How to Be a Better Human - How to live longer (w/ Keith Diaz)

Episode Date: September 21, 2026

Keith Diaz is an exercise scientist who studies the importance of movement to combat a sedentary lifestyle. He joins Chris to talk about how you can build better habits, and why simple alarm alerts might be more effective in motivating people to move than savvier tech like smart watches. Keith also shares why you need to activate your muscles to help you fight diseases and stay healthy.Featured guestFollow Keith Diaz on LinkedInWatch Ketih's TED TalkConnect with the teamFollow Chris on Instagram and at chrisduffycomedy.comBuy Chris’ book, Humor Me Watch How to Be a Better Human videos on YouTube at TEDPodsFollow TED on X, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and TikTokFor the full text transcript, visit go.ted.com/BHTranscriptsFill out our survey at bit.ly/BHSurvey6 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hi there, better human listeners. Really quick before we get to our episode, you would be doing me a huge favor and really helping out our show if you could take a moment to fill out our listener's survey at Bitley slash BH Survey 6. That's BIT.L.L.Y slash BH Survey 6. You can also find a link that you can just click directly on, which is in our show description, wherever you're listening to this. Look at the episode description at the bottom. There's a link that you can click directly. please tell us what is resonating with you, what you want more of, what you'd like to see changed, topics you would like to see covered. Your honest feedback means the world to us. It just takes a few seconds of your time and it would really help us to improve the show and have future seasons be even better. Thank you. It means a lot to me and to the team that makes this show. Thanks for listening and thanks for taking a few seconds to do the listener survey. Now, on to the episode. This is How to Be a Better Human. I'm your host, Chris Duffy.

And if we want to be a better human, if I want to be a better human, I need to, at the bare minimum, continue to live. I also would like to do more than live. I would like to have some ability to do things physically. I would like to be in as little pain as possible. I'd like to have some strength and flexibility and independence. And unfortunately, none of those things just happen with me sitting around doing nothing all day. Especially as I'm starting to get older, I realize that I have to make a change. but what is it that you actually need to do?

Well, today's guest, Keith Diaz, is a scientist who studies exercise, and he's going to talk to all of us, and to me specifically, about how we can make some small but very impactful changes that will have a dramatic improvement in our health. I picked way too heavy weight for this introduction.

I'm not even joking. I should have picked a lighter weight. That was too heavy. So I'm going to take a quick breather while you watch a clip from Keith's TED Talk. I saw this play out with my daughter. when I had to drive her to our local library. But when we got there, the parking lot was full.

So I had to park a little further away on the street, and she immediately started complaining that I had parked so far away. Now, mind you, the place I had parked may have had an additional 20 seconds of walk into her life. Not a mile. 20 seconds. But that moment hit me. Movement had become an inconvenience for my daughter, too.

So I gave her classic dad lecture, and this was met with a preteen eye roll. But a few days later, we were leaving a stadium, and I was taking the escalator down. As I'm going down, I see something past my minute. I look, and it's my daughter taking the regular set of stairs, happily taking the regular set of stairs, smiling at me as she goes by.

It was a small victory. And if my eye-rolling preteen can make this shift on occasion, then I have hope for the rest of us. Okay, get up, shake your body, move around, but don't go anywhere because we are going to have so much more from Keith after these quick ads. And we are back. We're talking about how to take care of ourselves and stay healthy with exercise scientist Keith Diaz. My name's Keith Diaz, and I'm an exercise scientist at Columbia University, and I study how to fight back against our sedentary lifestyles. Okay, so Keith, let's talk about your fighting back against sedentary lifestyles.

Let's start with why is a sedentary lifestyle a bad thing? Yeah, the science tells us that it pretty much increases our risk for every chronic disease that there is. So dementia, diabetes, hypertension, cancer, heart disease, on and on and on and on. Okay, and one of the problems with this very bad thing, sedentary lifestyles, is that it's kind of the default lifestyle nowadays for many people in North America at least, right? Yeah, I mean, we've been heading this way for decades. and look at every aspect of our lives, from how much time we spend watching TV, to how many of us have sedentary jobs, to how much time we spend commuting to and from places. Everywhere we go, we sit. Okay.

This is obviously going to reveal a lot about me in this question, but is it better if I'm lying down? Like if I was working on my laptop, but I was fully horizontal rather than in a chair, would that be better or worse? Yes and no. Okay. So no, because you're still not moving your muscles. Uh-huh. Right? And so part of the reason why it's thought that being sedentary, not moving is so harmful is that we, we, our muscles just need regular activation and contraction like throughout the day, not just one time for exercise. But where it could be potentially helpful is one of the reasons the sitting posture in particular so bad is that when we sit, it's almost like taking a hose and putting a kink in that hose, right? Your blood vessels, you're putting a kink in your arteries of your blood vessels.

