Happy Tuesday, ya’ll! Today I’d like to share with you a quick list of 4 things that you should try to do Every Damn Day. They’ll help enhance physical, mental, and social health, and can impact aspects of your life not related to exercise and training. Regardless of where you stand with your training and exercise, I think it would behoove you to Stretch, Sweat, eat a Salad, and Smile every day. Here we go:
Stretch
You might not have a cat, but I’ll bet you’ve seen one wake up from a nap. They perform a huge full-body stretch, then they’re on their way. Why don’t we do the same thing?
Stretching is underrated in terms of daily activity, but it’s something that everyone can incorporate into their daily routine that can help do wonders for how you feel and move. It’s not uncommon to spend hours at a time sitting in our desk-jockey society, so I find that short but deliberate bouts of stretching can help mitigate some of the deleterious effects of sitting.
Tight hip flexors and lats/pecs are very common with those who sit a lot, and considering mobility and how you move outside of the gym is important. It could be as simple as setting an alarm/reminder so that every 15-20 minutes, you take a short walk around the office and grab hold of a door frame for a quick stretch. It’s inconspicuous enough that you won’t look like a weirdo, but it can help reduce some of the stiffness of being stuck on your butt for the majority of an 8 hour day. Before and after work, this Yoga-Plex may serve as a catch-all to help you stay loose. It’s so awesome, sometimes I do these in the shower; I’m not even kidding.
Sweat
In addition to addressing movement and mobility throughout the day, I’m increasingly adamant that people do something to sweat every day. What they’re actually doing isn’t as important as the fact that they do something that elevates core body temperature and gets them off their butt for an extended period of time.
Depending on any given day, you might go for a walk, lift weights, jog, sprint, Zumba, do yoga: On a daily basis, it isn’t all that important. Over the course of a week, you’ll likely see the best results if you combine all of those, in different quantities. Perhaps a week looks like this:
- Sunday – Walk/Yoga (Recovery day)
- Monday – Full Body Strength Training
- Tuesday – Zumba
- Wednesday – Lower Body Strength Training, Sprints
- Thursday – Upper Body Strength Training, Swimming
- Friday – Walk/Yoga/Play in the park/Zumba
- Saturday – Full Body Strength Training, Sprints
Salad
I fell in love with salads about 6 months ago, and will make sure to order a spinach, steak, and avocado salad every chance I get. In the past few months, I’ve been recommending salads to clients, friends, and family as methods of getting in vital vitamins and nutrients. After a recent episode of The FitCast, Whitney Sickler discussed the idea of at least 51% of your food being raw, and the simplicty of eating a salad a day. I facepalm-ed, and realized it was an idea to simple to ignore.
America tends to be over-fed and under-nourished, and our health suffers. The idea of a Salad a Day is great because it incorporates raw vegetation into your diet, tends to reduce overall caloric consumption, and improves health. Contrary to what you might think, not all salads are boring: You can find some ideas on SaladADay.org, or come to Chipotle with me later:
Smile
This one shouldn’t need explanation, but I’ll offer you some of the health benefits of smiling. Smiling is one of the simplest things you can do to feel better and look better, and I’ll save you from cliche references to smiling and frowning muscles. Instead:
I’m hoping that baby’s mean mug put a grin on your face. Now, make sure you stretch, sweat, and have a salad, and your bound to have a good day. Good luck!
Harold Gibbons 