Fitting In More Exercise Through The Day For Busy Professionals And Parents (My Exact Strategies) || WBWL Ep 98

Does being busy or overwhelmed by your schedule always put exercise on the back burner but you know you need to exercise more?

Steal some of these strategies from my own playbook!

I go through specific lifestyle hacks that I employ in my own life to get in easily 60+ minutes of exercise daily.

As someone with a doctorate title, you get some form of credibility and people listen to you. But if you work with anyone with a doctoral degree, they won’t always get you good results or outcomes in rehab.

The primary reason is because they do not live and breathe what they do. They do not employ lifestyle interventions that will create more exercise consistency.

That’s one of the biggest traits that makes me and my team great coaches. Well all preach consistent exercise. We all implement exactly what we preach.

I was kind of spit firing this while on vacation at my in-law’s house. But nonetheless, hope you can take some of my lifestyle and implement it into yours.

Also if you’re looking for a holistic way to relieve pain, and get stronger and healthier, I have a free ebook called “The Pain Free Blueprint”. Download it here: https://flexwithdoctorjay.online/newsletter

And if you want weekly motivational insight and tips sent to your inbox, join my newsletter here: https://flexwithdoctorjay.online/newsletter

Transcript

0:03

All right. Welcome to the Won Body Won Life Podcast. Hi, I'm your host, Dr. Jason Won, lifestyle physical therapist. This episode is all about fitting in more exercise throughout the day. So this is for specifically any sort of busy professionals who feel like they always lack in time or any, even any busy parents, because I can speak from that perspective where your time is not your own, your time is actually your kid's time. And so how can you actually prioritize and get in more exercise through the day? We know that exercise is one of the most potent forms of longevity is one of those potent forms for pain relief, and in general, it's going to steer off any form of disease in your life. 97 percent of diseases in the world are modifiable, simply with just lifestyle factors. So that is why I integrate the most exercise of almost any person that I know into my life and exercise for me is very easy to do. It's a habit. And so I always want to lead by example, and I want to share with you things that I actually do on a consistent basis. As I'm filming this right now, just to let you know and just put proof to the pudding, I've been in LA for well over four days now. And this is for my wife's birthday and many people that are either on vacation or they're visiting in laws Many of us will make the excuse that we don't have the same environment. We don't have the same gym set up we have no workout equipment or in general when we're on vacation We have that excuse of I need to just chill and lay back and I deserve this time and you do And I deserve it as well. i'm eating a little bit different foods. I don't have the same environment the same foods I'm not The food here is delicious in Southern California, but yet I've still been able to get in roughly two hours of exercise. every single day since I've been here. And in fact, I've probably gotten in even better shape since being here. So I wanted to share many strategies that you can even employ at home. I want to share a little bit about what I've been doing on vacation as well. And hopefully you guys can find this episode extremely insightful. If you are a busy parent or professional and you find this episode super helpful, definitely share it with a friend leave a five star review. That way this message can get across to more people. And I kid you not. Ask my wife, seriously, find her on Facebook, ask her. These are exact things that I do almost on a daily basis. So I wanted to share with you at least five different things that you can start to employ right now. And again, hopefully it's going to be helpful. So the first thing that I always do is I drink a gallon of water a day. And why do I do that? Because our body is mainly composed of water. But, usually when we drink a lot of water, We're needing to go bathroom all the time. And so when I drink a gallon of water, it is for, in order to improve my muscle performance water helps with rehydrating many different tissues. When we are dehydrated, we're more tired. And therefore we make core decision making about our eating and also water fills up space in general. So we are staying a little bit more satiated. So I drink a gallon of water a day. I have an actual four gallon of water that I fill up every single day. And when I go bathroom, basically you go bathroom, you're forced to get away from your desk. You're forced to go to the bathroom. Even after I go to the bathroom, I drink another two glasses right after I go bathroom. So I'm using the bathroom consistently. My body is not in this very. Dehydrated state. And so I generally have more energy throughout the day. So that's hack number one. Number two is this one I can go for days on it's called habit stacks. And this was something that I initially found out about this through the book atomic habits by James Clear. Habit stacks is basically where you break down the science of habits, the three phases of habits, which is called trigger action and reward. And when you do that you basically have some sort of visual. Auditory or some sort of vibratory or somatosensory trigger. Somatosensory is like what you feel. So like whether it's thermal, it's vibratory. When your watch vibrates, it tells you there's a notification. So that is an actual trigger. Then therefore, you also take an action and