And so what that does is it creates pooling in your legs and it creates a lot of pressure in those legs. And that's actually damaging to them. So the thought is that, yeah, if you actually have your legs prone, that could potentially offset some of the harms of sitting, but you're still not moving. So if you're looking for an easy out... Yeah, I'm always looking for an easy out.

That's why I asked this question. I suppose it's a little better than... So yeah, if you're going to be sitting on a couch, make maybe prop up the leg. Okay, yeah. Like really relaxed into it. Okay, so if I don't want the easy out, I don't want to have all these clearly bad outcomes. And you've done really extensive research on how bad the outcomes of a sedentary lifestyle are.

Let's talk about my specific job, right? It's like mostly requires I'm answering emails. I'm sitting at a computer in writing. I guess I don't have to be sitting, but I'm working on a computer and writing. I'm answering emails or I'm recording conversations with someone where I'm sitting down so that I can be at the microphone. So how can I not die? I guess I will die eventually no matter what, but how can I die later and not in a terrible way? So, I mean, the short answer is you've got to move, but the good news is you don't have to be perpetually always constantly moving.

And so what we found in our studies is that probably anywhere from a one minute to a five minute walking break, every half hour to every hour can offset most of the harms of being sedentary. So I think that's the short answer is just sprinkling. ankle in periodic movement throughout your day. And that can offset a lot of it. One of the things that I found really interesting and powerful in your TED Talk was you talking about how if you do take these very short even walking breaks during your day, the benefit is not exclusively physical. Like people in your studies reported that they felt a lot better, that they felt like they

enjoyed their work more, that they were less fatigued, that they had more energy when they came home. I mean, those are like not what I would expect. as the benefit of taking a short walk every few minutes. No, we never set out to really study that effect. We were more interested in the physical, how that glucose, blood sugar, blood pressure, those are the things we measure.

We're trying to understand the physiology. That was just something kind of we measured as a secondary just to see. And as we've studied this more and more, we've realized that actually that's the most powerful effect. It's powerful in that, like, it's so, we see it so consistently and so strongly, and you can see how much of an impact

that could have on somebody. But then you think about, well, if somebody's mood plummets and their fatigue builds over the course of sitting all day at their job, what are the chances when they get out of their job that they're gonna go home and go to the gym or get a workout in? When you're already, you're so spent, you're so drained. That's kind of the last thing that a lot of people want to do.

So we're creating this vicious cycle. And that's what like really stood out to me was like, how could we ever help change health behavior when you have this thing fighting us every day? because we're just sitting in our chairs all the time. It's just creating this situation or opportunity for us to become even more of a couch potato. What do you actually do to do this kind of study?

Like, how are you measuring? You said you're looking at glucose levels, you're looking at blood sugar, you're looking at all sorts of other, I'm assuming you're taking blood and spit, or how are you actually doing the study? Yeah, the studies are really intense and huge shout out to all our participants

who are willing to do this. So they come into our lab and they sit in our lab for nine hours straight. and they come in multiple times. So our first study, they came in five different times for nine hours each time. Right? So they're giving us a ton of time

and they just have to sit there while we poke and prod them. And so what we measure their glucose levels in two ways, we give them a CGM, so one of those like wearable glucose monitors we put in their tricep, but we also put an IV in and we're taking their blood periodically

throughout the visit as well. Nobody likes to have IV in for nine hours, five separate times. We're taking blood pressure constantly, we're asking them questions repeatedly. We have them do cognitive tests throughout the test. Like, there's a lot that goes into. They're just not sitting there doing nothing.

They're answering a ton of questions at the same time. You know, sometimes they try to squeeze in a little work here and there, but when we keep bothering them every half hour to get up and go get on the treadmill, it's hard to get some stuff done. Oh. And, okay, so that get up and get on the treadmill, this is the second thing that I wanted to ask you about this, is what actually is a movement break?

Like, I get that it's, you're not sitting anymore and you're moving. But in your studies, and then in what you recommend, what is a movement break action? In our studies, it was walking at two miles an hour on a treadmill, which, I mean, that's a stroll. That's slower than most people's typical walking pace. I think a lot of people would find it, like, painfully slow.

