First, what are the target stimuli to achieve?
We know we need to give our bodies stimuli so they stay healthy and strong. What are they?
The physical stimuli needed
Our bodies are literally designed to operate in a lifestyle that has high volume of physical activity in general, with a high variety, and varying intensities. This is essentially matching the activities of the early Homo Sapiens. They were hunting, gathering, moving as nomadic, evading predators, cooking and building shelter. This resulted in a set of stimuli:
- moving: walking a lot, some running, climbing (trees), balancing, jumping, crawling, etc.
- carrying things, oftentimes heavy
- fine movement by hand: twisting, pushing, etc (for cooking, shelter building)
Everyday, they had to do most of these activities for long period of times, resulting in a huge volume of activity every single day.
Aligned with the WHO guidelines
This is completely aligned with the WHO guidelines are clear as well and completely aligned. We summarize them here, but to give you an idea, here are the weekly guidelines for adults. Kids, teens and older adults all have higher levels recommended…
- Aerobic activities: at least 50–300 minutes of moderate-intensity or at least 75–150 of vigorous-intensity. More for additional health benefits.
- Strength training: at least 2 times a week involving all muscle groups. More for additional health benefits.
- Sedentary behaviour: minimize the time AND do more than the recommended aerobic activities to mitigate negative effects of sedentary time.
We can’t aim to match a hunter-gatherer lifestyle, that would be silly and take up most of our days, but we can get most of the needed stimuli we need by following a set of principles.
The obstacles we need to overcome
The principles to adopt should enable us to work around the obstacles we face:
- An environment that doesn’t require physical activity for survival
- Our own instincts that push us to conserve energy
- Lack of awareness about the true importance of movement
- Time constraints in our busy modern lives
- Social norms that discourage “unnecessary” movement
- A fitness industry that often complicates things unnecessarily
So, how do we do this in practice?
Strategies & Principles to adopt
To get more physical activity, we can increase its volume and get more of it and/or increasing its intensity.
Increasing Volume: do more
Consciously seek and relish physical efforts every, single, day
We have to accept our instincts push us very strongly to do the absolute minimum, and our modern environment makes this possible. If we don’t consciously make a it a goal, everyday, to get as much movement as possible through the day, we won’t get enough. So, do it. Set out every day to find movement opportunities in your day.
Acknowledge you will most likely go against some social norms
Our social norms have been shaped by our instincts and are also limiting many of our movement opportunities outside of traditional sports, standard fitness activities and other movement rich activities like gardening.
There are no easy shortcuts here as we are wired for social conformity, so you will have to accept a degree of social awkwardness. That said, following the norms is to aim for normal, which in our modern societies isn’t exactly the picture of health and doesn’t allow you to enjoy to the fullest. Here’s more on how to become invulnerable to social awkwardness
Reframe how you define “fitness training” and you will find many more opportunities to increase it
Many more activities than you think are actually excellent training activities. They might be called “movement” in a derogatory way, but they’re actually the best way to stimulate our bodies the way they require. Balancing on one foot while brushing your teeth? That’s training. Playing chase with your kids, also training, etc.
Most physical stimuli from our natural lifestyle 300,000 years ago was low intensity but present throughout most of the day. So any activity that gets you moving more than you would otherwise qualifies as training, and excellent training that counts.
Fitness training out of the gym is as effective (or even more effective) as in the gym
Training in a standard gym suffers from 2 main drawbacks:
- machines isolate movements in an unnatural way to a specific muscle or muscle group
- the gym environment is on purpose very standard and bland from a sensory perspective
The classic example is the pull-up bar: it has a standard thickness and smooth surface so you can change gyms and keep your reps and sets the same. But increase its thickness only by a few millimeters, or change the texture to tree bark, and all of a sudden you can’t do one pull up.
Training outside of the gym provides more varied stimuli than just the gym for general fitness (not bodybuilding or sport specific training) Discover the incredible value of training in non-fitness environments
It also allows many more additional opportunities to move than if you have to be in a gym.
Training throughout the day can be as beneficial as a 1h workout
A limitation we often face is one of our own making: we think if we don’t have 1h (or at least 30 mins) for a proper workout with warm-up, etc., then it’s useless and we don’t do it.
