I have heard of and even seen peope make big changes to their body and health with only 15, 30, or 60 minutes of exercise a day. It doesn’t even seem like much.
Whether it’s cardio or lifting weights, why do people only need that much time a day to improve? In fact, why does MORE time with exercise (like 3 hours or more) even seem harmful?
I know diet plays a big role but still. Like I started strength training for only 15 minutes a day and I see some changes in my body physically.
In: Biology
Because exercise isn’t something you do and be done with, **it’s a lifestyle change.** People often aren’t honest with themselves, and set unrealistic goals that they can’t meet, and subsequently drop exercise entirely due to the unrealistic goals they set in the first place.
Just a little bit of exercise, even 5 minutes every month beats those who never exercise. Think of it this way, let’s say you exercise for 30 minutes twice a week, or even more.
Time | 30 Mins 2/ Week | 30 Mins 5/ Week | 60 Mins / 5 Week | 0 Min Per Week
—|—|—-|—-|—-
1 Month | 2 Hrs | 10 Hrs | 20 Hrs | 0 Hrs
3 Month | 4 Hrs | 20 Hrs | 40 Hrs | 0 Hrs
6 Month | 8 Hrs | 30 Hrs | 80 Hrs | 0 Hrs
12 Month | 16 Hrs | 60 Hrs | 160 Hrs | 0 Hrs
2 Year | 32 Hrs | 120 Hrs | 320 Hrs | 0 Hrs
5 Years | 80 Hrs | 300 Hrs | 800 Hrs | 0 Hrs
10 Years | 160 Hrs | 600 Hrs | 1,600 Hrs | 0 Hrs
20 Years | 320 Hrs | 1,200 Hrs | 3,200 Hrs | 0 Hrs
Look at the difference. **This is how quickly exercise can compound.** Like anything else, the power of taking a single step at a time, slowly putting in time each day is going to compound much quicker than trying to make huge drastic lifestyle changes that only last a small amount of time.
Finally, people don’t often realize, but you lose weight in the kitchen, not in the gym. Gym you really honestly gain weight, due to muscle growth. Cardio does burn calories, yes, but not enough to really be meaningful unless you’re doing kickboxing or such (which can burn up to 1000 calories an hour)
My advice to everyone is to be honest with yourself about what you can do, **start small, and be absolutely unforgivingly disciplined in your consistency, because discipline will save you when the spark of inspiration eventually dies out**. It only takes a few weeks for a habit to form.
If you set a goal like working out an hour each day, when life inevitably gets in the way, you will beat yourself up for not meeting your goals, and sometimes use it as an excuse to stop continuing “oh I already messed up I might as well keep the streak up,” whereas if you set a smaller goal, even just 30 minutes every weekend on Saturday or something, if you can meet that goal 99% of the time, that’s what you need to set. If 30 minutes a week isn’t doable for you, do 25, if not 25, 15, if not 15, 5 minutes. Set realistic goals for yourself and MEET them, then work yourself up!
> **If you can’t fly, then run. If you can’t run, then walk. If you can’t walk, then crawl, but whatever you do, you have to keep moving.**
– Martin Luther King Jr
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