The perception that you have to work out at the gym every day for at least thirty minutes and spend money on a membership/trainer/bike/tread was born of the fitness industrial complex and the distorted reality of the internet. Part of the reason why we get such puzzled looks when we talk about our not‑a‑workout is cognitive dissonance. After all, here we are, representatives of the wellness world, and yet what we do doesn’t line up with people’s understanding of what it means to be healthy. This is because their understanding comes largely from what healthy looks like on social media: an elaborate home gym with a Peloton, matching activewear sets, and, of course, rock-hard abs.
In reality, physical fitness and health doesn’t require as much as we think. Take the world’s best wonder drug for dementia: walking. A study of 78,430 adults living in the UK found that clocking around 10,000 steps per day (9,826, if you want to be exact) was correlated with a 51% risk reduction in dementia1. What’s more, just 3,800 steps per day was associated with a 25% reduction in dementia risk, and those who walked at a higher intensity (cadence) were associated with an even lower risk.
Every other day it seems there is a headline in the New York Times Well section that could pass for an Onion headline: “Stronger Muscles in 3 Seconds a Day,” “Can 4 Seconds of Exercise Make a Difference?” or “A 2‑Minute Walk May Counter the Harms of Sitting.” As crazy as it sounds, these real headlines reflect a sea change in the scientific literature in the last ten years that all points to shorter bursts of aerobic activity—done consistently—as being just as effective in promoting health as mindless cardio done for long periods of time. This is good news for anyone who lives in a time-crunched world of ever-encroaching lunch meetings and family, friend, and work obligations.
