Excercise for High Performance

Ninety-nine percent of success in life is showing up.
Woody Allen

Humans evolved as hunter-gatherers through foraging food by collecting plants and pursuing wild animals. This adaption to the environmental circumstances during the history of mankind lead to a very active life with regular performed high amounts of walking and running to collect or hunt for food. Whereas today people avoid all forms of activity, and “hunt” for food when driving to a supermarket or even order it online. The level of activity decreased enormously. But we were never evolved to cope with this absence of physical activity.
The discrepancy between evolutional biology and the perks and side effects of modern life leads to the spark in mismatch diseases like heart diseases, stroke, back pain or type 2 diabetes. But instead of treating the root of these diseases, we treat the symptoms. Instead of stressing our body through exercise and hence helping it to change and growth, we neglect exercise as integral part of health and an aspect for greater well-being.

The benefits of exercise

But regular exercise has several benefits, supported by scientific studies, that increase the psychological and physiological well-being and health of individuals.
Exercise increases the growth of the brain through a rise of the brain-derived neurotrophic factor (bdnf) and hence leads to an improvement in neurogenesis (growth of nerve cells) and brain plasticity (ability to change and adapt as a result of experience). Thus, exercise optimizes the learning process through better attention, focus and memory. It decreases stress and inflammation and therefore generates patience, motivation and productivity. People who exercise are less fatigued and more resilient.
The increase of serotonin and dopamine production through exercise causes a decline of anxiety levels and therefore improves the mood and social functioning of individuals. They are more optimistic and less prone to suffer from depression and suicidal thoughts (decrease risk of 30%). Interestingly the lifting of symptoms of depression through exercise generates the same result as mild moderate dosed antidepressant medication.
Moreover, the gained vigor helps to keep obesity as well as insulin levels in check and burns visceral fat.

In short, exercise can have the following benefits:

• Weight control
• Better productivity, focus and learning
• Improvement of the mood
• Improvement of energy levels
• Promotion of better sleep
• Combats health conditions and diseases
  o headache: migraine
  o high blood pressure
  o stroke
  o metabolic syndrome and diabetes
  o depression and anxiety
  o arthritis
  o falls
  o some types of cancer

How to exercise

The pursuit of perfection often hinders us to accept the good, so failing becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. Instead of chasing the perfect beach body and neglected an exercise regimen the minute something goes wrong (other appointments, injury, mismanaged expectations of immediate benefits etc.), we should rather see exercise as something we do for the benefit of our health and well-being.
Motivation doesn’t fall from the sky. It comes from behavioral activation. So just to go one step in the right direction helps enormously to be motivated enough to get going. The hardest part is not to exercise- it’s to start.
Therefore it is beneficial to build a routine or a habit of exercising.

Tips to create an exercise regimen

1. Try to exercise at least three times a week for 45-50 minutes at 70-85% of your maximal heart rate.
2. Variate your training regime and incorporate cardio training as well as strengths and flexibility training in your exercise regime. As you get older focus less and less on cardio and rather more on strengths and flexibility training.
3. Make exercise a non-negotiable appointment in your calendar and block time for exercising. That can be small blocks over the duration of the day (for example incorporating a HIT workout) as well as one large block for example in the morning.
4. Some people like to work out with friends, family members or colleagues. Figure out if exercise in groups suits your interest and spark.
5. Find the right exercise for you. Some people are enthusiastic runners, while others really hate working out and running in rain or snowy weather. Try different kinds of exercise and figure out what is the right type for you.
6. Monitor your actions -– not your progress. Instead of weighting yourself on the scale, measure your body fat or organizing a spreadsheet about your performance – monitor when and for how long you exercised. Try to build a chain of action (see Seinfeld calendar).
7. It is generally advisable to perform cardio in the morning, strengths training in the afternoon and flexibility training before going to bed. But keep your personal circadian rhythm in mind when creating an exercise regimen. Night owls tend to start slower into the day and hence profit much more from morning exercise than larks. Generally speaking it’s best to perform exercise 30 min, 3 h or/ and 11 h after you woke up to optimize your performance and reduce injuries.
8. Don’t exercise too extensively before sleep.

Perfect is the enemy of good.
Voltaire

Resources and further reading material:

• Amen, D.(2017), Memory Rescue, Carol Stream, Tyndale
• Frates, B. (2019) The Lifestyle Medicine Handbook, Monterey, Healthy Learning
• Huberman,A. (2021) Podcast: Huberman Lab
• Lieberman, D. (2020) Exercised, New York, Allen Lane
• Prince, J. (2013) Almost depressed, Minesota, Hazelden
• Ratey, J. (2010) Spark, New York, Quercus