Will the Real Slim Shady Please Stand Up? — Tip #36
Working out every day might still not be enough 🦥
As you may have gathered from all the previous tips, I am a big fan of “moving”. After reaching close to burnout years ago, I made the decision of hitting the gym regularly and I have never looked back since (yes, I am still working out six years later).
Surprisingly, though, when I checked my biomarkers, I found that although I was very healthy compared to people in my age group, my results were not as good as you would expect from someone who trains regularly. So I had to dig deeper 🕵️♂️.
Initially, I thought it must be my diet. But after cleaning that up, my markers improved, although they were still not at elite levels. Next, I considered sleep but I already knew that my sleep hygiene was probably in the top 5% of the human population 🌚.
Turns out I was not moving enough. Despite me walking for 1 hour everyday 🚶 (back and forth from the gym), doing 1 hour of resistance training 🏋️ and finishing it all off with 30 minutes of Zone 2 cardio 🏃 and hitting at least 8k steps daily.
As most of you know, my work is pretty sedentary. It mainly consist of energetically pressing keys on a keyboard while looking at a screen. It does not require me to harvest crops or move consistently throughout the day, as my ancestors did.
Ironically, this meant that, aside from my burst of activity early in the morning at the gym, I was still considered sedentary in many ways. It is way more important for the body to keep moving a little throughout the day than to do a lot for a few hours and then stop completely. Maybe this is not a revelation for most of you, but when I looked at the raw data, it was for me. In the interest of keeping this newsletter short, you can check out this study of 12.000 people that highlighted the same issue.
Throughout the day, I now keep switching between sitting and standing while working. Actually, I have almost completely removed sitting and now try to kneel, stand, or use any other position that is not sitting. Since introducing this change, my biomarkers have gone through the roof. I feel less lethargic after meals, my overall focus is better, and so on.
I could do even better by, for example, taking walks after meals, but then my productivity would tank. I could perhaps reduce my gym time to make space for that, but it is a tradeoff I am not willing to make because I enjoy training. The last option would be to become another Bryan Johnson and figure out a way to get paid to spend more time taking care of myself 😅.
Your weekly tip: even if you work out in the morning or move regularly, you may still be considered sedentary if you sit for 6-8 hours every day. Try to introduce more movement throughout the day. Even something as small as standing for 5 minutes every 30 minutes you spend sitting can help. Your body will thank you!
Don’t forget to send this tip to a friend who spends most of their workday sitting 🫰
See you next week, until then…
Don’t Panic 😱