 The best exercises for supporting overall health and longevity, they're actually simple. A lot of people are under the impression that in order to stay healthy, they need to lift really heavy weights at the gym or run miles a day. The truth is this is a bunch of bologna. And there are much simpler exercises out there that can provide more benefits for your health. Take it from me. I used to run every single day at least three miles, 30 miles a week. And I was still overweight, grossly obese. As so many of my patients can tell you, running can be bad for your knees. Now what about jumping rope? We used to jump rope as a kid and did it hours at a time. Interestingly, 10 minutes of jump roping burns the same amount of calories as running 30 minutes on a treadmill. And jumping rope is a whole lot more fun than running on a treadmill. But here's the thing, if you look at super old people around the world, if you look at blue zones, if you look at other areas with super old people, one of the things that jumps out at you is they're not gym rats. They're not spending time in the gym. They're actually doing chores of daily living. They're walking, they're gardening, they're doing housework. There are multiple studies that show that vacuuming a floor, scrubbing a floor, doing the dishes is good exercise. There's great studies that doing gardening actually without the use of power tools is one of the better exercises you can do. Just think about picking flowers, bending and picking vegetables. There's a lot of deep knee bending that goes on. And that's what these societies have done. Interesting, so many of these societies are farm-based. They're herders, they herd goats and sheep. And they spend a significant part of their days walking, walking up hills, walking down hills, walking for groceries. The other benefit that these people get is that they are actually forest bathing. And that's a cute term to describe immersing ourselves in nature. And however we do that is going to benefit us. Walking in nature or running in nature is a whole lot better for you than getting on a treadmill. It has a completely different effect. The other great thing that these people do is they're not using just one set of muscle groups. And that's the important thing to remember. There are great exercises like yoga and Tai Chi. But just doing that doesn't activate all of your muscle groups. That's why I do Pilates and I also do yoga, but we get a big kick at Pilates classes when we'll see a muscle-bound gym rat come in with just incredible physique of muscles. And they are challenged to do some of the basic routines in Pilates. And they're sweating and we're sitting there going, wow, what's wrong with that guy? Because they haven't been using all of their muscle groups in a different way. So branch out. Don't do the same thing every day and take time with friends. You know, it's football season. During the commercial breaks, during halftime, don't watch the band on the field. Go out and throw the football around in the yard. If you don't have a football, grab a Frisbee. Throw that in the yard. If you don't have that, chase the dog around the yard. Throw the ball we do every afternoon. It's great exercise because a lot of times they don't bring the ball back and you've got to chase them. Okay, so if you're going to do one thing, if you're going to start today and change just one thing, add walking to your regimen. A study has shown that there's a link between people who walk less than five to seven thousand steps per day. They have a surge in metabolic diseases like diabetes, like prediabetes and other illnesses compared to people who walk five to seven thousand steps a day. Another cool study showed that people who live in walkable cities are 31% less likely to be overweight or obese than people living in car-dependent cities or suburbs. And that's true. City dwellers, as a general rule, are much thinner than suburban dwellers who rely on cars. I'll give you a personal example. When I spent a year during my training in pediatric heart surgery as a senior fellow at Great Ormond Street Hospital in London, England. London, England is one of the great walkable cities. Our family did not have a car for a year. During that year, we walked everywhere. We walked to the grocery store. We walked to the theater. We walked to the clothing store. We walked the kids to school. We walked everywhere. In that year, I actually lost 40 pounds without doing anything else except walking everywhere. And put it into your regimen. You'll be amazed just adding walking will be one of the best things you can do. Now, interestingly, if you look particularly at long-lived cultures, one of the things that's striking. And I see this all the time, particularly in the Mediterranean and also in Japan and China. People walk after their meal. And in one of my first books, I showed a study that people walked either 10 minutes before dinner or 10 minutes after dinner and compared their health and weight loss. The people who walked 10 minutes before dinner had no benefits in their health or weight loss. Whereas the people who walked 10 minutes after dinner consistently lost weight and had better metabolic parameters. So that explains why the idea of strolling after dinner is so common in these countries. And it's also a great way, you see all the time, of meeting people, chatting with people, exchanging more information about what you did during the day than you really did at the dinner table because, quite frankly, some people are busy eating. The other thing that fosters this is get a dog. I can't say this often enough. Dogs force you to walk whether you want to or not. Dogs also, for the most part, force you to socialize. There's nothing your dog wants to do more than meet another dog. And that dog usually is escorted by a nether human being. And you will be amazed the number of friendships, acquaintances, friendly exchanges you will have when you have a dog and interact with other dog owners. Still, some of my favorite prescriptions to write is get a dog. I just wrote one for one of my male patients this past week. And he said, boy, are my kids going to be pleased because I've been resisting this and now it's doctor's orders. So get a dog. For episode 143, I talked with neuroscientist and bonafide walking expert Shane O'Mara all about this topic. Now, there's also a topic that I've come up with that I call exercise snacking. You don't need any special equipment. Put on a song and dance for two to three minutes. I like to do deep knee bends while I'm brushing my teeth. You brush your teeth twice a day. Do deep knee bends while you're brushing your teeth. You can do bicep curls while you're doing the dishes. Take a heavy pan and just lift it. I love to do couch planks during a commercial. Get off the couch, put your feet on the couch and do a plank leaning forward. You can still watch the TV and just hold it for a minute. If you can't do that, get on the floor and do a plank. If you can't do that, do a knee plank. Anything is better than just sitting there and watching the commercial. Okay. Last but not least, please, please, please do not eat before exercise. You will do much better. You will have much better gains with whatever exercise you're doing if you do it in a fasted state because eating requires huge amounts of blood flow to your intestines and it's blood flow that won't be available to your muscles. Studies show that fasted animals have actually better athletic performance than in the fed state. So don't have that energy bar before you go to the gym or out for a walk. Don't have that smoothie while you're walking. Do it fasted, come back and then have your bar. Okay. Exercise gadgets. Anything I can do to get you more interested in exercising is a good thing in my opinion. But just remember, most exercise gadgets lie to you about the number of calories you're burning. They want you to think that you're getting a tremendous calorie workout boost. And in fact, most of this has been rigged to make you think you're doing more than you actually are. If it makes you want to do something, I'm fine with that. But don't believe some of the things you're getting on these readings. Make sure to check out the next one here. Beware of rapid weight loss schemes. It just is one of the greatest myths out there.