therefore your reward. And I took my own spin on what I call habit sex, and I use it to my advantage in order to get more exercise throughout the day. I probably have over 20 to 30, even more than that, different habit sacks, ones I probably didn't even write down. I want to share with you a few. But before I do that, let me just highlight exactly the way I use Trigger Action Reward. So basically before, after, or during any form of exercise sorry, any form of thing that I actually do on a daily basis. So whether it's at the microwave, brushing teeth, Take things that you normally do and plant some sort of action in the form of exercise before, during, or after that common activity. Immediately in the morning while washing my face, while putting on deodorant, I basically get in some reverse lunges or some squats every single day. And then, therefore, when I go to the microwave or when the coffee is brewing, I immediately use the counter and I start doing some cat cows. I start stretching my spine and my hips and I'm doing that the entire time while either one something's in the microwave or two while the coffee is brewing. So either the smell of the coffee or the sound of the coffee brewing, that is an auditory, even a visual trigger in order to induce spine stretches specifically in the kitchen. Okay. And you, the more unique you make it. The more compliant you're going to be. So if there is a specific. location for that trigger. If there is a specific time of day, if there is also a specific location, any form of that, it's going to make you more compliant with that trigger. And when your trigger is very general, or if the trigger is not very unique, so if the trigger is like a vibration, But every single thing on your phone is a vibration. You won't be able to differentiate that trigger from other things. So you'll basically just be checking your phone instead of doing an actual exercise. So you want to make sure again that the trigger is extremely unique, specific. And then the action should also be very specific as well. Here's a couple others is that whenever I exit off of a zoom call with any clients or any meetings that I have. I always get to the floor, I always do the foam roll, and I'll start foam rolling my upper back in order to decrease any sort of neck or upper back stiffness. That is incurred while sitting or standing at a desk for a long period of time. So after zoom call, I FOMO. Okay. Another thing that I do is whenever I pass by my garage. So whenever I pass by, like the garage door, my office is right there. I'll knock out another 10 squats before every meal. Basically before every meal, I will get to the floor. Usually my son's there. He'll immediately get onto my back and we'll immediately start doing some. Baby resisted push ups, so he'll get onto my back He's roughly 30 something pounds and I'll do push ups to failure if he's not at home. He's at school I'm still going to knock out push ups to failure. Okay even elevators You have those poles that are generally in the elevator for like handicap. I'll use those poles I'll do more spine stretches whenever i'm at a grocery store and i'm in line I'll always use the grocery cart or the shopping cart and i'll again get more spine or hip stretches So you can see that like for every given type of activity in my life, very common things that I do. I will always include some form of exercise, even during times where I'm At a I'm driving in the car, driving in the car, there's a red light. Red lights are on average, what, 30 to 60 seconds. So I'm still able to do a couple things. One, I can decrease any sort of neck stiffness by pushing my head into the back of the headrest, getting some resistive chin tucks just, Strengthen my neck, make you feel better. I oftentimes at a light, I'll also do some twisting. So I'll do some thoracic rotation while sitting. So again, you can see that like you can insert your own problem area. So let's say there's an injured area or an area of discomfort. And let's say it's your hips. So if your hips are really stiff all the time and you sit for a long period of time and your hips get stiff there, try some form of exercise like plug in some of these habit stacks into your life and make sure that the action is very specific to the hip. So whether you get to the floor to play with your kids, but before you play with your kids, you're gonna knock out some bridges. You're gonna knock out some sidelines just to strengthen your hips in certain ways. These are easy, effective ways in order to get in more movement through the day. So again, habit stacks, I can probably include more in the description, but habit stacks are really critical things that enable me to get in probably 30 to 60 minutes of exercise throughout the day. So here's my next strategy here is scheduling in your workouts. So when you are prioritizing your schedule. And the many things you have to do from morning to getting to work, working for eight hours to maybe you're taking care of your kids, or maybe it's wind down time is if you don't schedule in your workout, it's not going to happen. And one of the easiest quotes that I can always remember is that we always have to when it comes to your priorities is that we schedule. We prioritize our schedule, but we don't schedule our priorities. So for me, when I schedule in my workouts, it is like a contract to myself. If I schedule it in at 6 30 in the morning, every day, I'm going to wake up at 5 45. I'm going to eat my food and I'm going to get to the gym. And that's exactly what I'm going to do. When I schedule in a meeting with. A client or somebody else there. There's really not a lot of wiggle room. I'm not going to reschedule them because that is that's a disservice