Got 20 Minutes?

 by Nina 

The first 20 minutes of moving around, if someone has been really sedentary, provide most of the health benefits. You get prolonged life, reduced disease risk — all of those things come in in the first 20 minutes of being active. —Gretchen Reynolds

Last week I heard Gretchen Reynolds, Health and Fitness writer for the New York Times, being interviewed by Terry Gross on Fresh Air (see here) about her new book The First 20 Minutes. She said the reason she wrote the book is that she wanted sedentary people to understand that with just 20 minutes of exercise you can obtain a whole host of health benefits.

Two-thirds of Americans get no exercise at all. If one of those people gets up and moves around for 20 minutes, they are going to get a huge number of health benefits, and everything beyond that 20 minutes is, to some degree, gravy.

This was exciting for me to hear because for many years, Baxter and I have been encouraging people to start practicing at home with 15 to 20 minute mini yoga practices. In our case we were just trying to be realistic about the busy schedules that most people have. And we also knew that when people consider practicing at home, the idea of doing a full-length practice can be intimidating and overwhelming. So when we used to teach special series classes together (such as Yoga for Stress and Yoga for Real Life), we always created handouts for our students that included the full-length sequence we taught as well as a “mini” version of the practice. And we've been including mini yoga practices our blog as well (see our mini low back care sequence and mini office yoga practice). Now we’re thrilled to learn that these short practices can make all the difference between the negative effects of sedentary lifestyle and the positive health benefits of moving around for 20 minutes a day. And that’s what yoga for healthy aging is all about. As Reynolds says, “If someone starts an exercise program and improves his fitness, even if he doesn’t lose an ounce, he will generally have a longer life and a much healthier life.”

Perfect Tulips by Nina Zolotow

So if you’re not already practicing yoga at home, consider taking a small step toward improving your health by committing to just 20 minutes day. Don’t know how to create a short yoga sequence? Simply take a longer sequence and modify it by removing some of the poses, leaving the remaining poses in the same order as they were in the original sequence. Or see my post Iyengar-Style Sequencing  and create your own sequence. You don’t need to over-think it! The benefits of starting to move for 20 minutes per day are so great, and if you listen to your body, you’ll soon learn how to create the sequences that are best for you.

The human body is a really excellent coach. If you listen to it, it will tell you if you’re going hard enough, if you’re going too hard. If it starts to hurt, then you back off. It should just feel good, because we really are built to move, and not moving is so unnatural. Just move, because it really can be so easy, and it really can change your life. —Gretchen Reynolds

For more about Gretchen Reynolds and her new book, see the NPR web site and the New York Times blog.