July Habit: Exercise Two Additional Days Per Week

The July habit is really the June habit pushed back one month, because, following instructions from the universe, June became a month of rest.

So, in July, the goal to lower my blood pressure is to add two additional days of exercise per week.

On top of this goal, I will be continuing the habits from January (practice yoga), February (eliminate added sugar), March (meditate), April (drink tea), May (eat salmon), and June (rest).

Because we are already doing yoga three days a week, this new plan will bring our total workout goal to five days per week. The American Heart Association recommends 150 minutes of activity throughout the week. So, if we workout for thirty minutes per day, five days per week, that will add up to 150 minutes per week.

There’s probably one of two reactions you’re having to that statement.

For those of you who already workout, 30 minutes probably sounds pretty short to you. And you’re right. Most of our workouts will likely be longer than this. Even a leisurely walk around the neighborhood usually takes an hour or so. However, on those days when life feels hectic and we can’t possibly fit a workout in, we can at least stop and do something for 30 minutes. It’s what makes the goal feel doable.

Actionable goals are what we are after here.

For those of you who are not used to working out, 30 minutes might not actually sound doable. And that’s totally fine. If you’re setting this goal for yourself, you make that daily goal 10 minutes or 20 minutes or whatever feels like something you can accomplish. After meeting that goal for a while, increase it. Eventually you will get to 30 minutes per day. And I promise you at some point you will start to crave it.

In fact, I’m sure after we consistently meet our 150-minutes-per-week goal, we will increase from there.

Why Exercise?

We workout at the end of my workday at 5 pm. I have an alarm set and The Cure sings me out. It’s a good cue to stop what I’m doing, shut down my computer, close the curtains in my office, and relax. Before this, I would always work past 5 pm, finishing whatever I was working on before shutting down for the day. When we started adding yoga to the end of the day three days per week, I also formed this habit of “clocking out” at 5 pm, despite what is left on my agenda for the day.

And after sitting at my desk all day, stressing about deadlines and content and data, my body definitely craves the release of exercise. Now that we are adding two days per week, we can get creative and do other things. Don’t get me wrong, yoga would be great five days per week. It is definitely a great stress relief. But it’s also fun to mix things up a bit.

The Science

You probably don’t need any convincing that regular exercise is good for your body, but this is how I roll.

According to the Mayo Clinic, 30 minutes a day of moderate exercise can benefit your mood and health, and the ability to live an independent and fulfilling life. What’s not to like?

Southern Methodist University reports that exercise is a “magic drug” for mental health disorders including anxiety and depression. Magic. Drug. People.

And if that doesn’t convince you, the American Heart Association has found that people who regularly exercise have a lower risk of high blood pressure, even if they live in areas where air pollution is relatively high. “The risk-benefit relationship between air pollution and physical activity is an important public concern because more than 91% of people worldwide live in areas where air quality does not meet World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines.”

I mean, that data could fill a whole other blog. For our purposes, it’s important to just know that exercise is that important.

The Experiment

If you remember from The Plan post, there are measured ways to form habits, according to the British Journal of General Practice.:

Decide on a goal that you would like to achieve for your health.
Choose a simple action that will get you towards your goal which you can do on a daily basis.
Plan when and where you will do your chosen action. Be consistent: choose a time and place that you encounter every day of the week.
Every time you encounter that time and place, do the action.

So the plan for June is to:

Decide on a goal: Add exercise two additional days per week, bringing the total for the week to 150 minutes.
Choose a simple daily action that moves you toward the goal: Set an alarm for 5 pm every weekday – workout time!
Plan a consistent when and where you will perform the action: At 5 pm, in our bedroom for yoga or another workout, or outside for a swim in the neighborhood pool.
Do the action. This is the hard part, isn’t it?

Tools

We aren’t using any specific tools to add our two workouts per week. Honestly, we will likely be swimming in our neighborhood pool on those two extra days. For our three-days-a-week of yoga, we use DDPY, so if we find ourselves indoors and in need (if it’s raining and we can’t swim), we probably will just add a workout from that program, or watch a guided workout video on YouTube.

Challenges

One of the reasons we did not complete this experiment in June was because I sprained my ankle. So, exercising for 30 minutes per day, 5 days per week in July is not going to be easy. But it’s doable. I’ve already done some laps in the pool on the ankle, and it worked out well. And DDPY has a “sitting in a chair” workout plan, which I’ve done as well. So we can make it happen.

Everyone faces challenges of some sort. The key is to work around it, not to let it stop you completely.