SHAWN STEVENSON:  On this episode, we're going to dive into three simple practices to get you fitter and more functional this summer. Physical activity is often lumped into this pithy box of "exercise", when indeed there are literally thousands of different expressions of what physical activity can be. You can be doing the most fun, or even the most mundane activities and significantly improve your health at the same time and I'm going to show you how. In my recent conversation with Harvard psychologist, Dr. Ellen Langer, she shared with me a study that she conducted on housekeepers at a series of hotels. 

Agai, looking at mundane activities, things that we might be doing on a daily basis that we could actually turn into physical fitness. Now the study was published in the journal Psychological Science and it noted that these housekeepers essentially viewed their work as work and that "exercise" was something That people did at the gym or someplace outside of work. Now nearly 100 women took part in this study. Half of them were placed in the control group that were given general health information while the other half, the experiment group, were taught how the work that they were doing looked like substantial exercise. They were given examples of how certain jobs like mopping and changing sheets compared to exercises like row machines and lateral raises. They were also given estimates on how many calories they were burning, doing standard housekeeping tasks. 

Now, although their actual behavior did not change, i. e. they were not suddenly working more, they were doing the same job that they were already doing. After the four week study was concluded, the intervention group, the group that was taught that the activities that they were doing for their work tasks, for their job, was actually akin to exercising, was actually akin to physical fitness. These women had a significant decrease in body weight, a decrease in blood pressure, a decrease in body fat, improvements in their hip to waist ratio, and, A reduction in their BMI, their body mass index, all of these improvements happened compared to the control group.

That is remarkable. They simply changed their belief about this standard mundane activity that they were doing for their job to view it as physical activity. And suddenly their bodies began to change. Now Dr. Langer stated, "these results support the hypothesis that exercise affects health in part or in whole via the placebo effect". Now what all of this is alluding to and our point today is that it's a mindset shift. Being able to make a subtle change in our awareness that doing things that we might already be doing or doing things. 

SHAWN STEVENSON:  Giving ourselves permission to do things that might seem mundane or even fun can actually provide us with substantial Health and fitness benefits. And so this leads us to number one on this list of three simple health practices to get you fitter and more functional this summer. Keeping in mind, we've done masterclasses on high intensity interval training. We've done masterclasses in strength training and dozens of different forms of that. We've done masterclasses on plyometrics, on muscle fiber types, on Protein efficiency on all manner of different diet frameworks.

We know all these ingredients add to our health landscape. But on this episode, I want to look at the simple stuff, the things that are often overlooked that can absolutely transform your health for the better. And number one on this list to get you fitter and more functional this summer is to implement active activities. Whoever said you can't get fitter and healthier When hanging out with your friends, when hanging out with your family, when hanging out with your significant other, we absolutely can improve our health by getting together and doing things in a slightly different way. So part of this again is a mindset shift. And the other part is giving ourselves permission to do things that, and I'm going to throw this word out here, I'm going to throw out this F word, are you ready? To do things that are fun. To do things that are fun And know that here's the key Knowing that we're adding to our physical fitness again that subtle mindset shift to realize like, okay Yes, we're doing things that are fun and active as a family, but these things are actually improving my health.

They're making me fitter. They're making me more functional. They're improving my cardiovascular system. They're improving my metabolic health. Just having that switch turned on in the back of our mind You And proactively implementing more active activities. That's what this summer is all about. It's a hot girl summer or hot boy summer. All right. That's what we're talking about doing. And so what does this look like in practical terms? Well, when we're talking about summer get-togethers with our friends, for example, of course, we can all get together at somebody's house and hang out. Have some snacks, people have their drinks, their beverages, chat it up, chatty Cathy it up. Alright, that, absolutely we could do that, absolutely. But what if, instead of just doing a run of the mill get together, you get your friends together and meet up for a hike. You get your friends together and say, hey, let's all meet up at such and such a hiking spot and hang out while we do this hike together.

SHAWN STEVENSON:  What if you start scheduling your family outings to be not just going to the movies or, you know, doing these sitting activities, which is cool. We're going to see our summer blockbusters. Yes, but also we throw on the calendar some active activities with our families, right? So getting together, same thing for a date, right? So whether it's your significant other, you know, or you're maybe testing the waters. If you're wanting to have a fitness lifestyle in your new relationship, you're looking for, wouldn't it be a good litmus test to get together for something active? Right. Actually, we had a guest here at the model health show studio. He's a number one hit artists. All right. I'm talking about the number one, number one country artist, Brett Eldridge. And when he came to hang out with us, and by the way, we'll put his episode for you in the show notes. He shared with your boy that he actually went on a date while he was here. I don't know where his status is. This was a while ago.

It's about a year ago. I don't know what it's that. Maybe he's maybe he's booed up right now I don't know. So I'm sorry Brett if you're listening if you're listening with your significant other, I'm sorry that I'm saying you went on a date with somebody Okay But you did and he went on a hiking date and I was like I never thought about that. So he met up with a woman he had never actually connected with, and they went on a date together, a hiking date. And I was just like, man, that's kinda, that's pretty dope because he's about that life. And he thought that this would be a good environment to get to know somebody and also to do something active. Right. So with this being said, scheduling and implementing more active activities. I want to help spark some ideas for you to really inspire and motivate some creativity with this summer to create a culture of more wellness and connectivity and activity within our families, within our friendships. And so let's go through some examples. Now, when I mentioned, rather than getting together for a standard, you know, sit down, chop it up. Recently, I did that, right, sit down, chop it up with Dr. Darshan Shaw, recent guests on the model health show. Now we did that. And the next thing he's like, let's get together and do a hike next time.