But that was, we chose walking because it's just, we wanted something that people could do, like, in the office. Like, I didn't want people sprinting up and down stairs or up and down a hallway, like something that you would do when your office close. And something that people wouldn't feel, like, uncomfortable about, like, sure, could I get you to do squat?

but do you want to do squats in front of your coworkers every half hour? Like, walking just seems so easy. Yeah. But the concept is it's not about movement. So it could be squats. It could be any type of like body weight exercises that you can think of. It could be planks. It could be push-ups.

It could be jumping jacks. It could be just dancing, right? It's just, it's movement. We chose walking because we thought it was an easy, accessible, convenient thing for people. Everybody knows how to walk, right? But it really doesn't have to be whatever is comfortable for you. The whole idea here is,

is to get some muscle contraction and get some movement in your life. And it seems like the answer was even just a pretty slow walk. That was alone was enough to make a pretty significant impact. Yeah. Two miles an hour reduced blood sugar levels by 60%. Improved blood pressure by four to five points. And I mean, those numbers put it in, that reduction in blood sugar is similar to what you'd see if you put some in the medication for blood sugar levels.

And that blood pressure reduction, that's about the reduction you'd expect to see if you like you did a regular traditional aerobic exercise program and a person exercised day in and day out for six months, that's about the reduction you'd get in blood pressure. So you're getting it from forget going to the gym. You're just like walking slowly every half hour to every hour. Well, I think often, especially like in the podcast world and especially in podcasts that are at all talking about health and wellness,

there's often this desire for like the secret hack, like the one thing your doctor doesn't want you to know, you know. Like, if you stand on your head while your feet are in blocks of ice, you will live forever. And it feels like what you're saying is that it actually isn't, it doesn't have to be this like complicated, complex, revolutionary thing. It can be something that's really straightforward and simple. It doesn't necessarily mean that it's easy to implement. Yeah.

Look, I'm an exercise physiologist by training. Like, I know a lot of exercise enthusiasts out there probably aren't going to be happy with me saying, like, it doesn't have to be that complicated. You don't have to do the guidelines, say 150 minutes of exercise a week. Like, you should, if you do that, that's great. That's fantastic. But I think what we're talking about here is making movement more accessible for people. The people who can't get to the gym every day or who don't run marathons, that, you know what?

If you don't do that, that's okay. You can still find some level of a healthier lifestyle just by getting up every few minutes, or every half hour to hour and just moving for a few more. minutes. It doesn't take much to lower some of your health risks. When my wife was pregnant with our first kid, she developed gestational diabetes. And I was not surprised that they said, okay, gestational diabetes, you have to pay attention to your diet. You have to be really thoughtful about what you eat. You can't eat certain things. That was, I think, annoying for sure for her, but it wasn't a surprise. The thing that I was really surprised by is they said, after you eat,

you should make sure that you take a walk. That will play a really big role in managing your blood sugar and protecting you and the baby. And that actually really worked well for my wife in a way that I think we were both surprised by is that like a post-meal walk was a really significant factor in whether she spiked her blood sugar or didn't. And it seems like that's something that you really found in your research as well. Your muscles are sponges for blood sugar. After you eat your meal and then you start moving. moving, those muscles, right, to keep them contracting and going, you need glucose as fuel.

Right. So by moving, those muscles are saying, I need more sugar to keep this up, to keep this going. They're going to start soaking it up. Right. So the timing of your walks or your movement around meals is really critical important, especially if you have somebody who's, you're worried about managing their blood sugar levels might be at risk for have diabetes. For sure, the timing matters. Okay. I, this morning, got up and I went for a swim. And I felt great. It was a great way to start my day.

I often, when I do something like that, when I like wake up and do something healthy, do my exercise, I often feel like, well, then I've done it. Yep. Am I wrong? Like, did I do it for today? Or do I still need to be like getting up and doing stuff every half an hour? You're not wrong.

Exercise is one of the most important things you can do for your health. Keep it. Keep going. Keep doing it. What we're proposing here and what we're talking about in the research I do is what do you do besides that? Because the time you spend outside of your exercise, because exercise is, what, 30 minutes? How much do you do? An hour? No, definitely not.

Maybe 30 minutes, probably more like 20, 25. That's 2% of your day. The other 98% of your day, if you're not moving, that still matters. I'm mostly eating snacks, so that's what I've done with the rest of my day. If we were to compare people who exercise and then sit versus people who exercise, and also move throughout the day, those people who are exercisers and movers have lower risk for chronic diseases

than the person who just exercises. So that sitting time you have after your exercise still matters, but it's better than nothing, right? Like, the worst thing is for you to not exercise and not move throughout the day, right? So that's the goal is to, we want people to also be exercises and movers. That's the goal.

