A principle from The Blue Zones: Lessons for Living Longer from the People Who’ve Lived the Longest by Dan Buettner is to MOVE NATURALLY. Dan is a National Geographic explorer who has traveled the globe to uncover the best strategies for longevity, specifically in pockets in the globe where centenarians are consistently found.
Not one centenarian in this study has a ‘gym’ membership yet every one of these 100 year old plus people would put us all to shame with the amount of daily exercise they get. One 100+ year old woman from Loma Linda, CA, walks 1 mile each morning in her senior apartment center (up and down hallways), has breakfast, then bikes 8 miles and then lifts weight. Male centenarians from Sardinia, Italy, work most of their lives as Shepherds, a profession that involves miles of hiking each day. Okinawans garden for hours each day. And the male centenarian studied in Costa Rica was chopping wood for several hours before his interview began.
Bottom line – you’ve got to move to live. I often wonder if we could go back in time about 100 years and then show these people our current culture. I think they would be baffled that we actually have to walk/run on a treadmill to get exercise. Of course when our grandparents tell us they walked 3 miles to school in the snow each day, they were telling the truth. We balk at having to walk 1/8 mile in a mall parking lot if the parking spot was too far from the entrance.
Over FIFTY % of ALL cancers could be completely prevented by exercising 30 minutes every day. And yet we still don’t do it. So you must get moving. So here are some suggestions:
- Exercise with one of our personal trainers, take a yoga class with us, or challenge yourself to one of our circuit training classes.
- Actually GO to the gym you have a membership to.
- Use the exercise equipment you purchased that is currently acting as a clothes hanger.
- WALK, WALK, WALK – walking is perhaps the best cardiovascular activity you can do – it’s easy to do anywhere. It’s free. It’s easy on the joints. It’s great for your mind. You get to enjoy nature.
- Make your life harder – Take the stairs. Park in the farthest parking spot. Throw away the TV remote or better yet, go on a TV fast and use that extra time to simply move more. Stretch in the shower or bathroom. Hold your abdomen in at every red light. Stand on one foot while blow drying your hair to tighten your core muscles.
- Simply make movement more fun: turn on a great CD and dance for 15 minutes; jump on your trampoline with your kids; swim in your pool for exercise; follow your grandchild around wherever he/she goes for 20 minutes.
- Enlist a friend – working out with a friend is fun and they hold you accountable!
