Life's burning Question #3: How Should I Exercise?

How Should I exercise to live healthier and longer?

Something is better than nothing and believe it or not, less may be better than too much.

How Should I Exercise?

Approximately ten years ago I wrote about the quick work-out before you got in the morning shower (Meakin 60), now there are books and videos created around this strategy. What we know now is that exercise is not some accounting tool to erase past or future calories we take in to help us with some weight balance, but instead exercise types are a way to activate a hormonal and neurochemical reaction to trigger the desired outcome.

HIT or High- Intensity Training, and Weight Lifting are excellent tools to initiate growth hormone and thus anabolic sex hormones to activate muscle growth and shed fat. The bonus from this physical intervention is that it is the best way to trigger a chemical called BDNF or brain-derived neurotrophic factor to keep our brain healthy. Long aerobic training programs are indeed excellent but are aware they require a more significant amount of recovery and rest to extinguish and remove the reactive oxygen species that get generated. High-performance athletes are increasingly aware of the equal importance of healing in their training programs. Ignoring this pause can lead to a more significant threat of injury or sickness when overdoing it. One of the most cutting edge fitness wearables such as the Oura Ring uses multiple physiologic measures to create the “Readiness Score” to guide people based on their previous day's activities, heart rate variability, sleep score, and more to determine what they can safely take on each day. Pro Sports teams are starting to take this into account with different novel tools based on the same principles.