We were built to move, but today our sedentary lives are slowly killing us.

For the typical person who doesn't engage in any exercise, a lifetime of inactivity results in increased risks for just about all diseases, along with a shorter lifespan and shorter health span.

One of the best things we can do to improve our lives, both physically and mentally get in the habit of regularly engaging in moderate physical activity and moving on a regular basis.

Welcome everybody, to the Fitness Roadmap.

I'm your host, Mark, and today we're going to discuss why movement is so important to who we are as human beings and the powerful positive impact regular movement or exercise can have on our bodies and our brains.

For full show notes, links and other information related to this episode, please visit thefitnessroadmap.com 002 now, when we start talking about how we can extend and improve the quality of our lives, one of the first things we need to discuss is movement.

Over the millennia, our bodies have evolved to move and to move often.

But what do most of us do for the majority of our waking hours?

Sit on our collective buts and do nothing?

I hope you agree that that's not exactly the prescription for a long, healthy life.

Movement is part and parcel to who we are as humans.

In order to live and thrive, we must move.

Therefore, it makes sense that restricting or limiting movement can't be a good thing for us, especially if we want to have a healthy, productive life as we get older.

Regular, intentional movement that raises our heart rate is is vital for our physical and mental health.

Research has shown that frequent, moderate to vigorous physical activity builds our muscular and cardiac capacity and fortifies our brains.

In addition, ground contact activities like walking, hiking, rucking, jogging and running increase our motor control, which can help reduce cognitive decline as we age.

Now, the question of how much of these activities is enough to be beneficial to overall health but not harmful.

Well, that's been something that's been debated among sports scientists, physiologists and doctors for years.

Recently, however, studies have started to narrow in on what the ideal amount of cardio or aerobic activity is needed in order to have the greatest impact on our health.

Now, this video on YouTube has gotten a lot of views in the 12 years since.

And basically what he was talking about in the video and, and once again you can see the video in the show notes is that he was talking about running and at the time, his basic conclusion was, based on his work as a cardiologist, was that moderate aerobic exercise of any type is good for you, but only in a certain range.

At that time, he figured the sweet spot for improved overall health, not from a competitive standpoint.

The sweet spot was 10 to 20 miles a week at 8 to 10, 10 minutes a mile pace.

So as a runner, you know, 10 minutes a mile for 20 miles, that's 200 minutes.

It's a little over three hours.

20 miles at eight minutes a mile is about two and a half hours.

And he thought at that point that anything more than that might be detrimental to overall health.

Now since then he's modified that to a slightly higher amount.

Now, based on their research, they they were making the following recommendations for how much activity is ideal from the standpoint of increasing health span.

They call it the Goldilocks Zone.

So here's a summary of what they call the physician's exercise prescription for the Goldilocks Zone as it relates to physical activity.

The first point they made was to aim for the CDC or Centers for Disease Control physical activity guidelines of 150 minutes per week of moderate intensity aerobic exercise or 75 minutes per week of vigorous intensity aerobic activity.

So in our current context you could think of moderate intensity activity as something that we would call Zone two.

You might have heard that phrase tossed about if you've been listening to any other health oriented podcasts.

The 75 minutes of vigorous intensity aerobic activity, I would call that as something that might be close, close to our aerobic maximum or VO2 max.

The second thing they suggest is to try to limit doses of vigorous, what they call heart pounding, sweat producing exercise to not more than four to five cumulative hours each week, especially for those over 45 years of age.

Another point they came up with and are suggesting is that because we sit so much in society today for work or just sitting on the couch, they recommend that after 30 consecutive minutes spent sitting, they say stand up and move, ideally going for a brisk walk for about five minutes.

So they also say consider a standing desk to reduce prolonged sitting.

I think this is something that we should generally just follow.

It makes a big difference in our ability to concentrate and get work done and be more productive if we do get up every once in a while and Take a quick walk.

The other thing they're recommending is that changing from a completely sedentary lifestyle to one that incorporates even a modest amount of physical activity, that in itself will result in a substantial benefit to both mental and physical health.

