Why Give a Damn:

What’s the best exercise? The exercise that burns the most calories, the fat-burning, booty-kicking, 8-pack ab-giving workout that will change your life? Read on to find out. It may not be what you expect.


The author of this post, Ann Garvin is an author, speaker and professor of health, stress management, research methods and media literacy.

We get caught up in the best way to do things when sometimes just getting started is enough.  Tweet This Quote

As an exercise physiologist, I often get the question from people who want to start exercising, “What’s the best exercise?” I know where this question is coming from. People want to use their time wisely, they want to maximize their exercise time – get a good workout and do it in the least amount of time.

So let’s make this simple people. What’s the best exercise? The exercise that burns the most calories, the fat-burning, booty-kicking, Beyonce-shimmying, 8-pack ab-giving workout that will change your life?

The best exercise?

Simple.

The one you will actually do, and do on a regular basis.

The best exercise is the one you have time and energy for today. The best exercise is the one you can sustain for 30 years. The one or, in fact, the several kinds of physical activity that keep you stimulated, building muscle, get your heart pumping, increasing your flexibility over a week, a month, several years.

Moving past the road blocks, our perfectionist tendencies, the inertia that sometimes gets in our way is an exercise that both the body and the mind can benefit from.

We get caught up in the best way to do things when sometimes just getting started, any way, is enough.

Compare this to your start-up. Days, weeks, or months of being told “no” – be it from the mouths of investors, customers, partners, etc. – is exhausting. There are several times when, because Plan A didn’t work, we begin to wonder if it is even worth bothering with Plan B? However, exercising the ability to open your mind to other possibilities, push past the exhaustion and continue toward your mission of solving the world’s biggest problems will take you, and your business, further than you can imagine. Maybe there isn’t a “best way”, and instead, we should embrace the many ways to save the world and your body today.

Exercise the ability to open your mind to other possibilities, push past the exhaustion and continue toward your mission of solving the world’s biggest problems.

Ann Garvin

Author Ann Garvin

Ann is an author, speaker and educator. As professor of health, stress management, research methods and media literacy at University of Wisconsin Whitewater, she has worked extensively in psychometrics, statistics and psychology. Ann is the author of On Maggie’s Watch & The Dog Year (Berkley Penguin, 2014).

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