TYLER TOLMAN BLOG
Exercise | 7 Principles Of Health
Exercise | 7 Principles Of Health
Where does the word ‘exercise’ come from?
It comes from the Latin word, ‘exercere’, which means ‘to keep’.
Reminds me of ‘use it, or lose it‘ …so if you want to keep this physical body staying healthy and live a long life, we need to be moving, exercising.
While exercising, I love to go outside, walk down the beach…get out as much as possible.
Fresh air. Ocean. Getting out into nature.
If you are unable to exercise outside, for any number of reasons, invest in some exercise equipment, a great one is a treadmill to enable you to exercise indoors.
Benefits of Exercise
I want to focus and talk about some of the main benefits of exercise through walking.
We can talk about anaerobic, strength-training, high-intensity training…so many things we could talk about with exercise. But what are humans designed to do?
Humans are designed to walk. Humans are bi-pedal creatures and are meant to walk. I would actually argue that when we do walk, and we walk consistently and a lot, that we are actually strengthening the body in ways that we just don’t even know.
Creating Longevity
There’s a book you can buy called, ‘The Blue Zones’, by Dan Buettner. Dan researches the longest lived cultures around the world, from places like Okinawa, Japan with the longest lived women, to Sardinia, Italy with the longest lived men; and so many other locations around the world. Dan looks at diet, lifestyle, and all aspects of what these cultures are doing.
Guess what? All the longest lived cultures on earth, they’re not marathoners, or hugely ripped bodybuilders. They are everyday humans walking, gardening, herding sheep, harvesting, going to see neighbours…all by using their legs.
The average walking distance of any of the longest lived cultures on earth is 5 miles a day, that’s 8 kms every day!! So if we want to live a long, healthy life, it just comes down to walking…these cultures, who have been around for thousands of years, have proven it.
Emotionally Good For You
When walking, have you noticed there is a cross-patterning motion, left foot-right arm, that naturally happens? I believe it’s this cross-patterning motion, from walking, that rewires the brain. Walking is one of the greatest things for your mood. So many people today are out of sorts emotionally, with various kinds of mental and emotional things going on. Most times, if you are really angry, or upset, frustrated, fearful… one of the greatest things you can do is to walk it out.
If you’ve had an argument, take a deep breath, let it out and go for a walk. Your mind starts to process, going through the little story you’ve told yourself…when you go for a walk it actually works itself out. The brain works better. We can see different perspectives when we have this kind of cross-patterning movement.
What happens for me when I get upset in any situation, I go for a walk and start to think and come to the realisation that maybe I was a bit of an a**hole, and I can start to see the other person’s perspective. With the walking and breathing I am starting to calm down. I don’t need to a therapist, everything goes by the way-side.
Walking at a Good Pace
The intensity of the walk is important. There is a massive study that was done back in the United States in 2021 looking at all causes of mortality and death…
#1. Dietary intake
#2. Smoking
#3. Obesity
#4. High blood pressure
#5. Exercise (lack of)
I believe numbers 1 to 5 are all related to exercise. Of course what you eat is important, that’s what I’m all about, but movement… moving your body and getting your circulation going is key.
Just walking at a fast pace is the greatest exercise. How do I know when I am walking at a fast enough pace? Try the ‘talk and sing’ test (a study in the US) – if you can sing while you are walking, you are walking too slow and you need to speed it up a bit.
Get yourself in a moderate pace to start, and then work your way up to a quicker pace. It will set you up for the day. My grandmother used to say, “I’m going for my morning constitution”. Her morning walk – establishing a strong, healthy body and setting the pace for her day.
Imagine, everyday getting up and drinking water to hydrate your body and then you go for your morning, fast-paced walk. You start to sweat, which means you are detoxing all of yesterday’s stuff. And as you are walking, you are actually massaging the digestive system as well.
Over time, with my morning routine of getting up really early, drinking my water with a pinch of salt and getting on the treadmill, I started feeling stronger and my pace has gotten quicker. So much so, I now feel I want to run. But I’m not running because I want to be healthy or to lose weight. I’m running because I have so much energy from the consistency of walking that I can’t help but run. And that’s when we should run.
Crawl before you walk. Walk before you run. And be consistent.
It will massively improve your digestive system. One of the best things we can do is get rid of yesterday’s waste. Walking is the greatest activity to assist with that.
If you want to live a long, healthy life, walk every day – 45 minutes morning and evening. If you can emulate the longest lived cultures, 5 miles a day, you will be rocking life. You’ll be evolving and you’ll hit a point from walking where you’ll have so much energy and you’ll want to do more. So do more. But keep walking also.
Top Tip from a Tolman Health Coach
“Get a rebounder if you are restricted with time and jump on it every morning…actually just get one!”
Thanks for reading!
