Every time I go for a run, I think about how much I would love to help other people also enjoy exercise. So, I decided to write a blog about it. This may be one of my most boring posts, but I thought maybe I could inspire others to just get out there and move. First off, exercise has NEVER helped me with weight loss. Like, even when I was biking 30 miles a day, I still could NOT lose weight. It has definitely helped to increase my tone and joint health, but the best thing about exercise for me is the psychological benefits.
The theory behind exercise in weight loss, as I understand it, is not that you burn the calories and then have a calorie deficit, allowing you to lose weight. If anything, when I exercise, I become ravenous and definitely eat the calories I had just burned under the idea that “Hey, I exercised, now I can eat whatever I want” because, remember, an hour on the treadmill (like, a frickin’ lifetime) is only a candy bar’s worth of calories. No, the theory is that you change the metabolism of your body. You are starting to change your body, waking it up and making it work. Did you know that your skeleton is constantly breaking itself down and rebuilding? This also happens to your muscles and joints. When you go out and stress your body physically, you are doing minor but all over “damage”, stressing the bones and muscles. The body immediately begins to rebuild the damage done and your bones can even reshape themselves to better be able to deal the the type of stress you are putting on them. This kicks your body into a catabolic (burning calories) reconstruction phase. Like remodeling your bathroom starts with small changes like picking the dirty towels off the floor. You can’t expect to start with the sledge hammers.
Exercise will help your joints in the long run as well. I tell this to some of my orthopedic patients as well. Joints are responsible for allowing motion in your limbs, but they don’t have to do all of the work. My joints are very weak and the connective tissue is stretchy and easily fails me. This works out for rolling my ankle on the trail as I can just continue on my run with just a sore outer calf muscle for a couple of days, but it can also be detrimental. My joints are not tight, when I make motions, they don’t move just as they are supposed to; they wobble a little and over a long period, this can cause inflammation and pain. I had a doctor tell me to work on the muscles around the weak joints to help with pain. So, building up a thick muscular support system around your joints allows your body to obtain the stability without relying on the joints alone.
For me, anyway, just knowing how the exercise is affecting my body and the mechanics and theory behind it all helps me to design a workout regimen that suits my particular body. Doing a once weekly weight routine (though gut wrenching because I HATE it) actually improves my running and other activities more than I would have thought.
When you decide to start an exercise program, don’t expect to move mountains in your first week. Get your body into a state where you won’t injure yourself. Start with a brisk walk or light jog. Best if you are slightly sore that night, but not right after you’re done. Do this for a couple of weeks before you really start with exercise. If you start off fast and injure yourself, you have not only NOT helped yourself, but you have hurt your long term mobility. This is especially true as you get older. When you’re 18, sure, go out and cold turkey a 3 mile run, no problem, but when you’re mid 30s or older, your body is going to need an introduction first.
The biggest thing about keeping up with an exercise routine, as my dad told me once, is just to find what you can do, what you enjoy, and just do it. If you like running, run, if you like dancing, dance. If you don’t have time for a set aside exercise time, blast some party music and work up a sweat doing the chores that need to be done. Don’t judge yourself against others who choose to do other forms of workouts. I like to trail run by myself so that I can run when I want, and then walk or sprint when I want and don’t have to worry about if I’m keeping someone else back or pushing them too hard. I don’t like training for races. I like just keeping to myself and going at my pace. Others, however, can only get motivated with friends or by competing and that’s fine.
But the very best benefit I’ve found with exercise is the mental health benefits. Believe me, almost nothing the world has to offer will bother you so bad when you’re struggling to catch your breath. But even after you’ve attempted to kill yourself with bursts of wind busting sprints (or whatever) and you’re cooling down, you will (at least most people report) get a euphoric feeling. Yes, you will be dog tired if you did it right, but you will feel accomplished. Somehow that ragged, soaking in sweat, tremoring in exhaustion will feel amazing because you did it! And some experts report endorphin release upon completion of exercise. Personally, I know that I can much better manage my depression and anxiety if I stay on top of my exercise regimen. When I’m really struggling with life my doctor will ask if I have been keeping up with exercise because he knows that I need it to stay within the realm of sanity.
In case anyone is interested, my exercise schedule on my BEST weeks is to run Monday, Thursday, Friday/Saturday, weights on Tuesday. Spring and summer may vary as gardening is a huge physical workout (think “Buns of Steel – Mulching in the Mountains”). My runs consist of a 1 mile jog (10min/mile), then off and on sprint/walk – sprint/fast run until I can’t breathe, walk until breathing is controlled, but not completely recovered, then sprint/walk for another 1-2 miles, then back to a slow or extended jog for the last mile, walking when about to die. My weight routine is just this video repeated three times and then jump rope 100x front, 100x backwards, 75x front, 75x back, 50x front, 50x back, 25x front, 25x back, walking between sets until I catch my breath.
For me, music is super important, but for people like my dad, it’s just distracting. I have Pandora streaming with fast paced, dance and rock genres. And another plug for Jukebox the Ghost – about 95% of their songs are good for exercising.
Now enjoy my embarrassing basement public display of attention =)
Good on you for preaching the gospel of exercise. Spot on. I can’t see the video, however (message says ‘this video is private’).
