Conclusion

At the start I mentioned my course on Productivity. I’ll mention it here again. That course explains how to form habits and actually do what you want to do. (Or you know you should do.) It’s quite short, but perhaps the most important course I ever wrote. Because, when it comes down to it, everything in life is about what you do or don’t do.

That said, we are at the end of this course. I hope this gave insight into how, why and when to improve your health.

To motivate you, let me remind you of only a small slice of the benefits:

• Good health gives more options. Because you are in control of your body, not the other way around, you can do more (and make fewer mistakes)
• It gives confidence, certainty, and a positive flow. After an hour of exercise, my biggest problems always seem much more manageable. (And you look more attractive as a bonus.)
• It needs to happen anway. Our body—the whole universe even—is in a constant state of chaos and destruction. If you do nothing, your body will automatically grow weaker, your heart deteriorates, your muscles are broken down. Exercise ensure you can use your body to its fullest potential for as long as possible.
• There’s a direct, (very) positive relationship between your brains and our body. Exercise literally makes you smarter, sharper, more focused, able to memorize things more easily, and so forth. All that for free. Exercise gives you beauty and the brains.
• Research suggests that the exercise you do while young, ensures a much brighter future. (And if you don’t life that healthy, it’s near impossible to fully correct later. It’s the same with eating: being overweight is usually a condition created in your childhood.) People who exercised until they were 20–25, are very likely to keep doing so, and stay healthy, their whole life. Conversely, the longer you go with no exercise, the harder it is to pick back up again.
• The most important one—to me, at least—is that it makes your body more resistant to pain, injury and illness. After all those years, I still have my chronic illness. But exercising at least softens the pain. After my exercise each day, I can enjoy at least a few hours of (relative) peace and quiet in my body.

My personal “exercise guideline” is:

• Exercise with moderate intensity for 30+ minutes each day
• Two to three times a week, exercise with high intensity for 45 minutes
• Vary between strength exercises and relaxation exercises
• My cardio comes from a purposely active lifestyle. (Standing desk, balance board, “toughest way only”, etcetera.)
• And my coordination comes from playing a large array of different sports and physical games.

But I have a chronic illness to battle, so I understand this is extreme for some. I merely give it as a guideline, some way to measure your own schedule. Despite all the comments from people that I was “obsessed with exercise” or “destroying my body”, this schedule has not let me down in any way. Although I must admit that I never went further than this, because that would feel like overkill.

In the end, you should not view exercise as a “must” or an “annoying obstacle”. You should view it as an innate part of being human. We were made to exercise, every day, in varied ways. Our body wants to be used and exercised. It’s not an annoying byproduct of reality—it is reality. And it’s one of the things we can actually understand, control, and use for our own benefit.

I hope this guide helped you live your dream life. If you found a mistake, something unclear, whatever, never hesitate to contact me.

Pandaqi