Exercise

So after my initial somewhat esoteric musing about "once in a generation-ers" I'm going to muse about something a little more . . . . practical. Exercising.

Now, I am not a health nut, nor am I a physician (nor do I want to become one), but exercise is a very interesting and important topic (and a bit of a buzz word, as it has been for the past 200 years . . . . -ish). And I'm sure everyone out there is familiar with all of the fad exercise routines and fad diets, and the latest information says this, or that. But from everything I can gather, exercise is good for you. Whether it's just a little bit here or there, or 7 days a week, twice a day. It has a positive action. Obviously there is a point where it's not enough, or it's way too much. But those points are pretty far apart from each other.

I personally oscillate between a couple of different exercise programs. The one that I use most often is the Tabata method, where you exercise as hard as you can for 20 seconds at a time, with 10 seconds off in between, and do 4 different exercises. and you do this twice, for a total exercise time of ~4 minutes. The exercises that I do are Burpees, Mountain Climbers, Jumping Jacks, and High Knees. The purpose of this is to basically keep my metabolism up and active. It also only takes 4 minutes, so there is no excuse not to.

The other programs that I try to do are Spartacus (Found on the Men's Health Website, or as a concise PDF) to be done 3 days a week. Which I was successful at following for a while, but not lately. P90X, which I got the videos for free. And this routine which takes as long as I feel like it taking because I can just repeat it as often as I can (usually 2-4 times depending on motivation).

But with all of that being said. I don't exercise regularly, and I am not in fantastic shape. I am getting better about including something in my every day routine. But I'm not there yet.

The biggest thing is, any of the above will get me to my goal of exercising regularly, having a healthy lifestyle, reducing seasonal and non-seasonal depression, increase appetite, focus, and brain activity. If I followed through with any one of them regularly (3-4 days a week), I would reach my goal. In fact, most of the exercise programs out there, such as the 300 Program, the Captain America, and other such things, will get you to where you want to go. Even just running/walking daily helps. From everything I've been able to find, regular exercise, even light or irregular exercise, is good. And the minimum required isn't much. There are studies that say "this way, or that way is better." But unless you're doing something dangerous, or likely to injure yourself (like doing crunches wrong, or wearing downright bad attire for that particular exercise), any exercise is good exercise. But the best exercise is the kind that you do regularly, and ideally the kinda of exercise that focuses on what you want to highlight.

A fair warning, according to studies on obesity and energy consumption, if you're hoping to change something about your body/metabolism/figure, and what have you. You need to keep it up for over 6 months. Somewhere between 6 months and a year is what you should aim for. That's why diets, and exercise fads tend to fail. You need to keep at it for a long time to change your body's set point. The Howard Hughes Medical Institute puts out Free Lectures, including that one on obesity. It is worth looking at for a scientific discussion on obesity.

So all said and done, exercise, it's good for you.

Questions, Comments, And's, If's, But's (Butts), or F* You's?