Thanks, I just made it public!
Hello! I realllllllly need to get back on track. After a string of life-altering tragedies in the past 2 years, I feel some days that I barely have the strength to lift my head. I don’t eat much, but I also don’t do much else than cleaning and working from home, so cute chubby turned into not so cute fat lol. Thanks for the pep talk!!
Thanks for sharing about exercise. Its so hard to start but once you do its a hard thing to quit!
Thanks Emily! I needed to read your blog today. My recumbent bike started slipping and it needed replaced. Delay! Delay! Then the tension on the new bike was too much for my legs so another delay. Finally got the correct tool from Schwinn to adjust the tension. Now I have turned into a slug. I was riding 45-50 minutes a day and now I can hardly ride 10 minutes. With an active 4 year old granddaughter I need to get back to excercising. Thanks for the incentive.
Thanks Emily for this post! I’ve kinda slacked off a bit on working out! 😊 But after reading your post I’m ready to get back on track! I’m like you about being alone when it comes to working out! I did mess up my ankle so have to wear a brace! Thanks and God bless you and your family!
Dr Emily, So nice to see you again. As always inspiring and informative . Keep up the good work. Enjoy the videos and seeing how you and your hubby and kids and pets are doing. Stay safe and well❤️
At 69 I started walking a half mile up the beach and a half mile back. On Hilton Head Island there is mark every tenth of a mile, so you know how far you actually walk. Every day I would look at the mark and decide to go a little further until eventually I was walking 5 miles up the beach and 5 miles back. I went from 205 to 174 lbs and my doctor was estates.. I kept it up about six years when my right hip started to complain…..so I quit. I also rode a horse 🐎 every day I walked. I continued to ride daily until into my early 80s.. Well, I don’t walk much anymore,nor ride…..but I’ll be 88 in four weeks and wonder whether or not all that exercise contributed to my long life. Just in case it did I now work out (casually) with 5 lb weights from the prone position……I’m with Emily……convinced exercise is the best way to go🐎🤠
Thank you Emily! That was not boring, in fact it was encouraging and very useful information. It stimulated my mind and desire to go walk on the treadmill or work out to my Wii fit! Love to you and the family. ❤️
Great post! Best wishes as always.
This is the BEST thing I’ve read all day. My daughter gave up years of volleyball to start cross country and track. The change in her “teenage mood swings” have leveled out tremendously since she started running and weight lifting.
I personally have not been into exercising in several years. Trying to find something to motivate me to keep up with my daughter. Between reading this today, and noticeable seeing the benefits in my daughter, a motivational spark just hit me!
Thanks so much for sharing! This is exactly what I needed to hear!
I’ve had two heart attacks – 20 some years ago. Poster boy for bad health habits. I was STRONGLY encouraged to do several things. Among them was getting off my butt and exercising. It had nothing to do with weight. It was about cardio; building up the heart muscles that were still functioning. I try to eat rationally, but the exercise has nothing directly to do with keeping my weight down. I have come to enjoy the exercise and look forward to it. It’s pretty good for the mental health too.
I have recently (in the last almost 2 months now) started an exercise routine to help with my anxiety. I used to just eat my feelings but almost 2 months in doing a cardio work out until I am sweaty and out of breath makes me feel better than that chocolate bar ever did!! Thank you for this post. It’s a good reminder as to why I want to keep this up
I think you should go back to your drawing that would be for your mental health also and your good at it.
In addition to the benefits you listed, the effect of exercise is huge on longevity and more importantly on the quality of life as we age. Just retaining the ability to physically perform the daily activities of life for ourselves for as long a possible, but also the beneficial effects on cognition are so important. I work for a university research lab focused on the biological systems of aging and also muscle regeneration, so picture mice running on special running wheels to help study how exercise works on these systems. Mice actually like to treadmill run! Of course, they’d probably prefer to run outside if given the chance 🙂
Emily, this blog was not boring at all. I loved reading what you do and why for your physical and mental/emotional well being. What you say is so very true. I started hiking/walking with my sister last winter (2020 covid) and now I cannot stop. we hike/walk anywhere from 2 miles to 10 miles. She is 65 and I am 63. We walk our dogs ,together or alone. We hike on different trails or in the towns we live in. If weather does not permit I can tell both physically and mentally. Thank you for the information as to why exercise does not necessarily help you lose weight. I did not know this but I do feel in some of the best shape I have ever been in. I still ride horses and sis and I are planning a trip out west to a ranch next year, Gotta stay in shape by keep moving! Oh yeah, I do all this after a broken femur and 2 hip replacements, she has arthritis. You gave great advice. Keep moving.
Emily, your blog is not boring. You have have shared your thoughts, and I find your words to be exceptionally open and honest. When you show your videos of your beautiful children, they have to be the center of your life. Oh, I forgot there’s Tony also.💁🏻♂️
Having four children of my own, I feel very attached to them. My wife of course, gave birth to them. As their father, I would often ask myself, just how much does a mother feel about their flesh and blood children? I can only tell you the bond between mother and child is so strong, that no man can answer that question.
So Tony, don’t even try to answer that question.