“Move”
“An object that is at rest will tend to stay at rest. An object that is in motion will tend to stay in motion.” - Sir Isaac Newton
Inertia is a powerful thing. Whatever direction your body is going in tends to stay that way unless some kind of force causes its speed or direction to change. Like a locomotive going full speed, the faster things move, the more force you must apply to change it.
The beginning of this journey was not easy. Mine was not a body in motion. Better yet, it was a body going in the wrong direction. The thought of turning it all around was overwhelming. My body constantly ached after I exerted it; I was sore for days after I worked out; and I was tired. My trainer told me to aim for “winning the week,” meaning I should try to work out more days in a week than I don’t. (Yes, it was this lesson that I ultimately adapted into “win the day.”) Winning the week was a good goal but was one that I didn’t achieve often. This locomotive first needed to stop before it started going the other way.
Still, while the big things seemed insurmountable, I knew I could work on changing some of the little things that got me to that point. The goal was simply to be able to do more, and the way to accomplish it at that point was to get up and move. That word — “move” — became one of my mantras.
The Meaning of “Move”
First, let me say that this is the kind of goal I like to set. There’s no number or specific outcome attached to it, just a method. If I moved more – no matter what other results happened (or didn’t) – I was doing the right thing. One of the concepts I will frequently discuss throughout this blog is making small changes that don’t feel like changes. Moving is tailored made for that.
Moving is also more than just physical. We balance many objects in our life from work to family and friends to our health, fitness, and well-being. Each of these is a train we want moving in the right direction and balancing all of them can be the hardest part. As focused on fitness as I have become, I’m also doing my best to make sure that friends, family, and work are all going in the right direction too. But today’s focus is the physical.
“Move” is another goal where it doesn’t matter that our lives are not the same — the concept should work for anyone. We can all move more. Even as my whole world has changed since this began, “move” remains one of my mantras today, but the meaning of it in my life has evolved.
At the start, in addition to continuing my routine with my personal trainer, moving meant doing seemingly simple tasks I avoided before like taking the subway or walking to work (instead of taking an Uber), walking to pick up dinner (instead of ordering delivery), or walking up a flight or two of stairs (instead of taking the elevator). Note that when I said, “seemingly simple tasks,” they weren’t simple by any means. I used to take Uber to work every day. When I took the subway, I would sweat so much by the time I got to the office that I looked like I jumped into a swimming pool with my clothes on. White dress shirts were all I could wear to at least try to hide the sweat.
Now the meaning of “move” in my life has evolved. I work out nearly every day — I’ll write much more about that later — but I also work “move” into the rest of my day. Recently I realized I can start taking the stairs up to my 5th floor apartment more often, so I decided to do it once a day. In the time since, once a day quickly became at least once a day and every time the elevator wasn’t waiting in the lobby. Then, it became practically every time, even if the elevator was sitting right there wide open and I was carrying packages. Regardless of where you are in your journey, small changes can lead to giant improvements.
Climbing stairs is but one example, but really, moving is simply letting go of any of the things that keep you still. It also can be a great way to get some form of exercise in on days you simply cannot make it to the gym.
At the end of a workday, the first thing I used to do was drop myself on the couch to watch TV an hour or two before bed. Now I use that time to back to the gym in my building to sauna and stretch. Besides the impact this has on recovery – which is the key to moving more, and I’ll discuss a lot more about it later – stretching is also a form of moving. And so is just getting off the couch. Moving is any time you are not staying still when you otherwise would be, and that can be incorporated into almost anything. Here are but a few examples:
Clean your home more often
Park your car far away from where you are going
Get up every hour and walk around
Dance when you listen to music (my fav)
Take care of tomorrow’s errands today (then do more tomorrow)
The simplicity of this for fitness is that moving is calories. We’ll get into fitness tech a lot more later — but the Apple Watch literally calls your calorie goal the “Move” goal. Whether you use an Apple Watch, Fitbit, or my personal favorite and life changer — WHOOP — fitness tech always has something that targets movement.
I mentioned in my last post that I can reach some of my highest strain levels on my WHOOP on days I go to Pearl Jam concerts. Well, here’s what WHOOP’s AI feature said last week the day after I danced through the first concert of my trip (and a couple other related photos) . . .
Left: Asking WHOOP what my highest daily strain (ever) was the day after Pearl Jam on 5/21
Top Right: One of a number of “Dance Detected” messages I received over two nights in LA
Bottom Right: Dancing!
I’ll note that it took a run on the beach the morning of the show to reach that strain for the day, but also that I worked a full day, so I reached this strain level on a day I mostly spent doing my day job. Being awake for nearly 21 hours to get all that in might have had something to do with it, but it topped my previous high from the day I went on a 26-mile bike ride in Alaska.
“Change is good for the brain”
You should also know that movement does more for you than just burn calories. The more ways you incorporate moving into your life, the more benefits it has — not just on the body, but also on the mind. Scientists have found that greater activity diversity leads to better cognitive and executive functioning in adults. In my average week, I now incorporate at least four or five different types of workouts. Sure, I could do one type of cardio and one type of strength training over and over during the week, and I’m not knocking that at all. In fact, over the course of much of this journey, my cardio was mostly riding my Peloton two to four times a week, and I got in a comfort zone that worked well. But now, any given week includes at least four of the following — running, biking, swimming, boxing, rowing, rock climbing, golf, and strength training — and I purposely aim to get out of my comfort zone. That’s where even greater gains come from. I feel more fit and fearless. (On that note, sadly, yesterday’s rock climbing trip I had planned was canceled due to rain, but I’ll hopefully be back at The Gunks on June 9.)
The beauty of “move” is watching it evolve. Whether you are at a place of taking baby steps to start out, or you are aiming to do just that little bit more than you already do, change will happen over time. Stick with it, and the small changes will lead to big ones.
Ten years into this journey, my body is not naturally sweating all the time anymore. I’m off most of the meds I used to take, and blue shirts are back in my wardrobe! When I sweat, it is on purpose — and I do that a lot. This locomotive is moving in the right direction now.
Left: White shirts only in 2015
Right: Blue shirts in 2024
Aaron