What Type of Exercise is the Best?
Running is the best cardiovascular exercise. You need to move every day in order to be fit. Low intensity steady-state cardio is the best way to increase aerobic fitness. HIIT is the only workout worth your time. Running is dangerous. Stretching is important and should be done regularly. Your body needs rest days, or it won’t improve, so definitely don’t exercise every day. Lifting heavy weights is the only way to build strength. Purposeful, controlled movement should be your goal. Tabata is the only workout worth your time. Low intensity steady-state cardio raises cortisol levels, and so shouldn’t be a focus. High-intensity, high-impact cardio is bad for your joints. Definitely don’t lift heavy weights. Stretching is dangerous. Crossfit is the only workout worth your time. Controlled movement is the exact opposite of expert movement, and definitely should not be your goal. You have to do the same workout repeatedly, or else you won’t get better/stronger. High-impact exercise is not bad for your joints, and, in fact, you need it to keep your joints healthy. Do strength training before doing cardio. Don’t repeat workouts, you want to keep your body confused to keep it working hard. Always warm up with cardio before doing strength training.
….And, I could go on. And on. And on.
We are bombarded by conflicting messages about what we should be doing with our bodies in order to stay healthy and fit. And while it is true that movement science continues to develop and discover new things about our incredible bodies, the fact remains:
The Best Exercise For You is The Exercise You’ll Do
Period. End stop.
If listening to all of the magazine articles, day-time talk shows, well-meaning relatives, and aggressive trainers makes you want to crumble into a confused heap on your couch and not move at all, where is the benefit in that? Each and every statement above is true in certain circumstances and also false in certain circumstances. Movement is highly individualized, based upon the unique aspects of your body (and mind), and when it comes right down to it, unless you are training for something in particular, your only rule for movement should be:
Move As Much Of Your Body As Much As You Can
If that means running, great. If it means walking, great! If it means you have a reliable 4-day program of cardio and strength training that you’ll stick to, amazing!
The American College of Sports Medicine recommends that all adults get 30 minutes of moderate intensity aerobic activity five days a week, or 20 minutes of vigorous aerobic exercise 3 days a week, along with 2 strength training sessions a week.
How should you accomplish this? However you want! Ride your bike, walk with friends, play a sport, pull out the dusty old hand weights, start tai chi, sign up for a class. How you exercise is much less important than actually doing exercise.
If you love embracing the latest fitness trends, and you move happily from step aerobics to spinning to Zumba to crossfit to yoga, etc., go for it! If what gets you off the couch is your favorite Jane Fonda VHS tape from the 90’s, then do that. There is no wrong way to move your body. Fitness trends are businesses that come and go. Your body is your home forever. Find something you like to do, or at least something that you can convince yourself to do regularly, and then do it.
Yes, we can have very worthwhile conversations about cross-training to avoid overuse injuries, and working around limitations, and how to progress in new movement modalities. But, all of that comes after you’ve already committed to moving in the first place, and none of it has any value if it causes you to get confused and stop moving all together.
Don’t be confused.
Just move.