So that's what we did. You know, now let me be clear. All of these things are not going to be applicable at all times for all people. But again, we're going to spark some ideas because there is a wide variety of creative things that we can do no matter where we are and no matter what time of year it is. The list goes on and on because I didn't grow up in an environment SHAWN STEVENSON:  where hiking was a thing. I grew up in a concrete jungle. All right. Hiking trails, none of that. I didn't know what that was. Right. The closest thing that I got to hiking was LA gear hiking street shoots. All right. So it was like a fashionable street brand at low license plate on the LA gears. I didn't actually hike anywhere with them, just hiking around my neighborhood, hiking around the school campus, you know, I didn't know really what that was. And so I still have this skepticism in my spirit, here in California. I'm not trying to go to these trails, these hiking trails. I don't know where I'm going. I don't know who these, you know, it, I need, I need somebody to be with me that has done this before. I don't even want to. I don't even want to experiment with you. If you haven't been here, we're not, I'm not going on a hike and trail with you. I've got some scars. All right. I've got some past issues because when I did live in St. Louis and when I was a kid, actually, one of our field trips was to Babler state park, and shout out to everybody in Missouri. And you know, this was a lush and beautiful, vast park, many, many miles. And we went there on a field trip with my middle school. And so we were doing different tasks and it was a great day and it was getting close to lunchtime, you know, just having fun, you know, just going on a field trip as a kid is just, I mean, what's better than that. But we were doing an activity right before lunch.

And this was an activity utilizing a compass to find these different markers, these different places in this designated area for us as kids, you know, and each group had about, we'll just say eight people in it. And so, I had the compass, you know, your boy was leading the charge. I was leading the group and we'll just say that there were six markers to get to and I knocked out five of those along with my team. And, you know, another one of the kids, shout out to Adam, wherever you are today, but, you know, Adam was the smart guy, you know, so he's just like, nah, I want to, he like, he couldn't wait, you know, Adam was like, I gotta be the best. I gotta do this. Right. And so I reluctantly gave the compass and the directorial debut over to Adam. And this is a true story, I'm not trying to throw Adam under the bus. If it was my fault, I say it's my fault. Yeah. But somehow like five minutes went by, 10 minutes went by, 15, 20, 30 minutes went by with our group. We're lost in the forest. We're lost in the forest. Me and my, in my group. And we were scared as sh*t, we were terrified. All right. Because half of us are from the city. First of all, and we out here, we're, we're, we're in the woods. Okay. Jason Voorhees, all this stuff is popping up in my head. All right. And we're close to lunchtime. I couldn't wait. My mom packed me a great brown bag lunch, man. I was hungry. 

SHAWN STEVENSON:  One of the kids in our group, my boy, John, he was, he cried. All right. So this was after about an hour, hour and a half, two hours. He was like, we're going to die. No, one's going to find us. And you know, John, you know, you did that. He might be listening right now, but you know, you cried. And you know, so it made it harder. We would get more and more emotional, more fearful. And time was just going by. And eventually all of us together, and then people start fighting. It was like Lord of the flies, like within two hours, it was ridiculous. All right. But we're all little kids, you know what I'm saying? We're like 12, you know, and eventually we see a road. Right. And that's just like a huge sign of life.

Right. So we're going, we're just in woods and trees and finally we get to a very small road. It's like. Almost a one lane road. And we're just like, okay, now obviously again, if you just follow this road, we're going to be okay. And a car starts coming down the road. Weird. We jump in front of this car, jump on the car. It was like, I'm sure for the people in the car, it was like the walking dead. Right? They were like, they were not trying to stop. They were terrified. Like, who are these people? Who are these children? They're crazy. You know, of course, some of the people in the group were being so extra. They're like banging on the car, all this stuff. And it was an old, older couple. It was grandparents and they had their grandbaby who's in a car seat. All right. And they were like, Oh, sure. You know, we know where the, you know, the headquarters is. We'll take you up there. So we all piled into, and this is back to like, the cars were more robust at this time too.

This is a big, big backseat. Of course, everybody's lapped up the whole thing. The sweetest people. Now again, I'm saying there was eight people in our group. It was six to eight. You know, I don't remember everybody but maybe I'm leaving somebody out, but you know, if I, as I'm counting, there's six, there was six of us. And so anyway, so they drive us to the destination and um, you know, they let the camp know that they found us. You know, we celebrated, but little did we know we were sitting under a tree infested with ticks as we were waiting. Yeah, so it was another very transformational moment, you know, getting back home and, and having my mother to help me get the ticks off of places that, okay. Yeah, let's not even talk about that. So, all this being said, even in that environment, that city environment, there was a state park. You know, there was a place that my family could have done an outing. 

SHAWN STEVENSON:  And we've done many kind of outdoorsy things as a family as well. You know being in Missouri and going to the Ozarks. Or going to Carlisle Lake or, you know, spending summers with my grandmother in the “country”, right? So like Piedmont, Missouri, Southern Missouri, and spending a lot of times at the rivers and, and, and lakes and fishing and all these different things.

And just swimming in the lakes, swimming in, in, in the rivers and, and creeks, right? Creeks were, were, were a big time thing too. Going to the creek. That don't even sound right now, you know, going to a creek. You know, these were part of my fabric. And then after those summers, maybe I'm spending two months with my grandmother. I go back to the inner city and just having all of those things being the fabric and also knowing what's possible, knowing how I feel. There was something so vast. There was something so expansive about being in nature, about spending that time at my grandparents house that really literally broadened my horizons. And so, knowing this, we can be more proactive in giving those experiences to our families. And so this brings me back to the skepticism. If somebody's trying to go on a hike with me today, I need to know that you already did that hike. All right, I need to know that you know where we're going because yeah, I got, I got issues.