In other words, if you're not doing anything right now, anything you do is better than nothing.

So that's saying, hey, you can start doing just something minimal, maybe just getting out and going for a short walk.

Any.

Anything that you do over that baseline of no intentional activity can provide some big benefits.

Now, they also say that for individuals performing doses of what they call strenuous exercise above those recommended levels of four to five hours a week, they say consider substituting less aerobically demanding physical activity, such as walking, using yoga, stability exercises, strength training.

Now, an important thing is people may be reading this or listening to me and saying, well, if I'm doing that, I really have to limit the amount of other activity I do because I don't want to go over that four to five hours.

They say specifically that there appears to be no concerns about an upper threshold for safety when performing leisure time, low to moderate intensity activities.

So think of things like walking comfortably at a comfortable pace, housework, gardening, basic outdoor activities, bowling, golf, doubles, tennis, other racket sports, those types of things, just your general activities that you might be doing.

They say that there's really no upper threshold to that.

So in other words, do as much of that as you want.

Just limit your higher intensity aerobic exercise or intentional aerobic exercise to that four to five hours.

They also say to take at least one day off each week from vigorous exercise.

In other words, give our bodies a rest.

There's no need to necessarily go out and do a hard aerobic exercise every day.

Take some time off.

They also say for what they call very high exercisers over the age of 50, they say that you should be considering doing some sort of cardiac testing.

So coronary artery calcium scan, ekg, that type of thing, just to double check and make sure that you're not putting yourself at risk for an increased risk of some kind of cardiac outcome or event.

And they make a point for what they call very high exercisers.

So that was me three or four years ago.

I was doing a lot of running with a specific goal of improving my time so I can be competitive in my age group in 5k and 10k races.

So they're saying for anybody that's spending hours and hours and hours doing high intensity aerobic training, you probably want to just get a double check and make sure that everything is okay.

So maybe running isn't your thing.

Maybe you like to ruck, walk, cycle, row, stairmaster, treadmill in the basement.

Whatever aerobic activity you enjoy should probably try to get at least two to three hours of that activity at a pace or effort that puts you in.

Like I said, what we would call the zone 2.

And zone 2 is basically a level of effort that allows you to carry on a conversation, but with a little effort.

In other words, if you were talking to somebody on the phone while you were doing a Zone 2 bicycle ride on your indoors on a trainer, they would know that you were exercising, but you could still carry on a conversation.

Now we're going to talk a lot more about Zone 2, how to determine it for yourself and how to optimize it for your particular training.

We'll be doing that in upcoming episodes, but for now, just think of trying to get those two to three hours a week in that moderate zone two activity level.

You also should try to get some of that activity in those ground contact setting.

So walking, rucking, hiking, especially outside, as studies have shown.

And more and more studies are showing that activities outside, in the sunshine, in the environment are good for mental well being as well as increasing your motor control, which can have a positive impact on reducing your odds for cognitive decline as you get older.

So in addition to moderate exercise, aerobic exercise, helping the body, more and more research is showing just how beneficial almost any activity, but especially moderate walking and running and other aerobic exercises, how beneficial those are to your brain.

Now, while dementia isn't necessarily inherited, in most cases, they can't say that it's inherited.

I'm hopeful that my lifetime of aerobic exercise will help reduce my risk.

Now, numerous studies have shown the benefits of aerobic exercise on reducing the incidence and severity of cognitive decline, including dementia.

A recent study in the British Journal of Sports Medicine found that people with what they call a high CRF or cardiorespiratory fitness, those people had a 40% lower chance of developing dementia as well as delaying the onset of dementia if someone were to get it.

Some additional evidence.

And there is a growing body of research demonstrating this.

All studies emphasize on changing eating and exercise habits as well as increasing mental training, exercise has been shown effective to both prevent and delay the progression of dementia.

Aerobic exercise and muscle strengthening exercises are preferable.

Exercise may have a preventative effect due to the neurotropic factor, what's called bdnf, that is secreted by the brain, which can prevent hippocampal atrophy and maintain cognitive function.