Okay, we are going to keep things moving right along here, but first, we are going to take a quick break. And we are back. Let's start with my situation where you're working from home. There isn't the like office structure that's a barrier. What should I do to actually like put this into place, to actually do it? So what we're getting out here is habit formation.

Okay. How do we start building the habit? I mean, the easy thing to do, and in some of the studies, we kind of left it up to people to decide like, how do you want to implement it? And the number one thing people chose was they just used to. their phone and put a timer. Okay. And at first we were like, that seems so simplistic.

Why wouldn't you rely, maybe like the wearable devices, like the Apple Watch that buzzes or the Fitbit buzz bings you and says, it's time to get up and move around. But when we thought about it, that thing is so annoying when like you're in the middle of a work meeting and it bings you to like, you have been sitting for the last hour. You just stand. And you're like, I'm not going to move right now. I'm in the middle of a work meeting. And so we thought about it.

We're like, yeah, because using the phone and just setting a timer, that person has control over when they want to move. So they can say, like, I know in the next half hour I can get up and move. So I think that's a good tool for, like, there's a very simplistic basic, but what we learn from our participants, they seem to like that, and then I'm sure with AI coming in tech, there'll be smarter reminders. We call them done reminders. These dumb reminders that have no sense of context of what you're doing in your day in and day out.

But the habit formation part, that's the harder part, is how do we actually help build it and not to have to rely on technology? I think about brushing your teeth. That is like the epitome of a health behavior that we can get most people to do. And we link it to and tie it to when we do it in the morning. And at nighttime, it's like part of your routine. You have cues when I get ready for bed. I know that brushing my teeth is part of it.

And so you want to almost tie it to certain cues in your day. So a good example would be anytime you finish a work meeting, that's my cue. I hang up that Zoom call. I'm getting up and going for a walk. Before I do anything else, that's what I'm going to do first, before I dig into the next one. Or it's like you're working on something,

an email, a project, you finish it, you send it off. Before I start the next thing, I'm getting up and I'm walking. Right? And so it's trying to tie it to certain things in your day. That's where it's going to start to stick. Instead of having to rely on some annoying buzzer to tell you,

just tie it to stuff in your day and that's what will help build and keep it going. is once you have those cues that you don't have to rely on in external cue, it's kind of just internal clock stuff that comes up every time I do this. Okay, and then what about you are actually a person who works in an office? You know, you have your coworkers, there's kind of a little bit of a social pressure against doing this. And also maybe there's, you know, it's not like your boss is saying, hey, everyone, remember, we're doing our movement breaks today.

So how would you encourage someone in that situation to you? Yeah, that's a harder one. And I still think we're trying to figure that out because what you said is the social norm and expectations. If your boss is not cool with you doing it, then like how are you going to, right? And so I think it starts with, and we see this in a lot of the research of, like it has to start from the top that someone like a manager or supervisor who does it themselves or who's okay with, right, allowing it to happen. It usually has to, you have to change that workplace culture first to make it socially acceptable. to do. I work in a place where like I can move freely. Like nobody's being like, get back at your desk. But

when I started doing this, I was standing up in the conference room during a meeting and like people like look at you weird and like, why are you standing? I mean, I've been working there like, what, 15 years now. Like they know I'm the guy who's like either standing where we have a cycle a cycle desk in our conference from now. But it took a while to like, there is almost this bravery that you had to. to have of like, yeah, I'm bucking the trend of the office norm. If you want to talk about it, I'll tell you why. But like, eventually some people started coming around and doing it too.

So like there was a contagion that it started to become acceptable. If you're going to have challenges, it may have to be you pushing back against social norms and doing some educating of your coworkers of like, hey, here's why I'm doing it. You know, because then there's the perception of like, you're not being productive at work. You shouldn't should be at your desk. And it's like, well, no. the signs actually says, like, I'll be more productive, I'll be more focused when I take a movement break and then I come back.

But like, how do you break that? People expect you if you're not at your desk, you're not working. That's lost productivity. So there's a little bit of that you still have to kind of push back against. Well, okay, I'm going to my boss. I want to say it's going to make us all more productive. It's also going to make us like work more. What points would you say I should bring up to my supervisor to suggest?

I think we should have more walking meetings. I think we should be allowed to, you know, every half an hour we all like walk in a circle around the office or something like that. What would you bring up as your points? Yeah, it's tough because it depends on what is motivating to that supervisor, that manager. Sometimes it's about a healthier employee is going to lower your insurance premiums. If that's what you care about. I like that too because it's a little bit like a mafia-style threat. It's like, I sure would hate for something to happen to your employees.

