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Exercise Smarter

The first thing most anyone says to me when we talk about weight loss is "I probably just need to exercise more."

Well if you're telling me that, it probably means that you're not exercising enough, so in that sense, yes you do.  But do not think that exercise = losing weight.  It is such a minimal drop in the hat.  Exercise is great for stress relief and cardiovascular health but does basically nothing for weight loss.  If you'd like a whole bunch of evidence to convince yourself of this, you can check it out here.

How much exercise do we need?  The general guidelines are about 150 minutes a week, which comes out to about 30 minutes a day most days.  You can also do 20 minutes a day of more rigorous exercise.  And by exercise, I mean something where you start breaking a sweat and/or would have trouble keeping up a conversation.

This can be anything.  Walking is the way most of the world gets this done.  I know a lot of people go to gyms - I have no problem with that except to say thou shalt not do anything dumb at the gym, including:

- lifting heavier weights or doing a new exercise to try to impress someone nearby.  No great love story has ever started this way.

- using poor form when doing squats or dead lifts (low back strain), overhead shoulder presses (rotator cuff injuries), or bench presses (pec strain or worse if you drop the bar) as these are the most common ways I see people hurt themselves

To learn about the most common injuries and how to prevent them, check this out

Also, workout advice is like ... Noses - everybody has one and they're all different.  There is no one right way to do a weight workout.  Here is some general information on science based weight training that may debunk some of what you've heard.

Personally, I used to spend a lot of time going to gyms until I realized that it complicated my days and took away from quality family time and other activities.  Now I focus more on strength and flexibility through a combination of

- yoga (I started with home DVD's by Gaiam in med school, advanced to doing classes for a while, but now that I don't have much time anymore mostly use the Gaiam app or watch youtube videos from Chad Rough at Yogamazing)

- TRX (suspension trainer in my garage but can be put up anywhere or temporarily hooked onto any door pretty safely - a great way to do body weight exercises with support)

- Body weight exercises (I like https://www.marklauren.com/ lately - has a good app with body weight exercises.  I'm also a fan of the primal fitness program

- and then occasionally cycling and regular walking/running my dog up and down a hill near the house

Do not use lack of time as an excuse.  This is stuff you can put in to your lunch break or in 3 10-minute stints throughout the day.  I don't care how busy you are - if you're not taking the time to destress and take care of yourself, your work will suffer.

There ain't too many people out there past the point of being able to exercise so find something that you like to do and DO IT!  And never use age as an excuse - I have been shocked to see what happened to actor JK Simmons </a> when he started working out and you probably will too

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