One of my goals for this year has been to purge closets and get rid of some things I just don’t use or need. I think as a society we have somewhat moved away from the materialistic times and are embracing a bit more reduce, reuse, and recycle mentality. Maybe we are realizing, too, that more does not equate to more happiness?

I’ve also seen a trend towards shorter workouts. All you need is twenty minutes total their ads claim. Hmm … that’s a concept worth exploring! I do believe a little is better than none. So if all you can do is 20 minutes - yes this beats doing nothing.

In reality a 20 minute workout will not be equitable to an hour workout. The muscles used and exertion needed, calories burned, balance, flexibility, and so much more required will be less with less time spent working out. The other consideration is what are you doing with the 40 minutes you are now not working out? If the answer is sitting in front of a desk or TV … the effect of a shorter workout becomes even greater in my opinion. We’ve now added 40 extra sedentary minutes to our day.

Through the generations we have ‘improved’ our lives to the point we are much less active and move less than our parents or their parents did. We don’t walk across parking lots or through stores for all our purchases with many now showing up on our doorstep. We don’t carry our groceries to the car which helps build muscles! Even simple things like having to walk to a printer or copier created movement which now we can just push a button to get the same result. When you really start to think of all the ways we have cut movement from our lives - its rather profound!

I look at my relatives - both my mother and father had aunts and parents that lived well into their 90’s. None of them ever belonged to a gym or did any organized workout class to my knowledge; They did however work in their own gardens regularly, walked to the market several times a week if not daily to pick up groceries, they walked up and down stairs to do laundry, they cleaned their houses, they did their own yard work, or so much more. Because we are not getting the everyday movement our grandparents did, the time we spend working out matters.

Don’t be fooled by slick marketing - our bodies crave movement! Commit to moving and your body will repay you with strength, flexibility, balance and even better sleep!