Momentum Issue 25: Increase Your Low-Level Movement
Moving may just be one of the greatest things we can do for our health.
After sleep, I believe that movement should be our next priority if we want to take care of our wellbeing. And the most important movement we should aim to include each day is low-level movement.
This week, see if you can increase the amount of low-level movement in your day.
Importance
Regularly moving our bodies is vital.
As a species, we were built to move - to walk for long periods of time, to run after animals, to move around while foraging. We weren’t built to sit at a desk, or in the car, or on the couch for huge chunks of our day. If we want to be healthy, we need to emulate the lifestyle we evolved to have.
Unfortunately, this lack of movement is hard to avoid in our society with most of us working sedentary jobs and commuting long distances.
However, we need to do as much as we can to counter this. Long periods of sitting have been linked to heart disease, diabetes, and even premature death, as well as depression and obesity.
Implementation
Fortunately, increasing our low-level movement doesn’t take a lot of time nor effort. This isn’t a workout, and for most of us, this shouldn’t be too challenging.
Here are some suggestions for moving more.
Stand more often
If you have an opportunity to stand rather than sit, take it. For example:
In a waiting room
While working - if you can acquire a standing desk
On the bus or train
Move for at least two minutes of each hour
If you’re like me, you might need to set an alarm to go off each hour. Or you can aim to complete your 5 minutes of movement at the top of each hour, e.g. 10am, 11am, etc. if you’ll remember.
What you do doesn’t matter - you can do anything. Walk to the kitchen and get a glass of water. Check the mailbox. Or you can try:
Air squats
Burpees
Lunges
Yoga poses
Climbing the stairs
Find opportunities for movement
There are so many opportunities in our day to move more. We just need to recognize them.
Here are some examples:
Park in a parking spot that’s not right outside the door
Take the stairs
Walk each aisle of the grocery store
Do some chores — vacuuming, mopping, sweeping, dusting
Aim to walk at least 6000 steps each day
If you incorporate all the above examples into your day, you will likely get close to 6000 steps. You can also try incorporating short walks into your day - like a 15 minute walk at lunch time, or, as I like to do, a 10 minute walk before I get into the car for my morning commute and a 10 minute walk when I get back home after work.