If we don't get up and walk, I sure would hate for something to happen to your wonderful workers. I mean, but that's the point, right? Like, sometimes it has to be that of, like, what do they care about the bottom line? And but so it is like a healthier workforce. Is also a happier workforce? You're going to help retain employees. So there's the health angle of like keeping us healthy will be better for you in the long run. There's the work productivity angle, which I find.

the most compelling of like, actually the research shows that I'm going to be more focused and actually have better executive function, be more creative. And so kind of hit in that work angle of saying that this actually is going, the science backs it up. And oh, by the way, I can show you, like, the talk has some cool brain pictures to show. Like, that to me is the most powerful. Like when you see the comparison between the brain after movement versus after singing, you're like, oh, God, this is a no-brainer, right?

Literally, pun intended. Yeah. So I think there's the health angle, there's the work productivity angle, but there's also kind of the social angle too of like, I think having walking meetings and like doing a collective, like there's this social kind of expectation and norm that it's okay for all of us to do that. Helps kind of build more camaraderie when in the workplace when it's like, oh, we're all doing this together. And that actually helps people do it more. And I think it improves culture. Yeah, I mean, when I think about when I've had jobs where we were all in the office together, often my best memories from those jobs were my coworkers and I going out for a coffee together

or walking out to go get lunch at a place altogether. Like just the walk to those destinations was often the time where I felt the most connected and bonded. And, you know, I really think back on that as like, oh, that was the great time. We all got to escape the office and the sun was shining and we were outside for a second. Yeah. Yeah, and that's what we see in our research, too, that the people were taking moving breaks, one, outside, two, with other people, they were more likely to take more of them, and they had a better response in terms of like their mood was even better. Right?

And so there's power in kind of the socialness, and then to your point, getting outside. So, like, it's not just taking moving breaks, but how you take them, too, I think also matters and can make an impact and a difference. Okay, I do want to put a caveat here, which is we've been talking about it as, like, a walking. break. And obviously, there are a lot of people for whom that's not possible, right? Like, they are mobility limited, they have pain or other physical limitations. What can they do? Yeah, that's a great question. So there's been studies, just like the study we've done where people come sit in their lab for eight hours straight and then we get them on the treadmill. They do the same thing, but instead of putting people on the treadmill, they do arm cranks. And so it's arm cycling, and you see the same

effects. Okay. So for those who have physical limitations or some disability, you can, it's about movement, again, that's the point. Like, whatever movement that is helpful for you, dance in your chair, if you have some access to an arm cycle, do that. There's other types of arm exercises. There's kind of arm curls and stuff like that. Or even if it's just wheeling in your wheelchair, right? Like, all of that counts. Something that I do personally is if I'm about to go on stage and give a talk if I'm about to perform, if I'm about to do an interview. I often find that I kind of am a little nervous and so like my shoulders are tensed and all of that. And so one thing that I often will do is like just shake my arms out, shake my legs out and go like,

you know, like literally do that. And I find that it loosens me up physically. But I also find that it really often gets me more loose in terms of like the performance. that I'm about to do. It makes me present in the moment and kind of gets me out of my head a little bit. Is that something that is tied to your research? Do you feel like that is related or is that a whole other thing? I think what you're getting at is, and we talked a little bit about in the talk of how your muscles communicate to your brain, right? And so they release these chemicals that travel to your brain. And these chemicals can help kind of facilitate release of feel good hormones, right? Endorphins, right? And so I think there's definitely something to like exercise or just movement in general can help manage things like anxiety and depression. It can't cure them, but it's certainly if you're feeling anxious before talk or whatever you got coming up, that movement can help kind of release some of that energy and also release some of the hormones that actually make you feel a little bit better. What changes could we make to improve movement in our own homes outside of work and school hours? That's a good question. I haven't thought about it too much in terms of the home.

My mind goes to more like my child, they go to school a half mile down the block. Okay. The majority of parents in my neighborhood drive their kids to school. And it's super fast, super convenient. When I'm running late, I got to do it. But there's no reason why I can't go walk that half mile with my child and get a little movement in for myself and for them. Or it could be like my daughter wants to go to the library. Well, we could drive the car there, but it's about a mile for me.

We're just ride our bikes there, right? And so part of it, for me, when I think about home life, that's what I think about, like, it's more about like finding ways to incorporate more movement into your everyday lives, and I think often you can stop leaning less on the car if there's places where you can get to without having to lean on the car, do it. In the home, I mean, I don't think it takes much.

