With the colder mornings, you may, like I am, be struggling with feelings of laziness for early morning workouts.
Society may not approve of “laziness” and often inactive and unmotivated people are looked down upon, while driven people are held in high esteem.
In our technology-filled and information-rich world, we are reluctant to give ourselves a rest. We constantly feel that we should always be doing something.
Can we, or should we, justify having lazy time? The answer is YES! Within reason!
Part of our brain network which is crucial for our health is only activated when we are drifting out of our conscience reality.
It is called the Default Mode Network (DMN). This network activates when our brain takes a break from conscious processing.
It is the source of daydreams, planning future scenarios, or replaying the day’s events.
The DMN helps restore our attention and motivation, encourages creativity, forms our stable, long-term memories and influences our morals and sense of self.
Laziness has also been found to encourage innovation and human development.
Many studies on very successful people have shown that often it is their laziness that drives them to find more efficient and better ways of doing things.
Bill Gates said he would always ‘hire a lazy person to do a difficult job because a lazy person will find an easy way to do it.’
Bill Gates and many distinguished researchers hail “laziness” as a trait of human evolutionary excellence. This superior human characteristic is today proving to be a disadvantage in maintaining personal health and fitness.
Being physically lazy is a problem because it is short-sighted. Sitting around and not exercising feels great for the moment.
Unfortunately, in 20 years, the lack of physical activity will increase the likelihood of developing chronic health conditions that limit the enjoyment of life.
Max Donelan of Simon Fraser University in Canada, explored the human tenancy towards the “easy way” in a study published in 2015, Sept 10 issue of Current Biology. He showed that people would change the way they walked, just to save 5% of their energy.
His study had the participants wear a robotic exoskeleton and applied high resistance to normal speeds of walking, and much smaller resistance to an abnormal slow way of walking.
The study participates changed their energetic walk within minutes!
A scary thought, given that up to that point, the participants were enthusiastically walking and within minutes changed to a more sedentary pace all to save 5% effort.
Early morning workouts are hard to wake up for, but if you feel lazy and you are clever you will realise that for a little effort, a 30 minute early morning workout is the most efficient way of shaping UP!
I leave you this week with a Spanish Proverb that I very much enjoy!
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“How beautiful it is to do nothing, and then rest afterwards.”
Live well and eat well!
Anna
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