I got some scars. I got trust issues. Now, with this being said, you know, we went on a wonderful hike with Darshan and his son and I brought my youngest son along as well. I get there, you know, this is a new hike for me and, um, you know, it's just beautiful. Oh my gosh. Like once you get to, there's multiple summits, but we just went to a short summit, you know, maybe it was like 45 minutes and we were able to see the Pacific Ocean just like this. It was crazy. It was crazy. But once, when we hopped out of the car, initially when we got there, my man, Darshan, was like bringing out the weighted vest. I'm like what? Oh, you're about that life. Okay, and of course I can't turn it down. But also I don't know the trajectory of this hike we're about to go on and what was cool is my youngest son Brayden Who's 12? Wanted to throw the vest on he was like, I'll wear it. I was like cool, you know let him and we you know, kind of altered it alternated back and forth with that. But you know just again getting your friends together You And getting everybody together for a hike. That's one idea. Hopefully that's sparking a little bit of motivation. Sands, the getting lost with the compass. All right. But also what are some other ideas for you to get together for active activities? 

SHAWN STEVENSON:  Obviously there's a wide range, you know, these can be things that are, you know, really kind of intensive, like competitive sports, right? Getting everybody together and playing. Some basketball, you know, playing 21, you know, playing some, you know, kind of pickup games or getting everybody together, playing ultimate frisbee or, you know, touch football. The list goes on and on. You can. Be the one who plans this or you know select somebody in your friend group that does the planning and implant that idea to get everybody together for something active and competitive like that or Something more low key like a little miniature golf. All right Now, even that is a physical activity, everybody's up and moving around and the cognitive activity that this requires to get that job done to try to get that little ball into its, into its home through all these different little obstacles. And, you know, and also, of course, it's kind of a lively environment with these different, you know, kind of artistic pieces, depending on what kind of miniature golf place you're going to, you know, it can be fun for kids. And this can be literally, we've done this many times where it's, you know, when my youngest son was maybe like five and also my mother in law is there as well. We've got the generations and my, my mother in law is low key good at this. Like she never played miniature golf in her life and she was the first one to get a hold in one.

Like it's that, it's the meditation. It's the meditation. So, and I know she's listening right now. Love you. And always fun stuff. So also another thing that we would do together as a family that she's come along for many times as well as we would, Saturdays, we go together to the local track, right? So the, you know, middle school or high school track and, you know, jog together, do sprints together, just do different exercises together. So that's another idea. Also right now, for example, we don't even have to get into the more intensive Basketball because my, my youngest son, he absolutely loves basketball. He has a great AAU team that he's playing for. Again, he's 12 years old and he's just having a great time. Very, very skilled and really a remarkable basketball player like really. But also, you know, he's not at a place right now because I've got a lot of experience in this and. You know, just the physicality for me, he's not at a place where you can compete with me in a one on one context, but we can play horse and we play horse a lot. All right. So horse, if you don't know what horses is, basically it's very simple.

SHAWN STEVENSON:  One person makes a shot, does a shot, does some kind of creative basketball shot, maybe something very simple, maybe something a little bit more complex. And then the other person or people have to copy it. You have to do the same thing. So maybe it's a shot from the free throw line. Maybe it's a three pointer. Maybe it's some type of layup. But if you, if you're not able to copy that shot, you get a letter, you get an H and the same thing goes on. Then you get an O, then you get an R. And if the first person misses, by the way, who's setting the template, setting the bar for what you got to do, if they miss, then the next person gets to decide what kind of shot they're going to take.

Right. And that's just how the game goes. Legendary game, horse, shortened version, pig. I don't know where these come from, but these are hood classics or just life classes. These are everywhere classics. So we play a lot of horse and it gets super competitive but we're outside, we're having fun, you know, we're, we're challenging ourselves. We're talking a little bit, a little bit of dry, a little with love and you know, just having fun and being creative as well. And sometimes even with horse, like we put the ram in like eight feet and, you know, maybe do a couple of dogs, you know, just playing around cause I know, you know, he's 12 and he could, you know, I could definitely get the eight feet jump off, but like just doing creative things like that and making it fun.

Also, another thing that we can do together, active activities with friends, family, uh, with our significant other is instead of driving somewhere, and this is part of this active activity piece and being more active, places that we would have walked to that are reasonably close or, you know, ride a bike to, we drive everywhere now. Right? And I get it. It's like an efficiency thing and just like getting stuff done. But sometimes we can add in some activity and also some bonding time as well. And so, jumping on the bike, you know, whether it's you, you know, your kids, whatever the case might be, your significant other. And, and going for a bike ride to do some, something, a task that you might want to do.

And so, this is one that I implemented a lot with my older son, Jordan. Whenever it would be, and this is, this is telling you when it was, alright. Bye. This if he was going to do a movie night Like all right, cool. You want to do it a movie night? We're going to ride the bikes to the family video, All right. And it's maybe like a 20 minute bike ride there 20 minutes back. 

SHAWN STEVENSON:  And this was challenging for him. All right So just again if this is before netflix was super dominant. Matter of fact we didn't even we didn't even have the cable jumping off right at that at this time. I was really working on Myself on the growth on all the things and so like the family movie night was like a big deal. And so, but we would ride there on our bikes, do the exploration, which, you know, low key, I kind of missed that, you know, it was like, cause it's the hunt, you know, it's the, it's the feeling of the hunt. You don't know what you're going to get when you get there. You know, you don't know if they're going to have the new release. You gotta be at the, Hey, you got the, you know, you see somebody drop the movie in the little slot. Like, Hey, is that a queue check? Is that the, is the matrix? You know, and you know, now, obviously everything is on demand, so we get conditioned. Like we get everything, what we want, where we want it, that delay gratification, the working for something it's removed and it just isn't, in some ways it isn't as rewarding, but in other ways it's awesome. You know, we can have what we want whenever we want, it's amazing, but it's also taking out movement and activity.

