You Are an Animal

This is for you if you absolutely hate exercise and just aren’t going to do it. You are an animal. You just are. You have to sleep, you have to eat, you have to exercise, you have to move, and you have to rest. And we, as modern day human beings, tend not to do those very well. We don’t rest well, we don’t sleep well, we don’t exercise well, and we don’t pay attention to our nutrition very well … generally speaking.

Today I’m going to talk to you about exercise if you truly hate it with every fiber of your being. Listen, this is what you’re going to do. You may not get into the shower until you have done 20 body weight squats, 20 pushups, 20 crunches, and held a plank for as long as you can. Bare bones, skeleton, minimal exercise plan.

Why am I saying you can’t get in the shower until you’ve got this done? Because the only way to incorporate a new habit and be successful with it is to link it to something, and so we’re linking it to an already established habit.

I am going to venture to guess that you probably shower every day, so that’s already firmly entrenched in your daily plan and so by placing the exercise with your shower, you have to get it done every day.

Now, you’re going to tell me, “I don’t have time. I’m running late for work. I’ve gotta get the kids going. I gotta, I gotta, I gotta, I gotta, I gotta.” I know. I’ve heard all the excuses before. I timed myself this morning. It took me a total of two minutes to get that done. Two minutes is not going to make you late. You have two minutes to spare, so you’re going to get this done while the shower water is warming up. You warm it up anyhow. You’re already standing there. Pound out these exercises. 20 body air squats, 20 push-ups, 20 crunches, hold a plank for as long as you can, then jump in your shower and you’re good to go.

There is absolutely no reason on God’s green earth why you cannot get this done. You’re working major muscle groups. You’re getting them all. Your squats are getting your glutes, your hamstrings, your quads, so you’re getting that done. Your push-ups, getting all the muscles of your arms and your shoulders, a little bit of your back. Crunches, self-explanatory. Holding a plank is kind of a total body exercise, so you’re very quickly working major muscle groups.

When you work these major muscle groups, you increase the body’s need for mitochondria so you get mitochondrial biogenesis, meaning that they increase the number of mitochondria in each muscle cell, so you’re going to burn calories easier. It sounds too minimal to be of benefit, but I’m promising you, it does have benefit. Even that little bit makes a difference.

The other thing it does is it increases your muscle mass, decreases your fat mass, increases your bone density, increases your positioning. Your body perceives where it is in space, right, so you don’t trip, you don’t fall. That balance, that has importance, so falls, osteoporosis, diabetes, cardiovascular risk, obesity, all of these, it can help improve your ability to handle those disease problems.

You are an animal. You just are, and if you avoid exercise, the consequences will come back to bite you in the rear end. You have to get some kind of exercise in every day. Linking it to your shower, doing this two minute workout … It’s two minutes.

Give me a break. You can handle a two minute workout, and every day you’ll get a little bit better. If you can’t do a full push-up, do what you can or do a knee push-up. I don’t care. Get it done. I’m not going to listen to your excuses. You can do this!

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