How to Achieve Lifelong Fitness
In a world meticulously designed for sedentary living
For about 99.9% of human history, we had to move our bodies to survive — first to hunt and gather, then to plow and harvest. In those times of scarcity, any additional exercise was a dangerous waste of precious energy.
Today, the script is totally flipped. Science and fossil fuels have rendered movement unnecessary for our immediate survival. But a lack of exercise has emerged as one of the main causes of premature death globally.
In short, we’re stuck with bodies designed to move in a world meticulously designed for sedentary living.
This is a serious problem that requires an equally serious solution.
Making exercise automatic
There’s only one way out of this conundrum:
Construct a healthy environment that makes exercise automatic.
Below, I list five steps for building such an environment. Over the past decade, these steps have managed to keep me fixed at the youthful biological age of 20 (despite often spending 12 hours per day on my computer).
If a healthy level of exercise is your main goal, implementing only two or perhaps three of these steps will suffice.
But there is another level — a place where fitness delivers a serious boost to self-esteem, productivity, mood, and sleep quality. Reaching this level makes exercise fun and self-sustaining.
Achieving all the joys of lifelong fitness in our modern world will need four or preferably all five of these steps.
This is considerably harder to set up. But always remember: once your healthy fitness environment is up and running, it can last a lifetime!
Ready? Great! Let’s get straight into it.
Step 1: Use human power instead of fossil power
A wise man once said: Cars run on money and make you fat, bicycles run on fat and save you money.
If you want to guarantee healthy fitness levels for the rest of your life, making a habit out of walking or cycling instead of driving on all relatively short trips is the best possible solution.
Why the car is still king
Unfortunately, it’s not as simple as just buying a bicycle and living happily ever after.
First, many cities are simply built for cars, making walking or cycling difficult or even dangerous.
If this is the case for you, make easy and safe walking and cycling (even for kids) a key criterion for selecting your next home. Your options will continually expand over the coming years as people-based urban planning continues to gain traction.
Second, getting started can be tough if you’re out of shape.
This barrier can be removed by investment in a good electric bike. These can be quite expensive, but if you manage to displace most short car trips, it will pay for itself in no time.
Car-free living
Totally ditching the car is the single best environmental trigger for automatic lifelong fitness you can give yourself.
Without a car, you must use some muscle power to move yourself from place to place, even if it’s just walking to and from the bus stop.
If you select your home in the right location, it can certainly be done.
I’ve never owned a car in the 11 years of my working life and I’m sure I ever will. Car ownership will hurt my vitality, life expectancy, financial freedom and sustainable carbon footprint, all of which I value much more than the occasional bit of convenience.
Step 2: Cash in on free exercise in daily life
There are many small opportunities for movement throughout the day, none of which are particularly tiring or difficult. In my experience, once you turn these small daily choices into habits, they stick surprisingly easily.
Here are some examples of free exercise with plenty of perks besides long-term health:
- Always take the stairs (and make the world a tiny bit greener)
- Walk around the office and talk to more colleagues (and get your points across much more effectively)
- Make a habit of standing during meetings (which also makes the meeting more effective)
- Take plenty of trips to the water cooler (also great for general health)
- Walk when you need to do some serious thinking (and get better insights)
- Play more with the kids (which has a range of developmental benefits)
- Do a little bit of housework and/or gardening daily (consciousness of the health benefits makes chores much more bearable)
- Don’t waste time looking for the parking spot closest to the entrance (and get 17 free hours per year).
Step 3: Find joy in movement
Want to make exercise a permanent and automatic part of life? Then make sure it’s genuinely fun and/or revitalizing.
Here are two ways in which this can be done:
Find an enjoyable way to move your body
There’s a crazy number of sports and other physical activities out there. One of them must be right for you.
Over here in Norway, cross country skiing is the thing to do. Upon my arrival from snow-free South Africa eleven years ago, I certainly didn’t expect that I would be enjoying regular 10–20 km skiing trips only a couple of years later.
It just goes to show that we can learn to love sports we’d never even heard of before.
Perhaps the most challenging thing with sports is that you have to reach a certain level before it becomes genuine fun. Indeed, at the start of my skiing experience, I was spending more time falling than skiing.
But with some help from a couple of friends and a bit of commitment, I was soon passing all those old-timers who were shuffling past while I was lying on the ground. And today, I’m often in the top quintile on Strava.
Perfect practice makes perfect. The better you practice, the faster you will reach that magical point where sport becomes self-sustaining.
The wonders of nature
In my experience, nature is such a valuable fitness tool that you should seriously consider it when looking for a new home.
Choosing my home with this in mind rates among the best decisions I’ve ever made. The nature on my doorstep is great for skiing and ice skating in winter, and for hiking and swimming in summer. It really is central to my automatic fitness environment.
Nature also has some serious health credentials that luckily extend to urban green spaces like parks as well.
So, even if it’s not possible for you to regularly spend time in untouched nature, the urban alternative will also do the trick.
Step 4: Create some healthy peer pressure
We humans are instinctively social creatures, strongly influenced by our peers and communities.
Thus, getting yourself some fit peers and a healthy community can go a long way towards achieving lifelong fitness.
Friends and family
There are several recognized benefits to adding a social element to fitness. Exercising with others keeps you accountable, provides some healthy competition, and could land you some valuable free coaching.
So, if at all possible, take a close friend or family member with you on your fitness journey.
Exercise can also be an excellent form of socializing. It’s obviously much healthier than drinking in a bar and, in my experience, clearly superior for relationship building.
Just like you can introduce a social element to exercise, you can also introduce a fitness element to socializing.
For example, almost any party becomes better when people start moving. Learn some decent dance moves and become the one that always gets the real party started :-)
Community
One of the great things about Norway is a culture that really values outdoor activities and fitness. Most people you see on the street are in reasonably good shape and fitness is an important part of most people’s lives.
Such a general community standard for good fitness levels easily becomes self-sustaining. New members of the community naturally want to fit in and live up to community standards.
So, if I might be permitted to add one final criterion for selecting your next home, it would be a fit community.
Step 5: Track your progress
Measurement is great for direction and motivation. This is important enough that I wrote a whole article about it.
The best measure of fitness discussed in that article is your biological age.
Seeing yourself stop aging or even get younger is a very cool experience!
Technology and fitness
The IT revolution is responsible for a lot of the unhealthy stagnation in modern society, but it at least tries to make up for this indiscretion through some attractive fitness tracking capabilities.
Google Fit is my top recommendation for getting started.
Its “move minutes” and “heart points” are very motivational and easy to use. For those who just want to move enough to stay healthy, Google Fit is a great companion.
Those planning to reach and maintain that next level can take a look at Strava (or other options like Runkeeper and Endomondo).
Its main perk is segment comparisons to other Strava users. I must admit that this ego-based motivator really works embarrassingly well.
Getting a wearable fitness tracker is the next step.
I have a Mi Band 4 that offers a ton of functionality for a budget price. Its main drawback is not being supported by Strava. Really serious athletes should get something more expensive from Polar or Garmin.
Be careful not to make things too complicated though. Only use the tech you genuinely have good use for.
Good luck!
After a decade of studying health and sustainability, I’m convinced that a smart environment enabling a permanent healthy lifestyle is the single best gift you can give yourself, your family and your planet.
A healthy fitness environment takes some time and effort to establish. But always remember that this is a one-time investment.
Once your fit environment is in place, it can genuinely last a lifetime!
Lastly, feel free to check out the article linked below where this same philosophy is applied to the automation of healthy eating habits.
Successfully combining healthy diet and fitness environments can establish excellent physical health as a permanent and natural part of life.
May you live healthily ever after!
