Your Brain Likes Burpees
It may not seem like it now, but you’ll feel better if you get up and move
Welcome back to Inside Your Head 🧠, a weekly newsletter exploring why your brain makes you think, feel, and act the way you do, written by Dana Smith, Elemental’s senior writer and a former brain scientist. Forwarded by a friend? Subscribe here so you won’t miss the next one.
I bought a Fitbit last week (no, this is not a product placement). My daily goal was 10,000 steps. My total steps the first day? 943. This shortfall — failure by a whopping 10x — was why I finally caved and strapped a tiny computer to my wrist: To tell me how sedentary I have become since the start of the pandemic, with the hope that it would finally motivate me to get off my butt and start practicing what I preach as a health journalist.
Despite our best intentions, it can be so damn hard to get out of our routines and make ourselves move during the day. There are so many excuses, usually work related, that I employ to avoid exercising. “I focus best in the morning, so I need that time to do edits or meet a deadline.” “I have meetings throughout the day, so I don’t have enough time to work out and not be a sweaty mess on my next Zoom call.” And in the evenings: “I haven’t gotten enough done today, so I better keep working until dinner.”