From so many things that once required movement and activity even if we drove to the video store You still got to get your ass out of the car. You still got to walk your ass around the store. All right, you got to stand in line. You got to do all the things you got to make sure you have your video card all right, you got to do all the things. And Be kind rewind you got to make sure you rewind Right? But, you know, just again, thinking about what can you do to add in some movement. So maybe there's a, you know, going to the grocery store, maybe it's a, you know, five minute drive, but like 15 minute walk. Right? Use your puppies. All right, get out there and add in some because I'm saying this because yes. We could just go on a bike ride. Absolutely. You could just take the family out. You know, maybe go to a trail, to the beach, a park, whatever the case might be just ride bikes, right? Sometimes it's more effective and also your personality type if it's for a purpose, right? More so than just going and doing the thing but like I'm going I'm going to the store You Right.

I'm going for this specific goal and it's making it like there's a motivation behind it that has an objective, right? And not just the objective being fitness itself. So also within that context of getting from point A to point B, another idea, I'm just going to throw this out there. I'm just going to throw this out there. Getting from point A to point B as creatively as possible. 

SHAWN STEVENSON:  That's parkour! Parkour! So this is something that you could do just going on a simple walk, you know, and just going like, okay, from here to here, you know, we're going to walk backwards and from here to here, we're going to walk sideways. You know, maybe there's a little curve or something like that, that you can walk on and kind of tight rope it, or everybody jumps up on the park bench and then jumps down.

Okay, we all go together or we go one at a time. Here it is, here it is. A truck, two refrigerators. To dumpster 360 spin onto the palace backflip gainer into the trash. Yeah Gainer! Yeah, Yeah Yeah! Parkour! Everyone behind Andy! Parkour! You could turn so many different simple activities into more playful Creative and fun things and your kids would love this but it's not just weird. We want fun, too. Why, why does society try to take the fun out of our lives? We get a little older, they take recess away. I'll never forget it. It was in that same middle school. First day of seventh grade. Day's getting pretty long, okay? There's maybe like two hours left in the day, and I ask this kid, I don't know this kid. It's in class, I'm like, hey, do you know when recess is? He looks at me like I'm straight up, I shouldn't even be there. Like, he's like, there's no recess, dude. There's no recess, dude. I'm just like, kind of heartbroken, but also feeling kind of like, man, I didn't get the memo. I didn't know there was no recess.

Recess was everything. All right. Gym class heroes, playground heroes. All right. That's really what it was about for me, you know, and from there, just got more and more serious, more and more time sitting at the desk, right? We get the fun rug pulled out from under us and then we try to find that some way later on down the line. And I think that's part of why we love sports so much. Cause we're watching big old adults playing children's games. We're watching LeBron just playing a child's game. He's just putting a ball into a hoop. All right. And he's making all this money just playing a game. Now, of course we could listen. It requires a lot.

All right. There's a lot of different moving pieces. There's a strategy. There's all these things and it requires a lot from us to develop ourselves physically and mentally. That's what's beautiful about sports as well. But at the same time, These are indeed games. They're, they're games. They're physical activities. They're physical games. But we've talked about this before on, on the show many times, but we have these mirror neurons, right? 

SHAWN STEVENSON:  And now the science has kind of changed on what mirror, mirror neurons are actually doing. But when we are witnessing other people doing anything. We are simulating ourselves doing that thing. There's a part of us that's simulating, that's how we relate to it. Right, so if we're watching somebody playing basketball, if we're watching LeBron, if we're watching Jokic, if we're watching Michael Jordan, the list goes on and on. As we're watching them, there's a part of us that's simulating us doing that thing.

And feeling, that's why we feel the emotion, the feelings. We're watching a movie, for example, you know, the stars on the big screen and we feel that emotional connection. We feel the tension. We feel the thrill. We feel the fear. It's because we are relating. A part of us is essentially pretending that we are in that situation, right. And so there's something enlivening about watching sports, about watching play. It's really good for us because play is good for us. Also multiple contexts, we could do games like what we would attribute to being beach games. So, you know, spike ball, beach volleyball, just getting out and throwing the ball around a football, those kinds of things at the beach.

Many of those things we could do in other contexts as well. You know, we could play spike ball, we could play, you know, volleyball, but also Games like badminton, for example, right? So I went to a get together not that long ago and I was pleasantly surprised it was folks playing badminton. And so I was able to jump up in the badminton game. And this is like, you know, I don't really know these people, but we bond so quickly under physical activity. Like, it's just really remarkable. And also even badminton, if you think about it, there's bad and the name is bad. It's a bad game. It's got the shuttlecock. You got to hit the, hit the shuttlecock, right. I don't know who came up with these names, but I know that they're playing with us. All right. So, sorry. Also we've got games like again, I mentioned just throwing the ball around playing catch. This is the all time classic for me and my, and my family, you know, in particular my sons just going out in front of the house and throwing the football around, throwing the baseball. And, you know, it was just kind of like a pastime for our family culture. And in addition to that, what about dancing, right? Getting together with friends. And, dancing and having fun, right? So this is another part of our culture. Even last night, my youngest son, for whatever reason, was just vibing out.

SHAWN STEVENSON:  He was doing some sturdy. It's called the sturdy. All right. He's doing the sturdy, which looks like a river dance or something to me. I don't know. Some kind of, you know, relic from the past but he's, he's, he's doing his thing. And then he gets up and he's like imbuing some other newer movements. And then my wife is trying to replicate it. But of course he's just like, mom, you're not doing it right. You know, she's just trying her best. Cause she's got her, she's got her vibe. She makes it look good. It's cute. She does it cute girl style, but you know, just like, you know, Nevermind, nevermind. But having this being a part of our family culture where, you know, we're dancing and we're, and we're having these moments just kind of a part of the fabric of our family where we're just doing stuff like that.

And also, but you can get everybody together to put the music on, you know, everybody, you know, you could, some people can get up, don't be afraid or give yourself permission to dance, have fun, get your groove on at least a little bit. All right, that's being active, active activities. This is something that, actually for my wife's birthday, I just got everybody together, surprised my wife, and rented out this place, DJ, dance party. All right? So there's so many different ways that we could imbue something like that. We tend to do that. When we're, you know, spring chickens. I don't know what a spring chicken is, by the way, like what age bracket that is. But going out and you go into clubs and whatnot, but then there's a part where you don't do that no more.

