Life Kit - How to start an exercise routine that works for you

Episode Date: December 29, 2022

You don't have to be a marathoner or gym rat to get meaningful health benefits from exercise. In fact, that die-hard mentality can actually deter you from getting movement. Here's how to start a fitness routine that you'll actually stick to.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

This is NPR's Life Kit. I'm Mariel Seguera. Man, this time of year, especially if you live somewhere where it gets cold, it can be so tempting to just stay inside, cozied up under a blanket on the couch all day. But we have to move our bodies. It's good for them. And once you get started, it feels good, too. We've got a rerun for you today, hosted by NPR's Maria Godoy. It's about how to start an exercise habit. Enjoy.

I used to really hate exercise. I would get winded just going up the stairs. I had bad insomnia, and I was always too tired to work out. I have two small kids and no time. Basically, I had a lot of good excuses, just like everyone else. I think my biggest hurdle for getting to the gym is staying motivated. Lack of energy and money. I sit all day. Feel self-conscious about the way I look. I gotta put on clothes. Gotta drive there. Exercising can be kind of boring. I gotta move

when all I want to do is just sleep. But I've actually turned it around. I love exercise now. And the method I use to do it? There's science to back it up. This is your NPR Life Kit for Exercise. In this episode, how to learn to love exercise. Or at least, like it enough to actually do it. We've got four tactics to help you bust through those barriers that are keeping you from starting or restarting an exercise habit. The good news? It's easier than you think.

I'm Maria Godoy. I'm a senior editor here on Empira's Health and Science Desk. And I actually crave exercise. But wait, before you say, ugh, she's a fitness freak, know this. A year and a half ago, I was completely sedentary. So what changed? Well, I came across this bit of research. The research does now show that basically all movement counts. and anything counts and anything is better than nothing. That's Michelle Seeger. She's a sport and health psychologist at the University of Michigan.

She studies how we sustain healthy behaviors, and she's got your first big takeaway. If you want to get exercise, start by reframing what you think of as exercise. I've been astounded that even up until today, very educated people don't know, don't believe that walking actually quote-unquote counts as valid exercise. And that was a big hang-up for me. I had all these preconceived notions about what kind of exercise was worth doing. All right, true or false, you have to sweat for it to count for health benefits. False. You have to do it in 30-minute uninterrupted stretches. False.

You need to feel the burn or it really doesn't count. False. All right. So where are we? Did I pass? Yeah, you passed. Ding, ding, ding. You're a big winner. You get to keep your PhD. But even though these ideas about exercise are wrong, they're still really prevalent. We actually heard them from a lot of you. Here's one person we heard from. His name is Tom Ryan. I sort of came of age in the 80s where things like aerobics and Arnold Schwarzenegger were starting to really become big. And the aerobic culture and the weightlifting culture all were promoting this,

you've got to go crazy and really just be hardcore. And that's what I thought I had to do. Tom, I also felt victim to leg warmers. But good news, psychologist Michelle Seeger says, don't let your preconceptions about a gold standard of exercise keep you from actually doing it. And that's what gets in people's way. Because if we don't believe there's a continuum from very little to a lot, and our life only permits us a very little, then we choose not to do anything when very little might be exactly what

we need. Because the fact is, you don't have to be a marathoner or a gym rat to get health benefits from exercise. Science tells us so much counts as moderately intense activity. And the expert guideline is we should be getting 150 minutes of it each week. That helps ward off diseases like type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, even some cancers. There's actually this very geeky but cool resource called the Compendium of Physical Activities. It's used by researchers to compare apples and oranges when it comes to exercise. And it uses a value called a MET or metabolic equivalent. Just sitting, doing nothing is a a met value of one, right? You're working at your

resting metabolic rate. By the way, that's Loretta DiPietro. She's an exercise scientist at George Washington University. An activity that, say, is two mets means it makes you work at twice your resting metabolic rate. So getting up and walking across the room is about two Mets. And Loretta says the compendium lists the Met values for all kinds of activities. Everything from mopping the floor, that's like three and a half Mets, all the way to line dancing, which can be almost eight Mets. Having sex, that's in there. It is? Oh, yes. Really? Yes, you've not looked thoroughly through the compendium.

But the magic number you want an activity to hit is at least three Mets. That is correct. Moderate intensity activities are defined as those that require between three and six meds. Lots of regular activities do that. Climb the stairs slowly, and that's four meds. Climb them quickly, and it's nearly nine meds,

which means you're burning nearly nine times as many calories as you would be if you were just sitting doing nothing. Even vacuuming or drumming can count if you do them with gusto. And researchers now know that these little movements add up. Think of it like putting pennies in a piggy bank. And, you know, if you just put three pennies in, you may think, oh, this doesn't add up to much. But at the end of the month, it does indeed. Which is great news because so many of you say the biggest problem for you is time.

It takes me about 45 minutes to get home from work. I pick up my kids at 3.30, cooking every dinner. After my 10-hour shift that starts at 4.30 a.m., it's difficult to force myself to go to the gym. And that brings us to our second big takeaway. Don't think of exercise as all or nothing. Even short bouts of exercise have value, and they can help you build up fitness. So instead, think of exercise like climbing a ladder.

Start at the bottom and work your way up. I think a ladder is a wonderful metaphor for initiating an exercise program when you've been sedentary. In climbing a ladder, you start from the first rung. So start small, like standing up from your chair and sitting back down repeatedly. Stand up, sit down, stand up, sit down. Kind of like you're doing squats. Or just take a five-minute walk.