to them. If I schedule in something with, scheduling a date with my wife, there's no way I'm going to cancel it. And it's the same thing if we schedule it in, we're not going to skip the date with the gym. That seemingly doesn't feel right. Okay. So we perceive that. Our workouts are a gym. It's like a person. We're usually not going to move that in some ways. Okay Otherwise that's doing a disservice for that person That would injure that person's feelings in some ways So in the same way is that you're creating a date with your body, you're creating a date with your health. And when you skip those dates, what are you doing? Okay. What are you doing? Are your health is going to decline at that point. So I schedule in my workouts. The second thing that I do is I always come in with a plan. If you come in, if you don't come in with a plan, then you're just going to half ass it. You're just going to do doing some random machines, some random exercise, and that might be better than doing nothing. But the very likelihood is that. It makes it easier to skip those workouts when you don't have a plan, when you're not aiming for specifically something that's. And in some ways you have to at least go in that step by step order. The very first thing is start scheduling in the workouts. If you schedule in the workouts and you're doing random things, that's fine. At least you're getting something done. The next evolution beyond scheduling the workout is having a plan. So when you have a plan yet, you're taking a more concerted efforts towards building specific parts of your body, especially if it's a strength training workout, the next thing after that is making sure they're actually tracking your workouts. So why does that matter in the grand scheme of this whole podcast, like fitting in more exercise because you schedule it in first. Once you schedule it and it's having a plan and then you see growth within that plan. If you're actually tracking the workout, if you just say, Oh, I'm just going to hit back and biceps, or I'm going to hit chest and triceps. That's great. But a lot of times in the longterm, if you're just doing the same weights, the same volume, the same intensity, you're not seeing growth. Then that actually will demotivate you and you'll stop doing the things that you need to do. You're going to stop scheduling your workout. You're going to stop doing those things because you don't see growth. And if you see growth, if you see hap if you see happiness in that growth, we see that there's satisfaction in hitting a personal best or a personal record. That's going to make it more compliant for you. So scheduling the workout, then actually getting the workout into your schedule, creating a plan and actually promising to yourself that you're actually going to track those workouts. So when you track the workouts, it makes it more effective. That things that you're doing are actually leading to measurable growth from a, you increase two reps or you increase a new personal best and you hit more weight. That there's satisfaction in that in my app currently. There's a few things that I do specifically so I schedule it into my google calendar Okay that way my assistants and everyone knows that's my time to work out Don't schedule in clients at that time. Then once I work out, I actually will track the workouts in an app There's an app that I use Okay, there's an app that I use called fit notes where I track all my workouts Since I think 2015, I can see actual workouts from 2015. I can see a lot of growth over the past 10 years of my life. And then not just that, once I track the workouts, I do copy that workout. I'll copy the exact that you can actually translate your entire workout into text. And I'll put that text into that Google Calendar event. For example, if I go to my Google Calendar and I want to check Benchpress, it actually will, I'll see everything on my Google Calendar as well. It's pretty cool. I like to track a lot of things in different places so that I'm always seeing growth on those fronts. Besides that though besides tracking workouts, another way to get in more exercise is to get a walking pad. Okay, walking pads are great because usually the sedentary activities at work, like sitting or even just standing, standing is better than sitting, but outside of that, you're really not getting a lot of movement. Okay, so you're taking a sedentary activity and making it more active. Okay, if you actually walked, Eight hours, which is for some people that's overload, but if you walked almost the entire time while working How many more steps you get in a day how much more and this is called neat? Okay, neat is non exercise activity thermogenesis. How much more activity are you getting through the day? I think for an hour of an hour of walking, I probably get at least 3 to 4, 000 steps. So imagine multiplying that by at least 4 to 6 hours, and you get in at least what the common thing that you want to get in is at least 10k steps. You get that easily through a workday. So definitely invest in some sort of good walking pad. It doesn't really matter which one you get as long as it works. Okay. But if you are walking, get used to it and usually in the first couple weeks it takes you a little bit of time'cause it feels like you're moving up and down and hard. It's hard to type, it's hard to mouse while you're walking, but over time you get used to anything. Just like you get used to biking or get used to, to driving is that these things will feel more automatic. So you can be just as productive while your feet are moving and walking. And also exercise does. Translate to more blood flow to the brain. So generally speaking, you actually should be more productive while