It's more just about being thoughtful about, like, you don't need any special fancy equipment. You're like, just get up and well, right. around. Like just, you know, it's weird. I have weights in my living room. Okay. I do wonder, like, an exercise physiologist, your house must be, like, a healthy house. So they'll be sitting there, like, I'll be watching TV with the kids and I'll be like, I could just be sitting here, like, watching TV or like, might as well do some bicep curls while I'm here. Like, just, just, but, you know, it's like, just, like, just have things around that you could get some movement

if you wanted to, right? Like, I just, you know, have a wrist of this and spend, hit it for a little bit and go on my day. And, yeah, I don't think it really. It takes much. Just move around whenever you can. You don't use any special equipment. Yeah, that's funny because my parallel is I'm like lying on the couch and I'm like, I could be eating cheese right now. I could be eating a slice of cheese while I'm doing this.

And yours is like, I could be lifting weights right now. So I salute you. That's really impressive. I do feel like the barrier is you have to make change. The problem isn't that it's not clear. The problem isn't that it's so hard. The problem is just there's this inertia on the side. of not moving. It's like a literal inertia and also the social inertia. You have a kid.

Your kid goes to school. You know this. You're the person who's publishing the research that is proving this. And you have a kid who's in school. What do you say to the teachers, to the administrators, how do you make the changes in your kid's school? Like what have you actually done to try and change things for your own kid? My son in particular is a unique case. He has an IEP because he has a disability. Okay. So we built, like, we can build it because it's an individualized education plan.

So I can build it in and say he needs movement breaks because it helps him regulate. So like that, like, that's easy for me to do, I'm not say easy, but like they allow it because he needs it. And we can demonstrate that he benefits from having movement breaks. So it's kind of easy to build in. But my daughter, on the other hand, like, this is not happening. She's neurotypical, so there she has no IEP that would necessitate a movement break. So I haven't even gone there because I don't think a teacher would, like, their immediate reaction will, like, how do I, how do I implement that? Because other kids are going to want to do whatever I let her do it.

There's just so much, so much already built in to our worlds that it's impossible to fight. Like the minute that my kids turned five and entered into kindergarten, it was immediately like sit in your chair. And if you get out of your chair, you're getting in trouble, right? Like we teach them from the minute they're old enough to go to school

that the default position is sitting. And then it follows out throughout the rest of our childhood into adulthood. And so like to the people listening of like, we ultimately need champions. that you're going to have to champion this in your spaces in your world if you want to make a difference because right now nobody wants to make that change. It's okay to feel guilty about it because our world was designed to help you sit. It wasn't designed to do what I'm asking you to do. So if you feel like

it's impossible, it is right now. Like we're going to have to, we need some real like environmental level changes of like our physical environments, but then also changing of our social norms. And that's where we've seen it's people who've reached out to us. We've had like teachers. a few times, had some companies reach out, like, can you give us resources? We're going to do this in our workplace. And that's where you start to see the change, right? But it is people who take it and say, like, I don't want to live like this and I don't want my kids, my students, my employees, either. I want to do something about it. So it is, it's kind of like a, it may have to just be a grassroots thing. And that also leads me to kind of thinking about, we've called them like

somatic check-ins, but like, and going back to my earlier point, that we tend to ignore those kind of those signals in our body that are telling us like, I actually, I'm feeling like stiff, or I'm feeling kind of drained. We've learned to ignore them over the years because since we were five, we were told to sit in their chairs and don't get out of it. And so it's coming back to like being mindful of our bodies and sensitive to like what it's telling you. Instead of like ignoring it and just like pressing through it and coming back to just like, how am I feeling right now? Do I feel like, let me do a scan of how am I feeling, how I'm tense my, how my muscles feeling,

all right, I'm going to go take a quick walk. Right. And coming back to being mindful of your body and what it needs in terms of movement, I think, is another way to think about it too. But when you started talking about kind of that stuff, that's where my mind went. Yeah, we've got to check back in. to our full selves again. So with all the things that we've been talking about, Keith,

are there success stories that you've seen? Like, is there a government or a large organization that has made some of these changes that you feel like is kind of leading the way? Is there a success story you can point us to? Or maybe even just something that's inspiring you that feels like maybe people are moving the right direction? The Olympic Committee in Ireland had reached out to me at one point.