You stop dancing, you know, but then we give ourselves these little micro environments or micro conditions where we let loose and where we get our dance on. Great example just happened last night. All right. Now, as of this recording. They're probably out of the playoffs. All right. But I took my son to a Los Angeles Lakers game. All right. Now, yeah, I don't want, I don't want to talk about it. Okay. I want to talk about the results of the game, but what was abundant up on the jumbotron were people dancing like super. It's a cultural context where it's acceptable to let loose and go crazy and just Dance your heart out right and just to see some of these people like you would again if you just saw them Low key you wouldn't think that they would dance the way that they dance and just seeing that expression in these little pockets. But you know giving ourselves permission more often to to dance as they say dance as if no one is watching. But also you could take you know dance class, you know, get your friends together like hey, let's meet up and you know Do this dance class.

SHAWN STEVENSON:  Maybe it's like a hip hop dance class or some tap dancing. You know, I don't know you want to, You want to do that? Whatever it is? yoga. All right, let me see you do that yoga. This just, here it is. So my son and I went to the game. I took him to the Lakers game. My wife met up with her friends and ended up being like a whole day thing. Supposed to just meet up and, you know, do a, they did a yoga class, a hot yoga class, and then, you know, turn into, you know, lunch and dinner and all the things, but it's because she felt so good. She hadn't done hot yoga probably in, I don't know, months, like maybe six months. And when I tell you, she's been going on and on and on and on, shout out to Erica Badu. She's been going on and on talking about how good she feels. And she was like, why haven't I been doing this? She, you know, had some recent stressors, you know, a couple months ago, she's like, if I would have been doing this, it would have been easier going through that. She's like, you know, she called me on the FaceTime and she's just like doing the skin, you know, how's my skin look, all this, she's getting all these benefits and all these feel good vibes in her system.

From doing yoga with her friends. All right, so that was her " why haven't I been doing this?" And what it is really it's about permission. It's about giving herself permission regardless of what's going on in her in her life in our lives. Giving herself permission to do something she enjoys and that she gets a lot from Also, just overall I've given a bunch of different examples Hopefully sparking some ideas of getting together with some physical activities with friends, family dates. But just simply getting together and doing a workout together, just getting together with your friends, you know, maybe a couple of friends, maybe, you know, maybe your family, maybe just your significant other, whatever that looks like. Maybe it's a, a, a, a double date workout, just getting together and training together. A lot of great conversation could be had, you know, connection, uh, being able to support each other. Like there's so many cool things that you get to activate and to experience when you just decide, Hey, let's, instead of just, you know, going and grabbing lunch, let's, let's meet up, do a workout and then, you know, grab lunch after, right, or whatever the case might be. And also the environment too, can add a layer of benefit because there are some studies that are actually highlighting that working out outdoors, outdoor exercise and activities are more beneficial than doing the same things indoors. And we kind of know this now, this is again, this is not a hundred percent across the board, but there are several studies indicating that doing the same thing outside is more beneficial than doing that activity inside. 

SHAWN STEVENSON:  Well, what could be the reasons behind that? Probably fresh air, probably sunlight, right? Probably just the novelty, right? The novel environment from what can change in quote, outside world around us. Right? So just keep that in mind. These are all really fun things that we can all do together, to get more active activities in our lives.

With the mindset that as I'm doing this thing, I'm getting healthier. Not only am I connecting with my friends and my family, and having fun in my, in my significant other, but we're all getting fitter and healthier. Hey, shout out to Dr. Ellen Langer, one of my all time favorite episodes. I'll put that for you in the show notes as well. But again, this is number one on our list of three simple health practices to get you fitter and more functional this summer. And by the way, sometimes this can be an energy equation. You know, we might have intentions of doing more active activities, but we're just trying to balance and manage And, and find the energy to do it. Obviously our general health practices are important here, you know, so helping to manage and modulate stress, getting good sleep. Making sure our food is as good as it can be which all these things can fluctuate and that's okay. But more than ever today, we've got access to some really amazing science backed sources of bioavailable energy.

Now for myself, this is my favorite thing. I'm just telling you This is what I've been utilizing the past few months. Pre workout in particular, just for that, like sustainable, no kind of weird spiky. It's just one of those things where you just feel like I can do this. And I still have more in my tank than if I didn't utilize. Ketone IQ. Now, Numerous studies, including a study published by the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology, found that exogenous ketones can be up to 28 percent more efficient in generating energy than glucose alone. It's just a more efficient fuel. Plus, studies have found up to 15 percent increased mean power output after recovery when utilizing ketones, ketones. Now, where can you get your hands on ketone? go to H V M N. com/model. And they're going to hook you up with 30 percent off your first subscription order. All right. I keep the ketone IQ shots in my refrigerator. When it's, when it's a little chilled, it's definitely more because no one said to keep tones were delicious, but let me tell you. These ketones are a hundred percent times better tasting than the old school ketone esters. All right. 

SHAWN STEVENSON:  Now, again, go to HVMN.com/model and check out ketone IQ, 30 percent off your first subscription order. Great folks doing great work. The science is there as well. You could check out on their website, but again, if you're looking for that energy support, It's definitely one of the fastest growing and most bioavailable sources of extra energy. All right, now we're going to move on to number two on our list of three simple health practices to get you fitter and more functional this summer. Number two is to upgrade your sitting time. Now, one thing that we're going to do, yes, we're going to be active, but we're also going to sit. All right. We do not need to villainize sitting. You know, there's articles and things like that and topics framing it as sitting is the new smoking. All right, and yes, if we're incredibly sedentary and we're sitting an abnormal amount it create all manner of dysfunction from increased incidence of hypertension to insulin resistance to muscle imbalances and dysfunction and To increase rates of injuries.

