If you spend anytime in nature observing wild animals in their natural environment you will notice the majority of them seem to be in great physical condition.
Lean, strong, fast and agile!
Yet they do no workouts, they follow no diet plans, they spend no money on fitness equipment and they lose no sleep trying to conform to the latest exercise trends and body shapes!
Hmm.
Are we missing something here?
A few years ago I spent a week deep in the Okavango delta surrounded 24/7 by some of the most stunning wildlife on the planet. It was an amazing experience and (being the sad fitness nerd that I am) I remember being struck by the various exercise habits on display.
Almost all the animals spent their day plodding around at a gentle pace looking for food and water or resting up to escape the heat of the sun!
Then every so often... WHAM!
A short burst of super intense exercise as they hunt, flee or fight.
Normally over in a few seconds or minutes. Then back to resting and plodding!
It’s a pattern we would do well to emulate. Lots of easy, slow paced movement coupled with the occasional short-lived burst of strenuous physical activity.
No animal deliberately skyrockets their heart rate for hours on end and no animal willingly bludgeons their body with round after round after round of high-intensity exercise.
The easy exercise is frequent. The hard is exercise is short!
Yet from a fitness perspective… they remain in much better shape than we are!