, and something I haven't really comprehended until recently. 5+ years ago I was an enthusiastic recreational cyclist (50-120 miles on summer weekends and an annual event of 200 miles), and then I lost interest, or rather developed other interests, and stopped. But I kept biking to work 3 days a week, 8 miles roundtrip, a little over an hour a day. Sometimes it was scary, and sometimes it was fun, but mostly it was just a standard part of my day and I didn't overthink it.
This ride was barely a warmup for how I had previously defined "being active" and I mentally dismissed it as "basically nothing" for all those years. (Some days I didn't even get sweaty! Sure there is a hill in one direction, but the other way is downhill, so it's cheating to call that exercise, right?!) Now that my current commute is downstairs to get coffee and then back upstairs to a desk, I realize this was complete nonsense. I have a mini-gym in the garage and I am doing the same kettlebell strength/cardio workouts I've been doing for the last 2 years, and yet when I go for a long or hilly walk I'm suddenly breathing hard, when I wasn't at this time last year.
In conclusion, yes, moderate exercise (not even requiring spandex!) is good, and even better when it's just part of life.
posted by esoterrica at 3:07 PM on February 8, 2021 [10 favorites]
An active life has been designed out of our world: streets favour vehicles; office-block staircases are hidden behind rows of gleaming lifts. Successive governments have portrayed physical activity as a function of personal responsibility, of willpower, when in fact...it cannot be seen outside the context of the lived-in environment.
Ooh, this is good, and something I haven't really comprehended until recently. 5+ years ago I was an enthusiastic recreational cyclist (50-120 miles on summer weekends and an annual event of 200 miles), and then I lost interest, or rather developed other interests, and stopped. But I kept biking to work 3 days a week, 8 miles roundtrip, a little over an hour a day. Sometimes it was scary, and sometimes it was fun, but mostly it was just a standard part of my day and I didn't overthink it.
This ride was barely a warmup for how I had previously defined "being active" and I mentally dismissed it as "basically nothing" for all those years. (Some days I didn't even get sweaty! Sure there is a hill in one direction, but the other way is downhill, so it's cheating to call that exercise, right?!) Now that my current commute is downstairs to get coffee and then back upstairs to a desk, I realize this was complete nonsense. I have a mini-gym in the garage and I am doing the same kettlebell strength/cardio workouts I've been doing for the last 2 years, and yet when I go for a long or hilly walk I'm suddenly breathing hard, when I wasn't at this time last year.
In conclusion, yes, moderate exercise (not even requiring spandex!) is good, and even better when it's just part of life.
posted by esoterrica at 3:07 PM on February 8, 2021 [10 favorites]
You can get on your elliptical or exercise bike or whatever just for no real reason other than "I'll do this for a bit", and then walk away. If you do that several times, maybe it becomes to be more normal for you to do it for a bit, and then walk away. And maybe other habits grow out of that. And maybe nothing grows. But at least you did it for a bit. That was more than before, and thus is a victory.
posted by hippybear at 3:39 PM on February 8, 2021 [11 favorites]
posted by hippybear at 3:39 PM on February 8, 2021 [11 favorites]
I know intellectually that there is nearly no difference between 9500 steps a day and 10,500 steps a day, but I still feel deficient when I look at my pedometer and it's below 10,000. (Which, these days, is pretty much every day.)
Yeah, in the beforetimes I would do 10k pretty easily by walking to work and going out on breaks + a little extra and I did that in about 90 minutes. Now I spend 90 minutes pacing back and forth in my apartment and can barely break 6000. SIGH. I got a new smartwatch and it tends to take awhile to figure out that I am exercising, but does tell me to get up periodically.
posted by jenfullmoon at 4:10 PM on February 8, 2021 [4 favorites]
Yeah, in the beforetimes I would do 10k pretty easily by walking to work and going out on breaks + a little extra and I did that in about 90 minutes. Now I spend 90 minutes pacing back and forth in my apartment and can barely break 6000. SIGH. I got a new smartwatch and it tends to take awhile to figure out that I am exercising, but does tell me to get up periodically.
posted by jenfullmoon at 4:10 PM on February 8, 2021 [4 favorites]
The only thing that's worked with any long-term success for me is to live a life that simply contains more activity. Warm weather's no problem - moderate but enjoyable bouts of biking, hiking, sailing, canoeing, yard work, walking.
But winter's another story... especially this winter. Best thing I've done so far is to volunteer twice a week at a place that's a 20 min walk from home. I've actually begun to look forward to those shifts.