They also say, however, because everyone's physical condition differs, the need for preventative measures should differ as well.

So basically what they're saying is exercise can help prevent dementia and help the brain actually grow through the release of that bdnf.

That's pretty powerful.

How about some more evidence?

Aerobic exercise training improves cognition even for young and middle aged adults.

This is according to a study led by researchers at the Columbia University Vigilos College of Physicians.

The study of 132 adults between the ages of 20 and 67 found that aerobic exercise training increases executive function, in other words, cognitive processes important for reasoning, planning and problem solving.

It increases that executive function in adults as young as 20, although the effect was stronger with increasing age.

Some pretty powerful evidence, and that's just a few articles that I've cited.

If you do a research for aerobic exercise and cognitive decline, you can find probably tens or hundreds of research articles talking about the benefits.

Now, in addition to helping our bodies and our brains remain strong, I have found that regular activity, going out for a moderate run or walk, especially outside, is one of the best ways for kind of working things out, coming up with new ideas or way of looking at things.

In other words, my creativity seems to be increased when I get outside and move.

Many times I'll start out on a run or a walk outside with kind of a very few ideas and finish with an entirely new outlook or strategy.

I'm able to do some brainstorming while I'm out there.

I've come to depend on these walks or runs as a way to do some, like I said, on the feet.

Brainstorming well, it appears that it's not just me that notices those benefits.

A recent article in Psychology Today Canada, this was in December of last year, talks about how walking benefits mindfulness and the creative process for some of the best known writers in history.

The quote is that collectively these writers suggest that the mind and body in motion with no practical destination in mind, sharpens attention and loosens imagination.

Their writing was always reflective and often dense with language and ideas, invites readers to engage with similar degrees of attention and imagination.

They say that walking may be the antidote to the rushed thinking and short attention spans that we get by being on social media.

In addition, Stanford researchers found that walking boosts creative inspiration.

They examined creativity levels of people while they walked versus while they sat.

And they found that a person's creative output increased by an average of 60% when walking.

And they also said a person walking indoors.

So on a treadmill, in a room, facing a blank wall, or walking outdoors in the fresh air produced twice as many creative responses compared to a person just sitting down.

So there you go.

Whether indoors or outdoors, walking can inspire creativity.

If you can get outside and enjoy the weather, I think that's an extra benefit.

There you have it.

Evidence that movement is good for us both physically and mentally.

What do we do with all that evidence?

Well, I hope by now it's pretty obvious that movement, especially the kind of movement that elevates our heart rate, is good for us in so many ways.

Further, it seems like weight bearing movement, things like walking, hiking, rucking, running, those have some additional benefits.

Now, how each of us go about putting those suggestions into our daily routine, well, that's a highly individual decision based on a number of factors like current health experience and history with exercise, personal goals, current life situation, on and on and on.

But the bottom line is I think all of us should try to move or exercise on a regular basis, preferably doing some type of activity every day.

So as it is right now, I see a couple of different scenarios on how you might want to approach this.

The first one is that if you're currently not doing any movement beyond the basics of just getting around your home or office, the first thing to do is to get an okay from a qualif medical professional and then start slow and easy to add more and more intentional movement to your daily life.

Find something you enjoy doing and then build a habit of movement in that activity on a day in and day out basis.

So maybe you don't like to run, maybe you like to walk.

Great.

Get outside, go for a short walk, maybe after a meal or in the morning or in the evening, get used to it and build that habit.

Eventually that habit will become stronger and stronger.

You'll find yourself being more and more motivated to get out and do more.

And then it becomes kind of a synergistic effect.

Train starts rolling, that snowball starts rolling downhill, and the benefits increase and increase and increase over time.

The second situation is if you are currently active or very active, take a look at your activity with an eye towards balancing the benefits and potential risks of what a lot of the researchers describe as over movement or over exercising, you have to decide if your goals are competitive or purely healthspan based and work as best as you can to get the most from each while limiting negative outcomes as much as possible.