This was around the Summer Olympics a couple years ago. They were creating videos for, for kids to take movement breaks. And they had the Olympians from Ireland. They filmed them doing like there was one. It was a boxer who, like, it was a five-minute, like, boxing thing that they would have their kids follow along with. Or they had breakdancing was new.

So they had a break dancer do some, like, dance moves. And so then they sent it to every school in Ireland and gave it, like, it was a resource for teachers to, like, your movement breaks don't have to be, like, get out of the classroom and do it in hallways because that could be logistically challenging. Like, here's a video when you need to take a movement break with your kids. Pull up one of these cool Olympic athletes that all of the kids in the country look up to.

And by the way, they're fun. Like, I'm doing boxing. I'm doing break dancing. Like, and they got kids to follow along. And that was really inspiring to me because, like, I think they solved a problem in terms of, like, we're giving the schools a resource that they all can use and it's free. Because, like, schools are all, like, super, like, unfunded. There's never money to go around.

Right, you don't have to change the school environment. You have to buy, like, fancy desks or chairs or anything like that. Like, here's just a video. Play. And then, like, you got buy-in from, like, the top athletes in your country. The kids are like, whoa, that's so cool. I think they tapped into something that was appealing to the target audience, too. That comes to me to mind as, like, a cool example, I think of.

Whenever we talk about this kind of stuff with people, I always end up getting, like, hearing from, like, truck drivers and bus drivers and cab drivers that were like, what am I supposed to do? Yeah. What are they supposed to do? My answer always to them is like whenever you do actually get like time off, maybe for lunch break or

after you're done with your shift, like just make sure you get some kind of movement in because like if even if you did just some exercise, like that's, you're doing better than not doing anything. Just find ways to move is kind of my answer because it's not going to change for them unless there's policy change. They're going to need to have man

that they need to have breaks to take movement because they're not allowed to right now. Their employers are like, no, you got to keep driving, right? And so we need kind of policy level change, right? If we can allow people to take smoke breaks, can we allow people to take movement breaks at work? Right, like, so, like, I think building some of that stuff in policy level-wise needs to happen.

Otherwise, like, employers and, like, for bus drivers, cabdars, I don't know how much they're going to care. Does the research show that if you have a day where you don't do this. You're, you know, it's, you're, either you have a day where you are traveling, say, or you are in nonstop meetings, or it's just a very stressful day.

So you couldn't do your movement breaks. Can you make up the next day by doing more? Do you catch up at all, or is it, it's better than not doing anything for two days, but it's still just as bad as having missed a day completely? I don't know if the science is there yet to know a definitive answer. What I would say is I think it's important to look at movement

like you would, medication, right? We take a medication daily for it, like you need it, right? See movement in that same way that you need that dose as regularly as possible. If you miss one dose, it's not the end of the world. Just pick up back up again next time. I mean, we could say double the dose next time, but I mean, that seems it's hard enough getting people to do the single dose. So like, yeah.

It also does feel like a metaphor that is sticking with me that I wouldn't have thought of before is the brushing your teeth. or flossing, right? Like, if I don't floss or brush my teeth one day, I can do it the next, then my teeth will be dirty. It's definitely better that I brushed my teeth the next day, too. But I probably can't, like, double brush. Yeah.

Yeah, I think that's a good way to put it. Actually, yeah, totally. That don't feel like you need to, like, make up for. You just miss it. Maybe you feel gross. I know I feel gross when I miss out a workout, and just got to pick it up again next time. Okay.

For people out there who are science-minded, whether they're curious or they're, you know, this is something they're trained in. What's actually happening in our bodies? Like, what is the, you talked about some of the levels that go down, but what is the mechanism by which these positive outcomes are occurring? Yeah, so a lot of it comes down to our muscles. So our muscles are actually really important regulators of a lot of parts of our physical health. So they're really important.

We talked about in the talk, managing blood sugar levels, right? they're also really important for managing triglycerides. That's fat in your bloodstream, right? And so when we don't use our muscles, we're not soaking up the blood sugar and we're not breaking down the fats in our bloodstream. In order for them to, the muscles to do the job that they do well, you have to activate them regularly.

And so that's what's happening is that when you're activating your muscles regularly, that stimulates the enzymes to break up the fats in your blood. that stimulates all these receptors in your muscles to then start taking in the blood sugar levels. So it's muscle action. That's what's happening at the physiological, if we'd just start digging it down more and we can even go into the cellular level.

