⭐️ Pearl’s Golden Rule of Exercise

For me, The Golden Rule of Exercise goes like this:

Move your body almost everyday, the more the better. 

Take a day or two off when your body is tired or achy and you feel like you need it. 

Then, get back to it.

This is 87.51% of what we need to know about movement right there. 

So with the golden rule, we get to a B+ on the exercise/movement front. And if we’re grading on a national curve, it’s probably more like an A as only 23% of Americans are getting enough exercise via NCHS.

Plus, it leaves room open to do the stuff we enjoy whether it’s walking or running or lifting or yoga or swimming or biking or climbing or grappling or whatever.

We’re much more likely to continue moving our bodies if we’re doing stuff we enjoy.

Keeping It Practical

There is a ton of research accumulating in the health and wellness space that might allow us to optimize for specific outcomes whether they are performance or longevity focused.

I’m all for this. Great.

The more we understand, the more we can promote positive change in our communities and the more we can apply to our own lives.

But, as our understanding of the effects of exercise increases and the elements which promote healthspan* get more meticulously refined, it is critical not to lose sight of what is practical to most of us.

I write this in light of a study recently published in the AHA Journal Circulation that is getting a lot of attention recently.

We already knew that a combination of moderate and vigorous physical activity lowered the risk of death significantly.

This recent study suggests that doing twice as much, lowers the risk even more.

We’re talking 2.5 to 5 hours/week of vigorous, 5 to 10 hours/week of moderate, or a combination of the two.

Lovely to know but daunting for many. 

And kind of silly really when 80% of the population is not doing half of those kinds of numbers.

*The term Healthspan refers to the period of our life spent in good health.

Prime Cut Links

When I began this newsletter, I used the name Prime Cuts as a pun but also because I planned to curate health links the way Tadas at Abnormal Returns does for finance content links.

Gonna try to get back into that a bit so here are a few for this week related to the post above.

Maximum association with lower mortality at 2.5 to 5 hrs of vigorous physical activity, 5 to 10 hours of moderate physical activity, or a combination of the two. (via Circulation)

Defining the term Healthspan, benefits and drawbacks of using the term, nad the increase in popularity of the term. (via NIH)

And here’s a cool chart from the article showing the increase in the popularity of the term healthspan.

Less than 25% of Americans meet CDC exercise guidelines. (via Minn Post)

More evidence that physical activity improves brain health. (via Neurology)