Now this was something that I had to come to myself over the past few years.

My goal was to enter events and place high in my age group.

That was the overriding goal.

Obviously I was getting some benefits, but I wasn't focused on more of span, long term, lifelong goals like I am now.

So if you're in a situation where you are maybe 50 years old and you are training for marathons and you're running eight to 10 hours a week, just take a look at it, balance it out, see if you can get a little bit more balance in your training.

Maybe introduce some other training such as mobility, strength, take a look at how you're training and see if you can get the most from what you're doing while limiting any potential negative effects from over exercising.

In either case, make sure you're having fun and enjoying the process.

That's going to make it much easier to continue those habits for the remainder of your life.

Okay, time to introduce a new segment to the podcast and I'm calling it Poll of the Week.

Now what I think this is going to do is going to be a great way for all of you to provide some context and additional information as a follow up to each episode.

Here's how it will work.

Each week I'll put a new poll question on the episode page on the website that you will be able to complete and submit your answers.

The poll question will be related to the subject that we discuss in the episode.

The poll will open when the episode is posted on Monday morning and I will tabulate and review and discuss the results up to that point of the poll in the next episode.

So the goal is to get a little bit of interactivity from you, get some feedback, some input, maybe a little context to the information that we're discussing in each episode.

So we're going to start off with this week and this week's poll question is how many days a week do you do intentional aerobic exercise?

Now you can go over to thefitnessroadmap.com 002 and at the bottom of the show Notes page or the blog post you will see this poll so you will be able to answer, submit your answers and see the results up to that point and then I will discuss that in the following week.

So hopefully that is interesting for you and I think it will be because it'll give us a little more information about how all of you as listeners to the podcast are using the information that we're discussing.

And it's very important.

In addition to the poll, let me know what you think in the comments section of the show notes over@thefitnessroadmap.com 00 I'm very interested in any comments or suggestions that you may have for future episodes or how I can improve the podcast to be more helpful to everyone.

You can either leave a comment at the individual episode level or send me an email@markitnessroadmap.com and I'll get back to you.

I want as many people as possible to get the benefits of listening to this podcast.

So anything you can do to help get the word out about we're doing here.

What we're doing here at the Fitness Roadmap would be fantastic.

You can help the show out by subscribing to the podcast and sharing this episode with anyone you think that might be interested or might benefit from what we're talking about.

You can also leave a review wherever it is that you listen to the podcast.

And if you want to follow what I am doing on a weekly basis, daily basis, there's a couple of ways of doing that.

The first is that I have created a club over at Strava.

Strava is a free to join social media fitness app.

You have to sign up and get an account.

There's no cost.

You can be a free member and get all most of the benefits.

I've created a club called the Fitness Roadmap.

So I've got a link in the Show Notes.

You can click there and join the club.

Now the Fitness Roadmap Club is where people who use Strava to stay healthy and fit can share their workouts and ideas for living life better.

So from running, walking, cycling, swimming, rowing, strength training, pretty much any other activity that you can do, you can join the club and the community of like minded what I'm calling roadmappers.

Another app I use is Zwift.

Zwift is an indoor cycling and running app and if you do have a membership and are a member of Zwift, you can follow me there.

If you don't have a Zwift account but you want to check it out and give it a try, I do have a link in the Show Notes.

You can get a free 30 day trial.

Now another resource I do for my Training is a Concept 2 rowing machine.

So if you have a Concept 2 rowing machine and you just want to see what I've been doing on the indoor rower, you can follow me over at Concept2 site as well as if you do have an app called Exer exr, it's a rowing app.

You can check that out and become a member there.

Join in and you will find me over there as well.

The other way you can get in touch with me is just send me a message.

If you have a comment or suggestion for the podcast or website, head over to thefitnessroadmap.com connect and leave me a message.

That's it for this week.

Hopefully gave you some more food for thought as it relates to the importance of regular intentional aerobic exercise and movement and the fantastic benefits that it provides us.

That's it for now.

Until next time.

Enjoy the journey and be well.