As spring approaches, maybe I'll put a bike on the roller stand.
I'm definitely onboard with the thesis that any physical activity is better than no activity.
posted by Artful Codger at 4:12 PM on February 8, 2021 [4 favorites]
But winter's another story... especially this winter. Best thing I've done so far is to volunteer twice a week at a place that's a 20 min walk from home. I've actually begun to look forward to those shifts.
As spring approaches, maybe I'll put a bike on the roller stand.
I'm definitely onboard with the thesis that any physical activity is better than no activity.
posted by Artful Codger at 4:12 PM on February 8, 2021 [4 favorites]
Recently I've been trying the Pomodoro technique to try to stay focused on work and when I hit a break time, instead of checking yet another screen I've been putting an upbeat song on and doing five minutes of "dance therapy!" (to quote a favorite YouTuber).
Sometimes instead of dancing I'll spend the length of the song balancing on a wobble board.
posted by Lexica at 4:35 PM on February 8, 2021 [9 favorites]
Sometimes instead of dancing I'll spend the length of the song balancing on a wobble board.
posted by Lexica at 4:35 PM on February 8, 2021 [9 favorites]
A thing I found I enjoyed, strangely, is watching people’s workout videos on Instagram and YouTube. Not fitness instruction videos, ones like Jonathan Van Ness in the gym. I had this hard line about what exercise had to be: buckets of sweat, grunting, it looked like a Gatorade commercial in my head. And I hated it. Exercise hurt and I often wiped myself out before I could see any benefit or start a habit. Watching real people, not people trying to sell me something, has been really helpful.
posted by Pretty Good Talker at 6:09 PM on February 8, 2021 [4 favorites]
posted by Pretty Good Talker at 6:09 PM on February 8, 2021 [4 favorites]
One of the things that I've been enjoying for the past couple of months or so is Apple's Fitness+ service, which ties short exercise videos in with the Apple Watch's Workout app. The Workout app is good at combining little increments of activity with longer, more focused exercise efforts, and the Fitness+ has workouts of between 5 and 45 minutes--I can either get the whole workout right there, or use the shorter ones to round out or fill out the "rings" that measure the day's activity. Even if I've already closed all three rings, sometimes I still do one of the short Mindful Cooldown workouts, which usually involve some kind of stretching with a bit of meditation.
posted by Halloween Jack at 6:38 PM on February 8, 2021
posted by Halloween Jack at 6:38 PM on February 8, 2021
I'm old and I walk with a cane. Over the last year, I've come to accept that I'm not the kid I once was. That said, I've come to enjoy and appreciate the outside more than I did. I think I believed that Nature was an obstacle to overcome. But today, I am happy to feel the sunshine and the wind.
posted by SPrintF at 7:24 PM on February 8, 2021 [11 favorites]
posted by SPrintF at 7:24 PM on February 8, 2021 [11 favorites]
I initially thought "exercise snacking" was, like, eating a carrot while walking. And I was like NOPE bad idea, I have a rule against doing that because I am apparently not capable of walking and eating carrots at the same time without choking.
But this is not that! Hurray for exercise snacking! Record your e-snacks on our IRL relay walk* across the Pacific! The metric is hours, but google will accept as many decimals out as you want to go. 1 minute is 0.01666667, etc., and every little bit counts.
posted by aniola at 7:25 PM on February 8, 2021 [4 favorites]
But this is not that! Hurray for exercise snacking! Record your e-snacks on our IRL relay walk* across the Pacific! The metric is hours, but google will accept as many decimals out as you want to go. 1 minute is 0.01666667, etc., and every little bit counts.
posted by aniola at 7:25 PM on February 8, 2021 [4 favorites]
I had a baby in 2020, and have stopped my twice a week gym due to the conflation of newborn, lack of sleep, pandemic, and the unfortunate social positions of the gym owner.
I was like "well I'm not any heavier than preconception" but my husband pointed out I'm a different shape than before (it's ok, I didn't kill him) and that made me sad for my missing muscle tone.
This is really good and helpful, and I love finding a community of people here who feel the same way.
posted by freethefeet at 7:32 PM on February 8, 2021 [1 favorite]
I was like "well I'm not any heavier than preconception" but my husband pointed out I'm a different shape than before (it's ok, I didn't kill him) and that made me sad for my missing muscle tone.