It helps to clear fat and sugar out of blood just by moving. And that can help ward off diseases like type 2 diabetes and hypertension. Second rung would be three 10-minute bouts of physical activity, climbing the stairs. Maybe one of those three sessions you walk for 10 minutes outside. Studies show these shorter bursts of exercise can give you similar heart health benefits as one longer bout. And they can also help keep you from gaining weight. In other words, you're getting fitter even in these short bouts. And eventually you can build up to working out in much longer stretches. It is hard, but it's doable.

It is absolutely doable. I actually did it over the last year, Loretta. And how did you do that? By going up the ladder, literally came across this research, started doing little five, ten minute walks, then started taking the stairs, then decided I liked that, then doing it longer and then starting to use the elliptical that was gathering dust in my basement. And then I got a trainer and then I started taking basement. And then, then I got a trainer and then I started taking classes and yeah, now I work out every day. Right. So, I mean, and is it true that the more you accomplished, even if it was walking upstairs, you felt like you could take on the world? Yes, absolutely. Actually, I did. So, right. And so we call that self-efficacy, right? When you complete your goals, no matter how modest those goals are, it creates this feeling like, oh, I can do more.

After I started exercising, I did lose weight, which was nice. And I'm now at a healthy weight. But that's not what's kept me going. For me, exercise has become the only time in my day that's all about me, away from my busy job, away from my two small and adorable but demanding children. And honestly, with my hectic schedule, exercise gives me the energy to keep going. Which brings us to your third big lesson, and it has to do with motivation. Don't exercise because you want to look better or be healthier. Instead, focus on how it makes you feel.

I know, it sounds counterintuitive, but Michelle Seeger says there's science behind this. I would say for the majority of people from the work I've done with people over the last couple decades that exercising to improve health, avoid a disease, or to lose weight are not very good motivators. She says what really works is focusing on the short-term benefits of exercise. When people actually get an immediate positive experience when they move, that that is just about the most potent motivator for continuing to do it. And there's a lot of science on those immediate benefits. We know that it helps people generate energy. We know that it boosts mood. We know that improves executive functioning and all the tasks associated with that focus, you know, creativity. There are so many positives that happen when you move. Michelle has spent a lot of time studying this.

And she says the reason why wanting to lose weight is a bad motivator is it just takes easier to ingest 600 calories by eating a quick muffin on the way to work than it is to burn off 600 calories with exercise. It could take you up to two hours of walking to burn off that muffin. And if your goal is significant weight loss, you need to be getting closer to 300 minutes of moderate activity each week. If you're just starting out, that can be incredibly daunting. And so given the ease of calorie intake versus expenditure, what we eat really plays a greater role in how much we weigh than how much we exercise. So instead of dreaming of that future beach bod, focus on all the immediate rewards you get from exercise.

When you have more energy and you're a happier person, you bring that much more enthusiasm and energy and performance to your role in your work and your patience as a parent and patience as a partner to someone if that's a part of your life. So feeling better isn't just this selfish, hedonic thing. It actually is fuel for the things that matter most in our lives. So next time you're doing some kind of exercise and you think, oh, I don't actually mind this. Stop and ask yourself, why do I like this? Is it clearing my head? Is it easing my anxiety a bit? Did I just need a shot of sunshine? And this can be a really empowering way to think of exercise.

But a lot of you told us that part of the reason you don't exercise is because you find it boring, or you're embarrassed to do it in public, or going to the gym makes you anxious or uncomfortable. Like Jess Angle, who left us this voicemail. I get on the treadmill, and I just have this overwhelming feeling of just needing to leave, needing to run away, feeling like I can't breathe. It's really uncomfortable. Michelle says there's another way we can be thinking about this and it's your final takeaway. Instead of forcing yourself to do something that makes you feel bad, figure out what kind of exercise and exercise location The big goal is to have people think of physical movement as their ally in life, as a strategy, I dare say even as a friend that can help them feel their best on the days they feel good

and feel better on the days they feel bad. So if you hate working out next to gym rats, try getting a set of weights for home or follow a workout video on YouTube or ride a bike in the park. The point is, keep trying things until you find your happy place. And it doesn't have to be the same thing every day. So how can we craft our physical movement so that we want to do it, so that we're able to do it today or tomorrow. And then if you can't do it the day after tomorrow, instead of feeling guilty or like a failure, you go, oh, there's one day it didn't work. But guess what? I have the rest of the week and the rest of my life to keep fitting it in. You're ready to start exercising?

Here are the four things to remember number one everything counts when it comes to movement so choose to move at every opportunity you can and know that even short bouts of exercise have real measurable health benefits number two think of exercise as a ladder the more you do do, the more you can do. But you've got to start somewhere. Number three, motivate your exercise by feeling the immediate benefits. And finally, keep trying different things until you find a form of exercise you actually like. And soon, those roadblocks will start to disappear. For more NPR Life Kit, check out our other episodes. There's one about how to start a creative habit, one on how to quit smoking, and so much more.

You can find those at npr.org slash life kit. And if you love Life Kit and want more, subscribe to our newsletter. And here, as always, is a completely random tip. This time from NPR producer Connor Donovan. Here's a tip I use all the time. When you're sending a business email, put the pleasantry, so the how are you or so nice seeing you the other day, at the end instead of the beginning. It'll make it seem less like throat clearing and more like you actually care, which hopefully you do. If you've got a good tip, leave us a voicemail at 202-216-9823 or email us at lifekit at npr.org. This episode was produced by Megan Cain, who is also our managing producer.

Beth Donovan is the senior editor. I'm Maria Godoy. Thanks for listening.