you're on a walking pad versus if you're sitting, you tend to get tired or you tend to get neck pain or headaches. And that will actually decrease project productivity. Okay. Another thing that's more indirect of getting more exercise is actually getting in more protein. Because if you don't get in more protein, generally speaking, if you start an exercise program, you're going to feel more sore. You're getting in better. And whenever you exercise, whether it's walking or strength training, high intensity interval training, any form of exercise, you're technically breaking muscle down. So if you break muscle down, you're in a state of catabolism. And if that muscle breakdown is feels too intense, let's say you get three days of soreness after a upper body day, that tends to be very demotivating. And a lot of times, if you're not recovering properly, Your performance may suffer during the workout and plus who wants to feel that sore? Nobody likes to feel sore and I'm sure there's a lot of crazy people say you know I mean for muscle soreness, but most people they're not aiming for the satisfaction of soreness They're aiming for the satisfaction of making more gains and performing better in the gym Okay, I used to say I love muscle soreness when in reality is like I love the performance aspects I love to see more PR the more personal records So getting in more protein actually improves a lot of things from energy levels to, to actually being able to work out more consistently, to decreasing the amount of days of muscle soreness, to get in more, to a more bigger state of anabolism, which is muscle building. And also from an aesthetic standpoint, you actually start to see the results of visual standpoint, from a personal record standpoint, logging the workouts. These are all great things that fair that go in your favor. So getting in more protein. Is in fact more of an indirect thing to getting in more exercise because you're actually seeing the gains mentally and physically. All right another thing is called opportunistic exercise. So another hack that I use called opportunistic. What does that mean? Opportunistic means that if there is literally any idle time, this kind of coincides with the habit sex, but There's a lot of times where there's just idle time. Now, this is whether an example for me is we're currently potty training our son. And anytime my son is on the potty, so we take like a portable potty to restaurants in different places. Or let's say there's the potty here that we use. In the house or in the hotel room. Anytime that he's on the whole on the potty and I'm able to get in some exercise, I might as well knock out squats, knock out calve raises. I may just, even just being a squat and start doing some rotation stretches or hip stretches. Okay. So there, That idle time is really critical for me and the idle times of, for example, whether it's waiting at a red light or whether it's like waiting for like a restaurant and there's reservations that we have to wait five, 10 minutes, there's a lot of idle time in order to get in more exercise. But just like that, you, even if you're in public, it's really a matter of your priority. So my, me as a priority. I don't mind if there's 100 people waiting at a restaurant. I don't mind being that person that sticks out and does the stretches or does lunges. People know what you're doing. You're stretching, you're exercising. So for me, I don't feel that sense of judgment. I just feel a sense of that urgency for me to just get in more movement through the day. Okay, so that's called opportunistic exercises. Whenever there's idle time, What are some things that you can fit in? And I always create some sort of quote unquote opportunistic routine for my clients to use. So whenever they have idle time, they know that they can always go towards this opportunistic routine. And this opportunistic routine could be one to four minutes long. So however long, however much time that you have, whether it is 30 seconds or a minute or even five minutes, you can use at least a part of that routine. Okay. Here's another hack here is choose a harder route on purpose. And we've heard this from a poem that I've frequently used and I think the poem is by Robert Frost. It is called The Road Less Taken. The road that's taken, basically the premise of that is that there are two roads that are essentially a fork in the road and this road going this way seems more paved. It's there's sun, there's butterflies, there's birds chirping, the road is more, the road seems smoother in general, but what they say is that sometimes that smoother road, that road that seems easier to take that seems more pleasant, oftentimes may lead to not the best views, or it might lead to something somewhere that you don't want to be. I can also perceive this as Netflix and social media and the convenience route. This route that seems easier, right? It's that everything It seems towards a sense of more comfort and more convenience, right? They're creating more comfortable chairs for you to sit in well, a more comfortable chair to sit in at work makes you sit more they make the couches more comfortable, right? A lot of technology is getting out there. Amazon, we don't have to go to a grocery store anymore. It gets sent to us. So the convenience route, that's like the road that is more convenient with that it's always there. And that route. As again, what we say is that route will either lead to a place that has lesser views or is going to lead to a place that you don't want to be. And that's the same thing with convenience nowadays. It's declined your health, being a state of more stagnancy and more sedentary behavior. The route that I like to take is the harder route. So