This is really good and helpful, and I love finding a community of people here who feel the same way.
posted by freethefeet at 7:32 PM on February 8, 2021 [1 favorite]
Recently I've been trying the Pomodoro technique to try to stay focused on work and when I hit a break time, instead of checking yet another screen I've been putting an upbeat song on and doing five minutes of "dance therapy!" (to quote a favorite YouTuber).
Lexica, me too! I teach on Zoom and every once in a while I do a 5 minute dance workout when I’m waiting for my students to finish up in their breakout discussion “rooms.” I always feel good afterwards.
Bella Donna, these were great articles. I really enjoyed the exercise snacks one. Thanks for the post!
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 7:45 PM on February 8, 2021 [1 favorite]
Lexica, me too! I teach on Zoom and every once in a while I do a 5 minute dance workout when I’m waiting for my students to finish up in their breakout discussion “rooms.” I always feel good afterwards.
Bella Donna, these were great articles. I really enjoyed the exercise snacks one. Thanks for the post!
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 7:45 PM on February 8, 2021 [1 favorite]
I’m increasingly of the opinion that humans should just do zoomies every few hours.
posted by condour75 at 8:05 PM on February 8, 2021 [12 favorites]
posted by condour75 at 8:05 PM on February 8, 2021 [12 favorites]
Great articles, thanks for posting.
I'm always struck by the fact that exercise is one thing that I never regret doing, no matter how small the amount. I've literally never in my life thought "oh man, I should never have got up and danced to that random song on the radio."
posted by rpfields at 8:31 PM on February 8, 2021 [2 favorites]
I'm always struck by the fact that exercise is one thing that I never regret doing, no matter how small the amount. I've literally never in my life thought "oh man, I should never have got up and danced to that random song on the radio."
posted by rpfields at 8:31 PM on February 8, 2021 [2 favorites]
Kudos to you, by all means; but I hope I'm not the only one who can say they've experienced multiple instances of regretting exercise, sometimes for days afterward.
posted by Greg_Ace at 9:52 PM on February 8, 2021 [12 favorites]
posted by Greg_Ace at 9:52 PM on February 8, 2021 [12 favorites]
I initially thought "exercise snacking" was, like, eating a carrot while walking. And I was like NOPE bad idea, I have a rule against doing that because I am apparently not capable of walking and eating carrots at the same time without choking.
aniola, I too am a hazard to myself when it comes to moving with objects in my hand. Greg_Ace, I once had a terrible time the morning after spending time on a rowing machine. I apparently was doing it wrong and doing it wrong for way too long. As a clumsy person, many physical things do not come easily to me. The one smart thing I did this year was buying Icebug studded winter shoes, because I fell several times outside last year and it was no fun. Highly recommended to those walking in icy places.
Because I have ADHD (short attention span) plus live at my computer, am going to try working in 45 minutes chunks, then using 15 mins for bathroom breaks, dancing, jumping jacks, whatever before I get back to work. Dunno that I will be successful but if anyone else has tips, lemme know what they are because my brain is driving me nuts.
posted by Bella Donna at 1:59 AM on February 9, 2021 [1 favorite]
aniola, I too am a hazard to myself when it comes to moving with objects in my hand. Greg_Ace, I once had a terrible time the morning after spending time on a rowing machine. I apparently was doing it wrong and doing it wrong for way too long. As a clumsy person, many physical things do not come easily to me. The one smart thing I did this year was buying Icebug studded winter shoes, because I fell several times outside last year and it was no fun. Highly recommended to those walking in icy places.
Because I have ADHD (short attention span) plus live at my computer, am going to try working in 45 minutes chunks, then using 15 mins for bathroom breaks, dancing, jumping jacks, whatever before I get back to work. Dunno that I will be successful but if anyone else has tips, lemme know what they are because my brain is driving me nuts.
posted by Bella Donna at 1:59 AM on February 9, 2021 [1 favorite]
A lot of this comes from shifts in cycling campaigning in London over the past decade. Peter Walker has maintained the Guardian's Bike Blog for about that period of time, and it's a decade that followed the 2012 London Olympics. We had a lot of "olympic legacy" talk for cycling in London at that time, with lots of well-off fit white guys buying carbon-frame bikes to race around in, pushing themselves to the limit.
But we also had, in the last few years before the Brexit referendum, a complete shift in campaigning away from aggressive sport cycling and gruelling courier runs on fixies, toward a "Love London: Go Dutch" campaign to make everyday transport cycling available to people of all ages and abilities. An entire generation of campaigners who had fought protected infrastructure and argued that cycling budgets should be spent filling potholes to protect 30MPH "cyclists" were replaced with people who wanted to normalise family cycling to the local shops at a relaxed pace.
