When it comes to health, little things can make the biggest difference. Like asking for dressing on the side or cutting sugar from your coffee—or extending your workout for just five minutes.
Max Shank says we should consider the return (physical improvement) on our investment (time) and how just extra five minutes could be a big deal:
Consider that the average person spends about 2 hours per week exercising.
If you add just 5 minutes of movement in the morning we can add: 5 minutes 7x per week = 35 minutes per week
That’s 30% extra. That’s going from a D to an A, or C to an A +++
If you ask anyone with a background in finance if they’d like a guaranteed 30% return on their investments they would probably laugh at you because it’s just not possible. But with your physical health and wellness, it is.
Five additional minutes doesn’t sound like a lot, but it could be the most efficient use of your workout time—better even than exercising another hour on another day, because you’re pushing your body at a further distance or at a faster pace than you previously did (to take running as an example):
Not only do you get the direct benefit of increasing your output, the benefit is not linear. When you add in that extra movement every day, you more effectively trigger [
the SAID principle
] (Specific Adaptation to Imposed Demand). The SAID principle changes your brain and body based on the demand imposed upon it–one of the chief factors for that is frequency. So doing this extra 140 minutes every week (or 35 minutes if you’re just starting with the 5:00 extra) is actually more effective than just adding a fourth training day and doing another hour, so each minute done every day is more effective AND efficient than if you just threw it all together on one extra day.
There’s a point where you’ll see diminishing returns after implementing the “every little bit helps” of extra effort, but if you’re not at that point yet, consider moving for just 5 more minutes for a 30% return on investment (ROI). Even if those 5 extra minutes are just doing one simple exercise when you get up or take a work break.
Change Your Life in 5 Minutes | Max Shank
Photo by john.purvis.