there's always a harder route. I'm always willing to take it. And an easy example is that if, for example, at an airport, there's escalators. I actually almost never take the escalator unless I'm forced to. There is a set of stairs right next to it. I will always try to take the stairs, okay, as safely as possible, even if I have a suitcase in my hand, I'll carry the suitcase up the stairs and I'll do that at least 90 to 95 percent of the time. Okay even when, for example at a grocery store or at a theater or anything is that there are some people that always try to seek out the spots right near the handicapped spot and because they know they're not handicapped, they try to find the spots that are closest to the restaurant. And I don't mind. Being at a parking spot where it's much further away because I'm able to get in more of that neat, that non exercise activity thermogenesis, right? That is a huge part of the caloric expenditure equation. So if the goal is to get in more exercise, or let's say the goal is weight loss clearly more steps, the further the parking, the more steps you're going to get in. And even that two to five calorie loss. Surmounts to something bigger. Okay, so that's what I mean by always choosing the harder route is when you can choose that always choose that at least 90 95 percent of the time that in that case it's not going to lead to just more cleric expenditure. There's more mental fortitude if and when there is some sort of disease or something that happens in your life. Pneumonia, cancer, anything, is that you've developed a sense of that mental fortitude to try to fight it, to try to overcome it. If you've been lazy through your entire life, or you choose, again, generally that easier route, how likely is it for you that you're going to fight for your life later on down the road? And so this fitting in more exercise. Title this in this podcast is more than just getting into more exercise getting in more of these tactical hacks Is that when you do embody a life where exercise is always at the forefront you're trying to make it more Autonomic as possible. That's where you know that you've developed develop more mental fortitude more automated behavior That is going to carry that's going to carry forward and live you're gonna live more healthier life The last thing I'll say in terms of hacks Is I continuously and I constantly think about my why. Almost on a daily basis, you can, there, there's these things called your true self doctrine, or there's there's these things that you can write, let's say there's these five principles that you can write, and let's say you write out, or you say those goals, or you say those parables, or the ways that you live your life, you can say that every day. And in some ways I think about my why as something that I say ought to not automatically in my head every single day. My why is usually my family. My why is usually my dad who passed 16 years ago 17 years ago at this point. And those whys really plunge me into a state of becoming more and more consistent with my exercise and how healthy I live every single day. So that's why I purposely You know, I'm a person that has a couple of tattoos and on each form are actually tattoos that symbolize my family and my kids, so I'm easily able to remember them and they're easily at top of mind. So when I think about my tattoos and then tattoos jog a certain type of memory in my head. I think about how I want to be there for them as long as possible. Okay, so I fit in more exercise and I make exercise a probably the biggest priority of almost anything in my life. I make that a priority because I want to be there longer for my kids. I want to be there for my kids in a way that's serviceable to them. I don't want them to serve me or to have to take care of me. So the why is not necessarily a hack, but it is a hack in which I do say it every single day in my head. I look at my tattoos every single day. And so it triggers something in me that will say to me that there will never be almost a lazy day ever. There may be recovery days. There may be rest days. Rest days are necessary for your body to recover and to not just burn yourself out when it comes to exercise. But even on the rest days are Walking. The rest days are like a lot of walking. It's jogging. The rest days are still getting in those push ups before every meal. The rest days for me are still getting to the floor and stretching my body and moving it constantly. Those are my rest days. My rest days aren't just on the couch. Okay? Just watching Netflix. Okay? But I hopefully This type of episode triggers something for you and allows you to take some sort of action, okay? What actions are you going to take? Okay, what what tips are you going to take from this specific episode? So if you found this episode helpful, definitely I would love for you, if you can, leave a review and let me know if this episode was the one. Which triggers are you going to use? What strategy are you going to use? What strategies from other episodes are you going to use? Okay, because I want all my episodes to hopefully be inspirational. Sometimes it's case studies and clients that have worked with me. A lot of times I want each of these episodes to have some form of call to action. And that action usually is something that's going to be worthwhile. It's going to be something that's going to improve your health. or improve your mental fortitude or your consistency in some other way. So episode here is all about your habits, consistency, and finding hacks in which you can get in more exercise for the day. So that's what I got for today. Hopefully that you found this one super helpful and I'll see you in the next one. Have a good rest of your day.