And with this came a lot of re-reading of the written goals and talking points with the press, and seeing that our language was still showing a lot of relics of the no-pain-no-gain dudebro past. We stopped talking about "cyclists" (which sounds like some insular group of devoted partisans) and just say "people cycling", and we had to find everywhere we touted the benefit of cycling as "exercise" (which sounds like a self-flagellating programme of personal development) to talk of "activity" (which can conjure something as pleasant as a day out).
I have my sights on the regular trotting out of the phrase "obesity epidemic" next, and hope that Walker's new book can give me the same ammunition that his last book gave for describing everyday cycling. There's some good material in there about how our bellwethers for "healthy" are only useful in a statistical sense because separate factors aligned due to changes in the built environment. I've always been in the "highly active + high BMI" side of the chart, so this is kind of personal for me.
posted by rum-soaked space hobo at 2:05 AM on February 9, 2021 [10 favorites]
But we also had, in the last few years before the Brexit referendum, a complete shift in campaigning away from aggressive sport cycling and gruelling courier runs on fixies, toward a "Love London: Go Dutch" campaign to make everyday transport cycling available to people of all ages and abilities. An entire generation of campaigners who had fought protected infrastructure and argued that cycling budgets should be spent filling potholes to protect 30MPH "cyclists" were replaced with people who wanted to normalise family cycling to the local shops at a relaxed pace.
And with this came a lot of re-reading of the written goals and talking points with the press, and seeing that our language was still showing a lot of relics of the no-pain-no-gain dudebro past. We stopped talking about "cyclists" (which sounds like some insular group of devoted partisans) and just say "people cycling", and we had to find everywhere we touted the benefit of cycling as "exercise" (which sounds like a self-flagellating programme of personal development) to talk of "activity" (which can conjure something as pleasant as a day out).
I have my sights on the regular trotting out of the phrase "obesity epidemic" next, and hope that Walker's new book can give me the same ammunition that his last book gave for describing everyday cycling. There's some good material in there about how our bellwethers for "healthy" are only useful in a statistical sense because separate factors aligned due to changes in the built environment. I've always been in the "highly active + high BMI" side of the chart, so this is kind of personal for me.
posted by rum-soaked space hobo at 2:05 AM on February 9, 2021 [10 favorites]
Just this morning I found Jump Rope Challenge on Switch. It's free and delightfully low friction - you detach the controllers and pretend to jump rope. The goal is 100 jumps every day, and you can change the goal amount. Seemed like a great snack.
If you have a Switch and don't have Ring Fit Adventure, geeeeeeet it. Everything's pretty gentle and customizable, and the feedback loop (leveling up, new powers, etc.) is calibrated really well.
posted by punchtothehead at 7:46 AM on February 9, 2021 [1 favorite]
If you have a Switch and don't have Ring Fit Adventure, geeeeeeet it. Everything's pretty gentle and customizable, and the feedback loop (leveling up, new powers, etc.) is calibrated really well.
posted by punchtothehead at 7:46 AM on February 9, 2021 [1 favorite]
I was going to do something like that (except I didn't know about any formal challenge), and my knees were like "nope". Are there any stretches or warmups you're supposed to do before jumping rope?
posted by aniola at 8:19 AM on February 9, 2021
posted by aniola at 8:19 AM on February 9, 2021
That’s a good question; hope someone has a good answer. I don’t. My body doesn’t like doing jumping jacks so I do pretend jumping jacks. That’s me hopping just a little bit, either in place or moving my feet from side to side. I will set a timer for a minute and be thrilled if I can do it for 30 seconds and then I go back to work or whatever because my body is not on board for doing much of that stuff. I screwed up my shoulders in someway a few years back. they’re fine now as long as I don’t try to do real jumping jacks.
posted by Bella Donna at 9:09 AM on February 9, 2021
posted by Bella Donna at 9:09 AM on February 9, 2021
Is the 80/20 Rule, as applied to exercise, a real phenomenon, or just something people say?
Meaning you get 80% of the benefits from the first 20% of effort - the walking 5,000 steps and Meatless Mondays . The other 80% of some hypothetical Maximum Effort is spent chasing the last 20% of benefits - a resting heart rate of 50 and the perfect cholesterol levels.
Bartleby, something like 80/20 is definitely true, though I'd guess it's more like 40/50/10 for any regular movement/moderate exercise/endurance training. It really depends on what you are trying to accomplish and how you measure your results; if you want to lower your blood pressure, marathon training is overkill. People with the resting heart rate of 50 got to that point pursuing performance gains in their endurance sport, measured in entirely different ways (power output, sprint times, whatever).
