We get often asked, “What is the best kind of exercise?”
Well first things first… The best kind of exercise are those fork curls, or what you put at the end of your fork. That is the best exercise you’ll ever get. But the best exercise for each individual person is individualized.
Oftentimes we use the DNA analysis to really help guide us to get an individual exercising plan. It may be that you need to start out with a brisk walk. Or it may be that you are ready for some weight training. You might even need to start cross training, doing both aerobic exercise and weight training.
It takes a professional to oftentimes help you find the best exercise that’s suited for you. A lot of people think that one size fits all, or one way is best. It’s simply not. I’ll give you a quick example of this.
In our genes, there’s some inflammatory markers. You could be a person that has those genes, and so the right exercise for you is probably not high intensity every day. It could be high intensity one day, moderate the next day, light the next day, and back high again.
We see people that workout too hard and too fast many times. Thinking that this high intensity push to do it harder, do it better, and do it more is a better method. This is just false.
This kind of mindset can even make people go into a fat-loss resistance mode. They actually gain weight, which is crazy! So you have to personalize exercise.
I think another point to keep in mind, is that you have to enjoy what you do. You can’t force a certain exercise on somebody and say this is what you have to do. If you don’t enjoy it, you’re not gonna do it.
So the first thing we ask people is, what do you enjoy doing? If you enjoy walking, then walk. If you enjoy swimming, then swim. If you enjoy running, then run. If you enjoy lifting weights, then lift weights.
Just do something you enjoy first. We can always think about adding other activities on as-needed or on a necessity basis later on. And we really are safe to say that the best kind of exercise is movement.
I try to take that whole concept of exercise to a different place. Sometimes people look at exercise as a drudgery maybe. They don’t want to exercise. They hate that word.
Look, just do movement. In my my case, I’ll put praise and worship in my ears, and all I’m doing is being grateful that I can move. So when I’m in the middle of my exercise. I’m thinking, “God thank you that I can actually move around “and pick up a weight and walk.”
I’m not necessarily thinking about how many repetitions I’m doing, or how heavy the weight is. I’m just sorta celebrating the idea of movement. You just got to move more and sit less.
Sitting is the new smoking. We have to fit exercise to the person instead of the person to the exercise. So there’s a unique set of activities that might be best for one individual, and a unique set of activities that might be best for somebody else. So we have to fit the exercise to the person.
Many times (when given permission), we’ll speak with your trainers, to help them personalize your workouts based on what we’ve learned about you. We’re very comfortable with having that discussion about DNA and what’s best for you with that trainer.
People also ask “Do you design workout plans?” We do on occasion, but ultimately it’s just about moving more and sitting less. In today’s day we are sedentary people, even if we exercise.
To sum it all up, we need to exercise accurately, not exercise more. Be efficient, don’t be stupid.