The Importance of Showing Up

Is 5 minutes of exercise  worth it? It seems odd that this is something we would debate as we could probably agree that 5 minutes of solidly doing something negative for our health would affect us. If someone asked you to inhale smoke for 5 minutes non-stop you would likely say no, even if you were a smoker. Why then do we struggle to see just 5 minutes of exercise as having value?

Things which require effort but will have a positive effect are easily dismissed as not worth the time because we fall into a binary, all or nothing mentality too often. If we can't do 1 hour of non-stop squats, burpees and deadlifts then it's not worth training at all. If we can't use the right kit then it's not worth training at all. Yes, in the short term if you do 1 hour of training rather than 5 minutes you will have moved the needle further. 5 minutes still has an effect though.

When you stop looking at these effects on a super short timeline and instead think about the difference between someone training for 15 minutes per day, every day and another person who trains three times per week for 30 minutes for a year you see the real difference. The daily habit of 15 minutes has resulted in over 91 hours of exercise in the year. The 30 minute 3 times a week trainer has achieved 78 hours of training. Not only that but the habit created by doing “something” everyday is far more resilient that the infrequent approach of 3 times per week. Practice the art of showing up, it's more important than what you actually do or for how long.

We want to think of this habit formation like building a “streak” of days training. One day may end up being a 3 hour XC ski, another might be 30 minutes of weightlifting, another might just be 1 push up. As long as you have done something to consolidate your fitness, build on the previous days: you showed up.

It takes a 50% improvement to go from 100 to 150 but only a 33% decrease to end up back where you started. Keep showing up, keep building those small improvements into consolidated progress. Don't worry about whether you should be doing more, just log something today.