The list goes on and on. Yes, absolutely. But sitting is something that humans are designed to do. We're designed to sit and We're designed to sit on the floor. All right to sit on the ground. That's how we evolved for Thousands upon thousands upon thousands of years. We sat on the ground. All right, then the thrones were manifested. The important people Start to sit on the thrones. We even call the toilet the throne. We start to sit when we sh*t. All right, and seeing all manner of dysfunction leading from that as well. Now some people might be new to this information and we've talked about this on past episodes and really just looking at the mechanical aspect of, you know, the digestive system, the small intestine, and how it gets pinched when our legs are not At the right angle, right?

So literally if our legs are at a right angle, you know sitting up on a high surface to use the bathroom versus when we're in a squatting position and you know just seeing these radical increases in issues with anything from hemorrhoids to colorectal cancer and Largely being tied numerous studies to how we're using the bathroom. Now with all of that said, We're just looking at, let's not villainize the act of sitting. Let's sit down, let's take a load off, let's relax, let's chill, let's sit. Let's sit, but let's upgrade our sitting time. Now why does this matter and how does this actually get us fitter and healthier? Well, a comprehensive study that was published in the European Journal of Preventative Cardiology titled "Ability to Sit and Rise from the Floor as a Predictor of All Cause Mortality". 

SHAWN STEVENSON:  These researchers found that The ability to get up off the floor and to sit down on the floor Was one of the most if not the most viable marker looking at How long someone was going to live but not just skin lifespan, but also healthspan. The inability to sit down on the floor and to stand back up was tied with A shorter lifespan was tied with an increase in all cause mortality essentially an increase In the risk of death from everything. All right And and part of that again, we could look at the science But just if we do a little bit of introspection like what does this mean? Why would that be? Well, this is something for our genes. Our genes expect us to be able to do that behavior You As that input, that environmental input feedback from ourselves, from ourselves. Ourselves within ourselves, and also the environmental impact of what we're expressing outwardly as being a functional, capable person that can survive in the environment. Being able to do this mechanical activity is tied to our expression of being able to survive and to be a contributor. To our environment, to our tribe, to be able to protect ourselves, to procure our food. These are all feedback things because we are a part of the environment. Now, this might sound a little bit harsh, but we are a part of the environment, the world around us, and there's constant data that's getting shared.

There's signals, and sometimes our bodies can start to accelerate degradation when we're not sending the right signals. Now, you might hear this and think, yeah, that sounds well in all that sounds nice. Yeah. I sit on the floor, but I can't do that. That doesn't, it's just not something that I do. It's not comfortable. I can't actually physically do that activity. There's a wide range and some folks are just like, yeah, I sit on the floor all the time or, you know, I like to sit on the floor sometimes, but sometimes I love to, you know, lay on my couch. This is not an all or nothing. scenario, by the way, but also wherever we are, there is always room for improvement. And so what do we mean by upgrading your sitting time? Well, in multiple conversations that we've had with Katie Bowman, for example, biomechanists and doctors of physical therapy, like Dr. Kelly Starrett, and them sharing all of the remarkable things that happen with our bodies. When we become chair bound, basically The environment shapes our bodies.

SHAWN STEVENSON:  And so if we're spending the majority of our waking time sitting or sitting in a chair, specifically our bodies become very good at sitting in a chair and not as adaptable and able to mechanistically move in our environment efficiently in the risk of injury dramatically increases. And so what we see, for example, a variety of muscles, ligaments, and tendons are being activated or deactivated based on where and how you're sitting.

Sitting in a chair or on the couch in particular creates compression and resulting tightening of the hip flexors. This is largely tied to a lot of lower back problems, by the way. And also that activity of sitting on the couch or in a chair is largely deactivating your glute activity, especially in a chair, by the way, you're putting constant pressure on our hamstrings. All right. You're going to be putting constant pressure on your hamstrings, which are hamstrings. Again, it's just like having this constant force against these muscles that need some movement. They need circulation. They need different kinds of tension and lack of tension, but sitting in a chair starts to shut down function of things that should be functional and hyper-activates things that need to be able to relax.

And so. Spending some time sitting on the ground is like a nutrient infusion. It's like rehabilitation for so many of these activities. And now there's some caveats we're going to share here, but what I want to encourage you to do is simply to just supplement because here's the cool thing about getting more benefit out of this activity of sitting. You can still do your stuff that you're doing. You're sitting to watch TV, you're sitting to hang out and talk with friends. Whatever the case might be, you can still do, do what you're doing, but you're going to get some more physical benefit because yes, we have found you're going to be actually burning more calories when you're sitting on the ground versus sitting in a chair or sitting, you know, laying out on the couch with a lazy boy, but that's, it's very minute. That change is minute, but you are, but more importantly, you're getting all of these environmental inputs, sensations for your ankle mobility, your knee mobility, right? Think about where your knees are positioned when you're sitting cross leg on the ground versus being very stationary on the couch, right? And also a couch can seduce you and kind of put a veil over your body awareness that because it's so comfy that you don't need to move. 

SHAWN STEVENSON:  All right, it's so seductive. It pulls us in Whereas when we're sitting on the floor We'll feel more fidgety over time because your body is giving you instant feedback that okay. We're getting the mobility for our knees, our joints, our hips as well. Those hip flexors are going to be in more ideal positions. But more importantly, now here's the biggest part of this, that change of movement, your body encouraging you like, okay, I've sat. Crisscross applesauce or cross leg for a bit.

Now my body's saying, Hey, let me, I need to, I need to alter this position. Now you put one leg out, right? Or now you do it like a knee to chest, your butts on the floor, one knee, you're holding one knee, one leg is extended out in front of you. And then you alternate that. Right? Or maybe you do a 90 90 sit where you're sitting on the ground, you got one leg out in front of you, we'll just say your left leg is out in front of you and it's going to be at a 90 degree ish position where, you know, your left foot is facing inward.