It’s the same when we follow very structured programs: if we don’t think we can fit in the required number of sets & reps, a lot of us tend to do nothing, thinking we’ll get it done later in the day or at worst the next day, but the following day is the same, and you end up not doing much.
Training here and there throughout the day, even without a rigid structure, yields outsized results over time, as you actually do it and end up doing more volume.
Candidates for the US Navy Seals selection are advised to fit in their strength training wherever they can throughout the day, in as small a block as necessary to fit it in in busy day.
Increasing Intensity
The second method to get more benefit: get more stimuli out of the activities you already do.
Power of visualisation and role playing
Physically speaking, we can generally do more than we think, in a safe way. Anyone can push beyond perceived limits in an emergency but we can also push beyond safely when exercising.
We have to battle against the same instincts to self-preserve. When you need to add intensity, you can use a few techniques.
Visualise life or death situations, for example. If I carry a weight, when i gets tired, I imagine carrying something to my injured kids to save them. Motivation, increased. Or simply by role playing: playing chase with your kids is a sure fire way to up the intensity. They’re going all out and will be frustrated if you don’t.
Increase intensity through increased effort
You can also take a lot of everyday situations where you’re moving and turn up the intensity by adding weight. If you go for walk, put on a backpack with some weight (rucking is all the rage these days). Carry your groceries by hand, and in just one hand if you can.
Commute with added weigh in your pack. Wear a weigh vest when doing chores.
The sky is the limit and the possibilities are endless. But it requires switching to the active mindset of: how can I make sure I have to make the most physical effort when doing that activity or in that situation. The only obstacle is to bring ourselves to actually do it. Leaving with weight is a good commitment device if the weigh isn’t disposable. You only need to be motivated when going out.
The mental shift to do is to view these opportuities as free training occasion: they don’t require change of plans or additional time, just the force of will to increase effort when it’s not needed.
Increase the variety of movement
Any movement is better than no movement. But if we want to maximize the benefits to our bodies, the best way to do that is to actually cover most of the natural movements the early Homo Sapiens did.
Try to cover most natural movements
A very easy way to achieve that is through the Movnat method. It has been created for exactly this purpose and can teach anyone, at any age, how to cover the fundamental domains of natural movements like crawling, jumping, moving safely on the ground, etc.
Read our short primer on Movnat® to get more details on this.
Walking or running already gets you quite far in providing your bodies the stimuli they get. But variety is needed and natural movement gives you exactly what you need.
Train for broad capabilities, not specific movements
A key principle is to train for broad physical capabilities, not specific movements.
Otherwise, you’re artificially limiting both variety and your overall training opportunities.
Taking the example of pul-ups again: if you only train for pull-ups, you will want to achieve a number of reps. Those are measured on a standard bar at the gym. Switch to a tree branch or swing set, and you can’t do the same number as thickness is a key factor.
Does that mean you should wait to be in the gym? For many, yes, as they struggle to get 1 pull-up instead of hitting their targets. Guess what? Even if you can’t do 1 full pull-up on a swing set, each attempt increases your strength. Don’t fall into that trap.
Targeting broad capabilities like upper body pull strength ensures you can practice anywhere you can lift yourself up: bar, tree, wall, etc.
Minimise modern negative stimuli
The last set of broad strategies for physical stimuli is to try and mitigate the negative ones created by our modern lifestyle.
Minimize sedentary time
Sedentary time is the bane of our modern life health wise, and it doesn’t have to be. Yes, if you sit at a computer all day, you have to sit for long stretches of time. But you can put some alarms to do a few movements. More importantly, many situations that are normally sedentary don’t have to be. Waiting at the GP, waiting in line, commuting, etc.
All these are examples of situations that can become active with a bit of creativity and motivation.
Minimize the constraints on our bodies
However, to take advantage of the situations above, you have to be able to actually move in your clothing and footwear.
Since the norms of our societies have been defined by our instincts to avoid movement, it’s no surprise many constraints we take for granted actually prevent us from moving when we could.
- Footwear: standard city shoes are stiff, narrow, and don’t allow you to move even if you have the motivation. Women are of course even more penalized than men with the typical high heel. There are now many minimalist footwear brands that give options suitable for nearly every occasion but without constraining the feet and while allowing movement.
- Clothing in general is similar: wearing a suit? Good luck moving effectively even if you have 5 mins.
Dive into the many tips and tactics to easily incorporate these principles in your daily life.