Four Pillars: Exercise, Part 2

Guess what? I have a bunch more to say about exercise. Shocking, I know.

An example of a highly effective exercise routine: first thing in the morning do a 1+ mile run starting at your front door, perhaps going through a local park. When you get back, some push-ups, situps, and burpees [link] can give you plenty of strength training on top of your run. After that, a quick shower and you’re out the door. 

Note what’s missing: packing a bag and driving to the nearest gym (which also swallows much of the small amount of money you’re living on in grad school – unless you can use the University gym). I find exercising without a gym is dramatically more efficient and convenient, which is super important for fitting in more research each day and making it far more likely you’ll stick with it. 

I also encourage you to avoid the need to go after giant new fitness goals frequently. A pretty sizable amount of fitness literature has established the most significant health and psychological benefits of exercise occur at low to moderate levels of exercise. If you do decide to go after new fitness goals, I recommend taking a slow but steady approach to make the gains more sustainable. Overall though, remember the end goal is to get your degree, not win fitness competitions.