It's sooo problematic to define fitness as training for an endurance event, whether it's a marathon or a bike race. Endurance events are intense and the ability to complete one means you are fit for that specific event. Like, I could bike 200 miles at an enjoyable pace in a day, but I could not have completed a marathon, or done a pull-up.
Back in the day I went to an injury prevention seminar taught by a person who was a cyclist, physical therapist, and bike fitting expert. Someone asked about cross-training for performance gains and he was like, if you want to get better at riding a bike just keep doing that exclusively, but also know that people who do this at an elite level make their bodies pretty weird and as recreational endurance riders you do actually want to do other things too.
posted by esoterrica at 9:12 AM on February 9, 2021 [5 favorites]
Meaning you get 80% of the benefits from the first 20% of effort - the walking 5,000 steps and Meatless Mondays . The other 80% of some hypothetical Maximum Effort is spent chasing the last 20% of benefits - a resting heart rate of 50 and the perfect cholesterol levels.
Bartleby, something like 80/20 is definitely true, though I'd guess it's more like 40/50/10 for any regular movement/moderate exercise/endurance training. It really depends on what you are trying to accomplish and how you measure your results; if you want to lower your blood pressure, marathon training is overkill. People with the resting heart rate of 50 got to that point pursuing performance gains in their endurance sport, measured in entirely different ways (power output, sprint times, whatever).
It's sooo problematic to define fitness as training for an endurance event, whether it's a marathon or a bike race. Endurance events are intense and the ability to complete one means you are fit for that specific event. Like, I could bike 200 miles at an enjoyable pace in a day, but I could not have completed a marathon, or done a pull-up.
Back in the day I went to an injury prevention seminar taught by a person who was a cyclist, physical therapist, and bike fitting expert. Someone asked about cross-training for performance gains and he was like, if you want to get better at riding a bike just keep doing that exclusively, but also know that people who do this at an elite level make their bodies pretty weird and as recreational endurance riders you do actually want to do other things too.
posted by esoterrica at 9:12 AM on February 9, 2021 [5 favorites]
Aniola, my gym does air squats or lunges as a warm-up, or as a replacement for jumping.
posted by esoterrica at 9:19 AM on February 9, 2021
posted by esoterrica at 9:19 AM on February 9, 2021
Bella Donna - Would something like pedaling while sitting in your chair at your desk in front of the computer fit your "clumsy person who can't do jumping exercises" situation better?
posted by Greg_Ace at 9:37 AM on February 9, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by Greg_Ace at 9:37 AM on February 9, 2021 [1 favorite]
I'd like to second the recommendation to folks with pain in the knees: if high-impact exercise hurts, find a low-impact alternative. Squats are a pretty standard go-to replacement for a lot of "jumpin in place" exercises aimed at folks with bodies like mine.
I was rubbish at running in high school, always ending up late to class because there was an assumption that all kids could run a whole mile, while trying and then having to catch my breath made that actually slower for me than just walking it briskly. So I found out that walking, swimming, and cycling (all versions of forward movement where you are not using your muscles to push your entire weight toward escape-velocity-from-the-floor, but instead spending that energy on forward motion) were really great for me. Haven't looked back.
posted by rum-soaked space hobo at 9:45 AM on February 9, 2021 [3 favorites]
I was rubbish at running in high school, always ending up late to class because there was an assumption that all kids could run a whole mile, while trying and then having to catch my breath made that actually slower for me than just walking it briskly. So I found out that walking, swimming, and cycling (all versions of forward movement where you are not using your muscles to push your entire weight toward escape-velocity-from-the-floor, but instead spending that energy on forward motion) were really great for me. Haven't looked back.
posted by rum-soaked space hobo at 9:45 AM on February 9, 2021 [3 favorites]
I am very grateful that, during the early days of the pandemic, when I was super sedentary and needed a tiny instructional video to get me doing something instead of nothing, I found the New York Times's six-minute workout videos.