But ultimately, it comes down to muscle contraction is the catalyst for a lot of key physiological mechanisms. A lot of people are very attached to their, steps as a metric, right? Like people really love, I hit my steps for the day. What metric do you think people should be paying attention to? Is it steps? Is it percentage of each hour sitting? Is it a amount of miles walked a day? Like, is it a percentage of the time that I was awake that I was moving? Like, what's the metric that you would think of as people's met? Yeah. I like steps because it's so simple, so easy. Everything tracks it these days.

Even your phone you can track it without even having to get a watch. You know, for what I do and what I'm interested in, it's about making sure people get regular movement throughout the day, which steps alone doesn't get at. And so I do like Apple Watch has the, like, did you move every hour? And so I like kind of those metrics more

because it's about making sure we're spreading out getting your muscles what they need regularly. That's the metric that I like is the, did I move every hour kind of metric? I think that's what I would hone in. And if people ask me what I would. would pick W8.1. Some of us have jobs where, I mean, a lot of people have jobs where we are on our feet. We are working. Does that mean that they're already covered? They're in better shape than the office

worker for sure. Where I'd be worried is the largest meal for people is usually dinner. And so you think about what happens. We eat dinner. And then I think, For most people, it's kind of like, I'm going to go collapse on the couch or in the bed. And I'm not going to move until it's in time for bed, right? And so you're coupling this, like, huge meal with sedentary time and just lack of movement. And I think that's a pretty harmful combo. So for those people who have, like, active jobs, I would just say just be mindful of, like, get a break or two in.

Like, I'm not saying, like, you need to move all day when you get home. Like, just get some walking in an afternoon before you then go just kind of do the couch. potato thing. Like, there's nothing wrong with that. We all need relaxation. And especially someone who's working a kind of a labor-intensive job, I think you need it. But maybe just be mindful of that. I still would love to make sure they're still exercising. That's still an important thing. Like, if there were one thing that, like, good, you're on your feet all day. Just make sure you get some exercise at the end of the day. And you're pretty good shape. Okay, so you and I have been talking for quite a while now, more than 30 minutes. And neither of us have gotten up.

Yeah. When we are done with this interview, what are you going to do? What should I do? But really, what are you going to do? Well, I'm going to go walk. Okay, you really are going to walk? I got to walk back to the hotel. Okay. But how long are you going to take the long route to the hotel? Are you just going to walk straight to the hotel?

There are three sets of stairs that I'm going to have to go down. I'm going to walk down every single one of them. Okay. And I'm going to walk back to my hotel. And if I could take the stairs back up, I can't. Like, the stairs in the hotel only go outside. You can't access them from the inside. Oh.

I'll have to take the elevator up. But from here to... But you also know that because you tried. So I have taken 16 flights down every time I've left my room. I'm the only person ever in that stairway. Uh-huh. And I can guarantee you, having been waiting for that elevator on occasion, I'm beating people who are waiting for the elevator.

So, like, you're not being more, like, time efficient, right? I'm walking here back to the hotel, and that'll probably be about a 10-minute walk, and that'll be enough of what I need. Right? Like, I'm just going to walk, and instead of taking the escalator or the elevator, when to take some stairs.

And that's going to be all that my body needs to reset. Keith Diaz, it was such a pleasure talking to you. I'm excited for you to now walk down three flights of stairs and up 17 flights of stairs,

if it's at all possible. I'm looking forward to it. Thanks, Chris. That is it for today's episode of How to Be a Better Human. Thank you so much to our guest, Keith Diaz. You can watch his TED Talk,

what's sitting all day does to your brain and body online at TED.com. Before I read the rest of the credits, we are doing a survey now to determine the future of the show, what are we going to cover next season? What can we change? What should we definitely keep? We would love your feedback. It would make a huge, huge, huge difference. So if you could fill out that survey, it will take just two minutes. It is in the show description or the show notes, wherever you're listening or watching this. You can click that. There's a link

that will take you right there. Or you can go to bit.com.li slash B-H survey 6. That's B-I-T-L-Y-S-B-H-Survey. Thank you. Thank you. We would really appreciate your feedback. I am your host Chris Duffy, and I have a book that's called Humor Me. You can find more about my book and all my projects at chrisduffeycomedy.com. This episode was brought to you by an extremely fit squad of pro-level athletes. On the TED side, we've got a peloton pedaling up a steep mountain incline. And in the front, it's Danielle Bellarezzo, Ban Ban, Chang, Michelle Quint, Chloe, Shasha, Brooks, Valentina, Bohanini, Laini, Lai, Tonsica, Suns, Meneyvon, Antonio, and Joseph DeBrine. Ryan Lash put together this video while balancing on one hand, and Matthias Salas ran a marathon while checking all our facts.

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