Q: Is it possible to get uber fit exercising only 20 minutes a day?
A: No.
However, 20 minutes a day is certainly
better than nothing, and it might be just enough activity to maintain your health
and improve longevity. As a society we
seem busier than ever, but we’re also getting way smarter about how to train, and
weve finally realized just how darn important consistent exercise is. In fact exercise is critical to our health,
on par with nutrition and 2nd only to sleeping well. People who exercise consistently, live longer
than those who don’t, given all else being equal. Only your genetics play a greater role in life
span. We now know that some of that time spent exercising ideally needs to
push into (relatively) higher intensity levels. But just how intense do we need to go? Is there an intensity or volume threshold to
where there is no more benefit? The key
for all of us busy folks, is to find the sweet spot where training time intersects
with intensity level, which triggers the most benefit. I call this maximizing your exercise value.
There’s a certain niche of neo-athletes that have embraced training
so much that they've declared “fitness to be its own sport”, never mind a
lifestyle. A sub-culture of every day
citizens who walk among us that have discovered their inner athlete and have
taken training to a whole other level. I’m
not talking about bodybuilders or triathletes here – that’s old school. I’m talking about well-rounded fitness aficionados
that desire to be total athletes by combining full-body-functional, cardio and
strength exercises. I’m talking about
the present day Boot-camper, SEAL-Fitter, CrossFitter, Tough-Mudder, Spartan genre
who whole-heartedly decided that just because they have families and careers,
doesn't mean they can’t be uber athletes too.
They've revealed their inner-warrior and when you see them training
together, feeding off each other, you get a sense there’s something special
going on there, almost like a religion, or a tribe of warriors. - Some kind of competitive, comradery dynamic,
testing themselves with exciting, yet effective exercises, that arouses your
curiosity. There’s a synergistic magic
happening there in part from the group dynamic.
Maybe I’m describing one of your close friends or even you. There’s a reason why these folks are
experiencing these powerful physical and mental transformations no matter what
their age is, in a relatively short amount of time. They've found out how to maximize their
exercise value in a competition based, group dynamic that comes with its own
band of brothers for support. They
become training addicts…and it’s not the mirror they’re addicted to. You watch these guys and it almost feels as
if they've never had so much fun being tortured. They have even created niche competitions to
help motivate them to take their training goals to the next level and they have
indeed declared that fitness in and of itself, can stand alone as its own
sport.
