Accumulation of Total Activity is the Foundation that Better Health Evolves from
Aerobic health can be improved directly or indirectly, structured or unstructured.
To Health Advocates—
You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems.
-James Clear
Excellent health is a byproduct of the habits, choices, structures, and daily routines we put in place. Yes, an excellent workout program can be a contributing factor to a to a healthy lifestyle. In fact, a great workout program, when executed consistently, and grounded in exercise physiology principles, can take us to the highest levels of fitness, and most likely, excellent health as a byproduct.
Exercise physiology and biomechanics principles is where I live my life. It’s what consumes many of my waking thoughts, and it’s what I spend most of my hours instructing people on. There is, however, one principle that serves as a crutch for myself, and carries an enormous amount of weight in my life:
The amount of time I spend on my feet, and the relentlessness at which I approach that principle carries me on the weeks I don’t feel good, the weeks I’m too busy to structure enough activity, and inversely serves as a double dose of activity on the days and weeks where I do end up working out every day.
Why is this so important to me? Two reasons.
The habits that account for my total accumulation of activity are enjoyable, sustainable for life, and resilient when I can’t muster the time or energy to make it to the gym. Examples include: going for walks with loved ones, walking to work and being alone with my thoughts, walking my dog, running errands. These are resilient habits and keep my fitness from degrading when I string together a few tough weeks.
Total accumulation of activity is the closest thing we have to a panacea of health. Aerobic health, metabolic health, and mitochondrial health are all foundational principles to a healthy life. Accumulating tons of activity at low intensities is a surefire, low risk, highly compliant way to fill all three of those buckets.
Now, I think workout programs are excellent also. I just think, in addition to a great workout program, should be a system of routines and habits that make life worth living. You know, the stuff we enjoy. Spending time with people being active. Going on a long two or three hour walk with someone we haven’t caught up with in a while. Taking your dog for a walk and being alone with your brain for a little bit. It just happens, doing those things will also improve your aerobic health, burn a ton of fat, and can build a foundation that other fitness ventures can be spring-boarded from.
If we happen to execute a system of routines AND an excellent workout program, then the highest levels of health, that are personal to each one of us, are probably well within reach.
Speaking of aerobic health. Below you will see a small video I made countering the long-standing notion I held that zone 2 efforts could only be achieved through a singular exercise modality.
What do you need to know before watching this video?
Blood lactate can be measured using a simple lactate meter.
Baseline blood lactate levels at rest should be between 1-2 mmol.
When we exercise above our aerobic zone, lactate will accumulate above 2 mmol in the blood as our body can no longer keep up with its accumulation. A reading over 2 mmol will signal to us that this accumulation has started and that our body is mainly burning carbohydrates.
A reading under 2 mmol lets us know that we are in a place with our metabolism where fats are being used a source of fuel.
This is especially useful when exercising, because if we can perform cardiovascular exercise at a level that does not go above 2 mmol lactate in the blood, we are actually improving our body’s ability to burn fat, and develop our aerobic system.
It is widely known in exercise physiology circles that most runners perform their cardiovascular exercise above this 2 mmol level. This obviously is still useful as exercise for your heart, but fails to develop the mechanisms of aerobic and metabolic health that are dependent on this level staying under 2.0.
The purpose of this video was to test whether or not I would be able to string together multiple movements at a set heart rate without accumulating high levels of blood lactate. I anticipated that switching between exercises would be enough stimulus on my body to start accumulating blood lactate, I was wrong!
Finally, this does not mean that ALL exercise has to be done at this low level, it just means that most cardiovascular exercise should be done at this level.
This brings me back to the original point of having a set of systems, routines, and habits in place to supplement your workout programs is actually very foundational to your health. It can fill this bucket of aerobic health if you don’t want to obsess over heart rates, blood lactate, etc. Being on your feet doing chores, walking, spending time with people, playing sports, and any other example I can come up with is so excellent for our overall health.
Structured fitness is still great, I’m just saying I think better health is achieved through structured AND unstructured fitness.
Enjoy!
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