Thank you for posting this and starting this discussion, Bella Donna.
posted by brainwane at 12:18 PM on February 9, 2021 [2 favorites]
Thank you for posting this and starting this discussion, Bella Donna.
posted by brainwane at 12:18 PM on February 9, 2021 [2 favorites]
I am bookmarking this thread (and the articles) because I can see myself coming back over and over again; just reading now has been so gentle and encouraging and hopeful. After a year of being essentially sedentary 6 days a week and riding my bike a whole lot one day a week my ability to do exercise is...weird, let's say. I got a fitbit a few months back and it actually does a lot to encourage me to do such exciting things as leave my apartment regularly, etc. There are also little video exercises and I've started doing the easiest, most basic ones for like 10 or 20 minutes at lunch a few days a week. I in no way have the mental space or will to really go for it and push myself for hours at a time other than on my bike, and it's comforting to hear that that's all right. That a little bit is better than nothing, and I am accomplishing something.
Also I'm totally instituting regular 5-minutes Metafilter dance breaks from now on!
posted by kalimac at 5:22 PM on February 9, 2021 [6 favorites]
Also I'm totally instituting regular 5-minutes Metafilter dance breaks from now on!
posted by kalimac at 5:22 PM on February 9, 2021 [6 favorites]
An excellent thread on fatphobia in active-travel circles, by Sarah J. Berry. In a reply to one of the sub-threads of this, she admitted it was inspired by her reading of this book.
posted by rum-soaked space hobo at 5:35 AM on February 10, 2021 [2 favorites]
posted by rum-soaked space hobo at 5:35 AM on February 10, 2021 [2 favorites]
coundour75: I’m increasingly of the opinion that humans should just do zoomies every few hours.
One of my kids used to need his zoomies, maybe around age 6 to 8.
Once in a while he would announce, "Excuse me, I just gotta run around the house," and then get up from, e.g., the dinner table, race around the entire house at full speed, then come back inside and sit down again as if nothing happened.
I was amazed at the self-knowledge it demonstrated -- and not a little jealous.
posted by wenestvedt at 12:17 PM on February 10, 2021 [7 favorites]
One of my kids used to need his zoomies, maybe around age 6 to 8.
Once in a while he would announce, "Excuse me, I just gotta run around the house," and then get up from, e.g., the dinner table, race around the entire house at full speed, then come back inside and sit down again as if nothing happened.
I was amazed at the self-knowledge it demonstrated -- and not a little jealous.
posted by wenestvedt at 12:17 PM on February 10, 2021 [7 favorites]
What’s a zoomie? Just running around the house like your kidlet? Am I the last to know?
posted by Bella Donna at 3:58 PM on February 10, 2021
posted by Bella Donna at 3:58 PM on February 10, 2021
wenestvedt: My younger nephew does this, too. He is a very active person in a family of introverts who love their computers and books, and sometimes he just announces "I need to go outside for awhile." Sometimes he plays on the swing set or does something else activity-like, but sometimes he just runs around. I agree that the self-knowledge there is really impressive.
posted by hydropsyche at 4:13 PM on February 10, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by hydropsyche at 4:13 PM on February 10, 2021 [1 favorite]
What’s a zoomie? Just running around the house like your kidlet?
Pretty much; it's a term more often used by pet owners to describe the manic bursts of activity dogs and cats have sometimes.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 4:19 PM on February 10, 2021 [2 favorites]
Pretty much; it's a term more often used by pet owners to describe the manic bursts of activity dogs and cats have sometimes.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 4:19 PM on February 10, 2021 [2 favorites]
Bella Donna: the technical term is Frenetic Random Activity Periods, or FRAPs.
If you've ever had a cat, who suddenly decides it's time to run up and down the stairs 20 times for no reason. Or when you hear a noise from the other room and your dog is doing this for two minutes.
What's up with you, otherwise calm and lazy pet?
DON'T KNOW DON'T CARE GOTTA GO ZOOM!
Zoomies.
posted by bartleby at 4:23 PM on February 10, 2021 [6 favorites]
If you've ever had a cat, who suddenly decides it's time to run up and down the stairs 20 times for no reason. Or when you hear a noise from the other room and your dog is doing this for two minutes.
What's up with you, otherwise calm and lazy pet?
DON'T KNOW DON'T CARE GOTTA GO ZOOM!
Zoomies.
posted by bartleby at 4:23 PM on February 10, 2021 [6 favorites]
Hey folks, just wanted to say that I have been exercise snacking since I posted this FPP. It has made a different in how often I move. Am not moving for long periods still and that is okay. I did faux jumping jacks for 2 minutes today, which is twice as long as usual. That is all.
posted by Bella Donna at 2:42 PM on February 15, 2021 [8 favorites]
posted by Bella Donna at 2:42 PM on February 15, 2021 [8 favorites]
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posted by Bella Donna at 11:27 AM on February 8, 2021 [76 favorites]