Below is an excerpt from the book Downsize Sooner than Later – 18 Rules for Retirement Success available on Amazon.com.
With this rule, we enter a second challenging topical space like diet, due to its shifting, diverse, and volatile nature. This is the subject of exercise. Here again, my goal is to offer you the highest and most concentrated value possible. While, admittedly, I am an amateur on this subject, my reflections are based on years of study, experience, and observation. Just like with diets – no one size fits all. As always, consult with a physician or other qualified health professional before beginning any new exercise plan to be sure it is safe for you.
Here, I want to suggest a methodology for exercise that is both convenient and enduring. The goal is to accomplish:
- More results with less time and effort.
- The best version of you – whatever that is – not some conventional stereotype that may be a mismatch.
- To exercise in a way that is sustainable. This means not hurting yourself and being forced to stop exercising.
- To promote range of motion so that for as long as possible you can maintain your capacity to move and physically engage in life.
As mentioned in the last rule, I am a person who has exercised most of my life. I remember I used to do sit-ups while watching TV after middle-school in the late afternoons. At one point in my early teens, I could readily do a thousand sit-ups in a single session and over 130 sit-ups in under two minutes.
Those were the days…
Over the decades, just like with diets, I have seen exercise fads come and go. In recent years, my son John became deeply involved with an exercise system called CrossFitⓇ. John was an enthusiast and a serious student of health and exercise. I think he wanted me to get involved with CrossFitⓇ, but it never really came about. He joined me at my gym several times, though, and tweaked my usual routine with techniques he had learned.
One important addition he suggested was a movement known as a “thruster.” This is a type of squat exercise accompanied by light dumbbells held in each hand. In the motion, you bend your knees into squatting position with the dumbbells held at chest height. From there, the motion completes in a standing position and with arms fully extended overhead.
It is a simple exercise and moves the whole body. He added a twist by pairing this activity with another exercise. The second exercise was a series of machine assisted pull-ups. Altogether, and against the clock, the sets of exercises unfolded like this:
- 21 thrusters.
- 21 pull-ups.
- 15 thrusters.
- 15 pull-ups.
- 9 thrusters.
- 9 pull-ups.
CrossFitⓇ devotees will recognize this group of motions as like a workout called “Fran.” It is an old-fashioned butt-whooping to get through without stopping the first few times.
So, why tell this story?
It turns out, hidden in all this are two secrets to effective exercise that make a huge difference in the efficiency and overall value extracted from exercise.
Many types of exercise employ these secrets in one way or another. A few examples are burpees, aerobic-boxing, parkours, dance and ballet based exercise programs, and as mentioned, CrossFitⓇ.
The two secrets are:
1. Move your whole body – or most of it.
“Whole” or full-body exercise is any activity that requires coordinated motion from the knees to the shoulders. Such exercise requires diverse muscle groups to work together and, when done properly, can provide increased beneficial impact in reduced time. Whole body exercise promotes a healthy range of motion, muscle and tendon strength, and engages the lymph system, which acts as a type of pumpless filter for the body.
2. Where possible, “pair” or “weave” different exercises together in the same set.
In the example above, pull-ups – which engage lats, biceps, and back – are paired with thrusters – which engage legs, core, and shoulders. While there is some muscle overlap, these are very different exercises. It turns out, our bodies seem to like movements that occur in a successive, diverse, and coordinated range. Exercise “pairing” helps facilitate this diversity of motion. Some simple examples of pairing include push-ups with sit-ups, pull-ups with burpees, leg lifts with air squats, jumping rope and punching a heavy bag, etc.
I have searched for an origin story behind the rise of exercise systems that combine whole body motions with varying degrees of pairing. The closest I can find is in the forerunning history of parkour. Parkour originates from the French phrase parcours du combattant which translates to “obstacle course.”
French naval officer Georges Hebert, before World War I, conceived a system to promote athletic skill based on tribes he had observed in Africa. Hebert noted, “Their bodies were splendid, flexible, nimble, skillful, enduring, and resistant but yet they had no other tutor in gymnastics but their lives in nature.”(1)
The obstacle course training Hebert and subsequent others developed under the umbrella of parcours brings together a combined series of full body motion (e.g. running, vaulting, jumping, climbing, etc.) and pits these movements against the clock.
(1) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parkour
One could view many of the popular modern exercise systems as “parkour in place.” Sans the obstacle course.
Many such systems are enhanced by the addition of resistance equipment such as barbells, kettle bells, bungee cords, heavy ropes, pull-up bars, and other free weights. If you have ever run a traditional parkour trail (not the over-the-top acrobatic borderline insane viral video forms of parkour), you will know exactly what I am talking about. It is the mix of motions that hit you. All those body parts being called upon to respond make for a phenomenal overall workout.
I can remember years ago doing traditional workouts with weights at the gym, before adding the mix of full-body routines. The weekend would come, and I would have to do some demanding chores like heavy yard work or splitting wood. Afterward, I’d be sore for days. I remember thinking, “I thought I was supposed to be in good shape. What’s going on?” But since adding the mix of whole-body motions to my routine, I am now much better prepared to engage in such weekend activity without feeling like I have been thrown off a building in subsequent days.
If this all sounds difficult or extreme, it doesn’t have to be.
Consider the following list of motions that use either most or a substantial degree of full body engagement. Many are not traditional bodybuilding exercises. The point isn’t to build beach muscles – though you can still do that if you want – but rather to maintain range of motion and sustain general health. When weights are involved, these exercises favor lower, safer weight loads with higher repetitions (for example, 8–12 movements per set x 3 sets).
- Walking, jogging, running.
- Seated row.
- Elliptical machine.
- Stair machine.
- Bike riding.
- Sit-ups.
- Crunches.
- Leg-lifts.
- Push-ups (more than just a chest workout, also a planking exercise).
- Chin-ups (machine assisted).
- Pull-ups (machine assisted).
- Squat.
- Deadlift.
- Burpees.
- Jump rope.
- Wall balls.
- Air squats.
- Thrusters.
In my experience, a variation of three to four of these motions in every workout session at moderate levels does the trick. This equates to four to five workouts per week of approximately 20–25 minutes in duration. No big deal. Supplementing these workouts by increasing the number of times you stand daily and by achieving manageable goal for tracking “daily steps” adds icing to the cake.
The hardest thing.
When John and I used to do our podcast together, one of the things we said all the time was that the hardest thing about doing anything was starting. From there, the key is to establish a routine. Do a little each day. Celebrate that you completed your routine. Simple. Light. Systematic. Take your time. This is where enduring results come from. Not from massive exhausting bursts (often injurious and dangerous, when it comes to exercise), but in steady consistent steps.
On days when I don’t feel like going to the gym, I think, “Just get there and do one thruster.” Of course, when I get there, I never do just one. All I really needed was the motivation to get through the door. Former Navy SEAL commander, author, business, and life coach Jocko Willink once commented on the importance of simply getting to the gym: “When you get there, what are you going to do? Lay on the floor?”
He is exactly right. Get there. Take the first step, and the subsequent steps will follow.
One thing I also do that helps is listen to podcasts and audiobooks while at the gym. In this way, I accomplish two major objectives at once – a workout for my body and a workout for my mind. Just like the body, the mind takes routine care and maintenance to stay in shape.
Caring for your mind is the topic of our next rule.
Questions or comments?
I can be reached at this link – contact Ted Stevenot.