And then behind you, the other leg is going to be out in a 90 degree position where that back foot is facing back behind you. Now we'll put up, if you're watching the video version, we'll put up a 90 90 sit for you to see, right? There's so many different ways that you could sit on the ground and get these different movement inputs to your cells and these mobility pieces, right? There's so much that's going on. We could basically be improving our health and our fitness piece. Wow. Sitting. Now, if this is something that is out of your normal day to day protocol, the most important, like I can give you all these exercises to help you to sit on the floor more comfortably, but the most important exercise is just doing the thing. Just sitting on the floor for a bit, right? And just finding a way that you can get comfortable. Again, even if it's one minute. Of sitting on the floor and getting that input And you know, it's not just sitting on the floor. You can also lay on the floor, right? You could lay back, you could lay on your belly, you could lay on your back. These are things that humans have been doing from the beginning, Right. And there's something that resonates with our gene expression and our health in these different inputs versus something so unearthly comfortable That it takes all of the feedback away that you need to move. Now, keep in mind, this is also not necessarily culturally conducive. Like, this is not necessarily something that is culture wide. People sit on the floor. 

SHAWN STEVENSON:  We don't, we don't see that usually. And I'm not telling you to go to a restaurant. You go to the Italian restaurant and you like, Give me my pasta on the floor. You don't got to be the weird person like that. All right, but if your friends are getting together for the Super Bowl party, like my friends came to my place. I sat on the floor, I sat on the floor. All right. And my youngest son spent some time sitting on the floor. One of my friends' kids sat on the floor as well. And again, now you're already seeing a trend. The young ones sitting on the floor, and then everybody else. Alright, but also, other adults sit on the floor from time to time as well. Alright, but it's just like, creating an atmosphere where it's like, it's cool, we can sit, you know, we can sit on the floor.

But, as I said, my ask of you, your homework, is to just add in. If you're not sitting on the floor at all, one minute a day, five minutes a day. And what you're going to find over time as you're sitting on the floor, your body starts to crave it. And I'm not exaggerating in the slightest. Anybody who regularly sits on the floor will tell you this. If I sit on the couch for an extended amount of time, I get antsy. It didn't used to be like this. I could, of course, just sit on the couch for hours and hours and hours. Of course, I'm from America. All right. Today, if I sit on the couch for an extended amount of time, like my body's like, you gotta get up. I don't like this. I need to move. I need to. And so I got to change position, get down on the floor. Like it just like your body craves it. And then once I'm on the floor, now it's like a whole world opens up and I can do all this stuff. You know, I can even fiddle around with some mobility exercises, you know, and keep in mind though, be mindful of your posture.

Just because you're sitting on the floor, it doesn't mean that you just want to be. You know, shaggy from Scooby Doo, you know what I'm saying? Yoinks! You're not, you're not trying to go like that far and just be all with the bad posture and the, you know, and also be mindful of your circulation, right? You don't, you're not trying to have your, you know, your legs go to sleep or, you know, whatever. And if that happens, just move, change positions, all right? So be mindful of your circulation. Just like if somebody's sitting in a chair and they, and their body, their circulation starts to deplete. We want to be mindful of this stuff too. If you're sitting on the floor now, as we move on from number two, which is again, upgrade your sitting time, which in between this. Right now my videographer just got from a chair and he's now sitting on the floor right here in the studio All right. That just happened. 

SHAWN STEVENSON:  But also here in the studio, if you were to come to the model health show studio, you would be greeted with an abundance of options From beverage choices to snacks, but those snacks are coming from one place. We're talking about real food nutrition bars. We're talking about grass fed meat sticks We're talking about the snacks from paleoValley, all right. Paleo valley bar none. And this is again, if I'm traveling, if we're out on some of these adventures, these active activities, I'm bringing the paleo valley snacks along. That's what you're going to find in my bag. All right. And right now you're gonna get 15 percent off store wide with paleo valley. Go to paleo valley. com/model. That's P a L E O V a L L E Y.com/model. Now they're using all organic ingredients in those food bars. It's all real food, earth grown nutrients. And also they got some remarkable supplements as well.

Real food, whole food based supplements like their essential C formula, for example, is a staple. I always, again, especially under stress, traveling that kind of stuff. That's the vitamin C source that I go for is from paleo valley. Just amazing, amazing stuff. Amazing people. I highly, highly recommend checking out PaleoValley again, go to paleovalley.com/model for 15 percent off storewide. And now we're going to move on to number three on our list of three simple health practices to get you fitter and more functional this summer. Number three is to take a stand. We've talked about active activities. We've talked about upgrading our sitting.

Now we're going to talk about taking a stand. A new study published in the journal of the American medical association. And I'm talking about new, new, this is new, new. The study tracked the sitting work behavior of nearly 482, 000 people for about 12 years. These individuals who are predominantly engaged in sitting at work experienced a higher risk of mortality from all causes, 16 percent higher risk of mortality death from all causes and a 34 percent increase incidence of cardiovascular disease compared to those who predominantly do not sit. This is not saying that they don't sit, but they're not sitting as much as those people were. Now, This was true even after adjusting for a variety of confounding factors. Adjusting for age, for sex, for education, smoking, drinking, body mass index, sitting behavior jumped out as a leading risk factor for early death. As the researchers uncovered, now here's the key. It was pretty simple to help nullify. 

SHAWN STEVENSON:  Some of these results, the researcher stated that individuals who predominantly sit at work would simply need to engage in an additional 15 to 20 minutes of physical activity per day to mitigate this increased risk and reach the same level of risk as individuals who predominantly do not sit at work. Just about 30 minutes of physical activity, 15 was the bare, bare minimum, 30 minutes of activity to nullify. That's fascinating. How physical activity helps to nullify the effects of not being active. Now in addition to, okay, yeah, we throw the physical activity in there, but that's one of those things where everybody knows they need to exercise, but everybody not doing it. So we don't, we don't even need to try to force feed people like, you need to exercise, you need to go to the gym. We know that already and that's gonna be a personal choice. But as with that personal choice, I like things that you're already doing the thing anyways. Let's just change it a little bit.

