What if there was a pill that had the highest success rate for curing low-to-moderate depression, anxiety and for extending your lifespan?
But beyond just extending the length of your life, it also improves the quality. A pill that can improve your brain health, help manage weight, reduce the risk of disease, strengthen bones and muscles, and improve your ability to do everyday activities. It also can help you sleep better and improve your mood. Would you take it?
If this pill existed it would be flying off the shelf and people would be willing to pay a large amount for it. Good news! It does exist. And it’s free! But it’s a metaphorical pill. It’s called exercise.
I’ve heard countless doctors over the years say, if exercise were a medication it would be the most beneficial medicine, with the least negative side effects, on the plant. When thought of this way, why do so many people resist exercise? Because it’s not a magic pill, it takes work and effort.
Exercise has so much to offer beyond its undeniable physical, mental and emotional benefits as well. It can help us to connect to our deepest human nature. We were designed by evolution to move in ways that insured our survival. And when we do these movements we are rewarded for our efforts with naturally produced chemicals such as endorphins, dopamine, and adrenal.
Simply put, when we exercise, we are in control of the chemical rewards, instead of easier shortcuts that hijack our system like drugs, social media, or video games. Not to say that these things are all inherently evil, but it is essential to have ways of tapping into our natural reward systems that are with in our own autonomy. Our own control.
In this article I hope to convince you that a regular exercise habit is essential for all around well being. I will not be promoting any particular program, there are countless ways to exercise, and I want everyone to experiment to find what works best for them.
As someone who has gone long stretches of my life without regular exercise, I know how daunting working out can be. But I have stuck to various regular exercise habits over the last two years and it has completely transformed my life. I want the same for you.
Exercise Can Improve All Areas of Life
When most people think of exercise it is purely in terms of vanity. They want to lose fat, add muscle, or look more aesthetic. Maybe there is consideration given to the overall physical health as well. They want to feel better and have more energy to do the things they love to do, spend quality time with their kids, friends and family.
However, what regular exercise has to offer goes well beyond physical attributes. It can drastically improve our inner life as well.
It can help us to connect to the present moment. Where it is lifting a heavy weight, in which case we have to be completely focused on the movements involved in properly and safely getting the weight up. Or if we are attempting a difficult athletic endeavor like hitting a baseball, shooting a 3-pointer, or performing a muscle up on gymnastic rings.
These can serve as examples of facing difficult moments and rising to the occasion. Being fully present to overcome residence or complete a challenging task. This can translate over to the rest of life, and can help to build confidence.
By voluntarily overcoming resistance. Whether it’s the physical resistance of pushing heavy weights, or the mental resistance of putting on our running shoes and going out in the cold to run a few miles. Both cases are fantastic for our self-esteem and confidence.
This leads us to the benefits of longer periods, endurance, and type exercises such as running. When we attempt to start a running practice we face great mental residence. After a half a mile or so we can feel “done” or defeated. Proving to ourselves that we can push through these physical and mental barriers can be incredibly affirming.
As Ryan Holiday, an author who writes prolifically about Stoic principles, says when he feels discouraged in life and is ready to quickly, he says to himself, “I know this feeling. This is what I feel during long runs. It can overcome this feeling during my runs. I can overcome it in other parts of my life.”
Furthermore, when we stick to an exercise program and see steady improvement over time, we are proving to ourselves in a tangible way that we can make a plan and deliver on our promise to ourselves.
This is something that is in our control. Unlike the economy, other people's opinions about our performance at work or the creative work we are doing, our relationship to exercise is deeply personal. Between us and ourselves.
We can make a plan to walk 10,000 steps a day, and we have the autonomy to make sure it happens. If we don’t hit that number, we can evaluate how we can get our step numbers up the next day.
We can set a goal to do 200 push ups a day, and we will learn things about ourselves that we wouldn’t if we didn’t push ourselves with ambitious goals. How many reps can we break into how many sets? How long should we rest in between?
By setting these exercise goals, and running the experiments of trying to hit them, we often learn that we are capable of more than we ever could have guessed. When we hit or exceed our exercise goals, we are flooded with our bodies' natural reward chemicals. This makes us more inclined to work out again. And the positive reciprocal loop is established.
Joe Rogan often talks about when people first start a workout program they associate it with “feeling '' bad, tired, sore, in pain, discouraged, or embarrassed. If you workout regularly this will flip into “feeling'' good. When we pay close attention to our inner state, we start to connect to the more positive feeling that comes from physical exertion. These often come at the conclusion of a workout: reduction in stress, a feeling of relaxation, accomplishment, or even elation. However, in time we can even feel elation during the workout itself. Many run’s report the “Run’s High”, or weight lifters who report the pump after a workout, as one of the best feelings imaginable.
All of this is to say, the hardest days of a new exercise program are almost always the first couple days. If one can get through the resistance it not only gets easier, but so pleasurable that one couldn’t imagine their life before it.
Conclusion
Regular exercise is a keystone habit which can have far reaching positive effects in almost every area of your life. From better physical health, energy and more restful sleep, to less anxiety and more confidence moving through the world. Not to mention the self-esteem that comes from planning to do difficult and challenging workouts, and sticking to your promise to yourself.
Perhaps even more importantly, physical exercise connects us to our human nature. We can feel more comfortable in our bodies and establish a healthier relationship to our natural reward systems.
I hope that this article has helped you to see a regular exercise habit in a new light. Physical exercise is some of the best self-care that we can do. Which leads us to be kinder and of better service to those closest to us, and all that we value in life.