Let's just change the environment. And that speaks to the benefits of standing rather than sitting at our desk. Now this again, this does not mean a hundred percent standing. If you see me right now in the studio, and as I'm recording this, as I have for over 10 years of the model show, about 11 years. I stand up when it's a solo show. I'm standing. I'm standing. This is not an accident. I Practice what I preach. I'm telling you what I do and I'm telling you how I feel. I just feel better and you probably picked that up when I'm able to stand. Now with this being said This does not mean that I don't sit. This does not mean that I don't utilize those other inputs, but just being able to stand. Number one, we've got, now we've got data on this. We see, and it's not much, but maybe a five to 10 percent increase calorie burn when standing versus sitting. It's not huge. Okay. Even 1%, like just small, less than 10%. Okay. We'll just put it like this. Less than 10%. But it's something but the real benefits Are seen with a decrease in cardiovascular risk.

Why because we're able to circulate more and also When you're standing you're going to be fidgeting a little bit more moving around All right again very obvious common sense But one of the most remarkable benefits is seen with cognitive function. Let's first look at cognitive function benefits with standing again, standing and sitting, having standing optional.They stand sometimes at the desk. All right. Let's look at the cognitive benefits for students. 

SHAWN STEVENSON:  A study published in the international journal of environmental research and public health track the impact of standing adaptable desks on the cognitive function of 34 high school students over the course of several months. After compiling the data, the scientist stated, quote, executive function and working memory was evaluated using a computerized neurocognitive test battery and brain activation patterns of the prefrontal cortex were obtained using functional near infrared spectroscopy. Continued utilization of the stand bias desks. This is the most important part was associated with significant improvements and executive function. And working memory capabilities on quote, they got smarter, their brains worked better. They perform better when they were able to stand more often. Okay. Now, again, these are standing adjustable desks. You don't have to stand all the time, but standing more often, taking a stand will make you physically fitter and also mentally and cognitively fitter.

Another study conducted by researchers at Texas A&M. Found that users of stand capable desks were 45 percent more productive. So this is looking at adults, 45 percent more productive on a daily basis compared to their seated counterparts. Further productivity of the stand capable desk users significantly increased over time. Just got better and better starting from 23 percent improvement comparable to those sitting in the first month. Up to a 53 percent improvement over the course of six months. All right. So this is another simple call to action. You don't got to turn your world upside down. Just make simple adjustments. Yes. This is something you could purchase a standing desk, or you could do a, you know, a DIY version of it and just give yourself the opportunity to stand more often to do your normal activities that you might be doing during the day. You know, what we call, you know, quote work task or whatever the case might be. Just take a stand. Stand more often. So this can be that. Also, this is where conversations like this education, like this adds another layer because we hear about all the rage with the standing desk. Yes. We might not think about all of the opportunities in our day to day life that we have to stand rather than sit. And just to get that input in and improve our fitness, improve our health, improve our functionality. So some examples. Again, I just took my son to the Lakers game and there are times when everybody's all riled up and everybody stands, but there's also breaks, right? 

SHAWN STEVENSON:  So people want to walk by the aisles, whatever, when somebody wants to walk by and then everybody sits back down, not everybody, but you know, some people I'll just continue standing for a while. There's a break. You know, everybody's just chilling. I'm not in anybody's way. I'm consciously deciding because I'm sitting a nice amount of time during this game, I'm just gonna stand up, you know, move around a little bit, you know, rock the hips back and forth, do a little stretchy up and, you know, I'm taking that opportunity consciously because it's a part of who I am. I built the habit of standing up. Rather than sitting in those moments where I could find that opportunity. The same thing at my son's, uh, AAU basketball games. There's, you know, obviously there's bleachers where most of the parents sit, but there's like Two or three of us said, or you, you're going to find a standing position.

Now, honestly, one of them, she feels like she can't sit because just her nerves with the, you know, the, the kids playing all the things he just wants to choose. He wants to stand. All right. But for me, it's just an opportunity. You want to stand and kind of hang out, be able to move around. And also, this is still not saying that I'm not going to go and sit on the bleachers and, and hang out there as well. But I am going to take some time and just stand up. It just feels better, especially because my body craves it. So again, just looking at those spots in your day to day life where you could say, Hey, I could take a stand right now. You know, this is something that's going to add to my fitness, my health. And we got the science now, like you can plant that seed in your mind, allow that to grow that this isn't just standing.

This is improving my health. This is making me a fitter individual. And I get to choose these micro opportunities to better my health, to inspire and encourage others, and also to get fitter and more functional this summer. All right, hot girl, summer, hot boy, summer. I hope this was valuable for you and it sparks some ideas and insights and let's strive truly to create a culture of fitness, of active activities with our families, with our friends, and let's create a whole new era of wellness. Truly, it is up to us. I appreciate you so much for tuning into this episode. If you got a lot of value out of this, share it with your friends and family. You can send this directly from the podcast app that you're listening on. You could share this out on social media, of course, take a screenshot of the episode, share it on Instagram and Twitter X, I guess it is now.

SHAWN STEVENSON:  Whatever social media platform you like to rock on Facebook, all that good stuff. And listen, we got some epic masterclasses and world class guests coming your way very, very soon. So make sure to stay tuned, take care, have an amazing day. And I'll talk with you soon. And for more after the show, make sure to head over to themodelhealth show.com. That's where you can find all of the show notes. You can find transcriptions, videos for each episode. And if you've got a comment, you can leave me a comment there as well. And please make sure to head over to iTunes and leave us a rating to let everybody know that the show is awesome. And I appreciate that so much and take care. I promise to keep giving you more powerful, empowering, great content to help you transform your life. Thanks for tuning in.