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Kindle Notes & Highlights
“Technology is an excellent tool and a terrible master.”
we’re not saying that we’re against fitness technology or that you should stop using it completely—technology can solve problems—but rather that you should take a more careful approach to how you use it, when, and why.
In a perfect, unplugged world, we’d just enjoy fun activities in their purest form and be content to reap the rewards that they provide. Yet all too often we try to enhance our experiences with an app or wearable, not realizing that doing so changes the source of our habit-reward system.
Every time you look down to check your heart rate, pace, or split time, your brain gives you a little dopamine hit.
Before you know it, you’re looking at your device more and more to get your fix, and the activity itself becomes secondary.
an even bigger problem is that by connecting yet another area of our life to technology, we’re pushing ever further from really knowing ourselves and interacting in an unfiltered, authentic way with our natural environment. In this age of distraction, we’re also adding just another layer to the issue of continuous partial attention, whereby we never fully focus on one thing at a time.
We already had a device that intruded on our work productivity, our time with friends and family, and our recreation, and now, with the rise of wearables, many people are hijacked by two or three. This means our attention spans are even shorter and we’re more distracted than ever. As a result, we’re losing our ability to be conscious of what we’re doing, how we’re feeling, and what’s going on around us.
We can think of the issues with data as falling into two categories: problems with applicability (not all data is useful) and problems with accuracy (devices can be inaccurate).
If we outsource our consciousness to a machine, we come to think that data is understanding. It’s not. Rather, data is knowledge that requires interpretation to be applicable.
As far back as 1992, scientific studies began showing that when athletes train based on how hard they feel a session is—what we refer to as rate of perceived effort (RPE)—it’s just as effective as trying to keep their heart rate in a certain zone for a predetermined length of time.
coaches and athletes can’t wait for science to give a definitive answer before we act. Otherwise we’d have to tell everyone, “We’re not certain what’s best, so just sit on your couch until we figure it out.” No! We’ve all got to get out and move more and rely on technology less. In doing so, we recognize that yes, we’ll definitely make some mistakes. But we’ll learn as much if not more from these as we will from our successes, and so we’ll make progress long before science confirms what we find to be self-evident. The key is to put on your shoes, get out the door, and begin. Keep your ears and
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the four best predictors of mortality are unchanged from fifty years ago. They’re still: • VO2 max • leg strength • lean body mass • grip strength
Sticking to a system chapter and verse vastly limits your potential for exploration and growth,
“Stop measuring days by degree of productivity and start experiencing them by degree of presence.”
One study showed that moving for five minutes undoes most of the damage caused by sitting for an hour, which includes a 50 percent reduction in blood flow to the legs.72 But if you replaced that sitting with standing, fidgeting, walking around while on phone meetings, you’d have a plan that’s even better for you. Such a routine also benefits the brain: researchers from Texas A&M found that call center workers who were active throughout the day were 46 percent more productive than those who sat.
We can all improve our gearing, and in this fast-paced, HIIT-dominated exercise climate, for many of us that means being able to slow down. Get just as comfortable moving slowly, smoothly, and rhythmically as you are going a hundred miles an hour. If you lift weights, break your technique back down to the basics with very little on the bar or even using a PVC pipe, and see where you can improve. If you can’t move well with no weight while going slow, you’re going to move very poorly while trying to throw around a lot of weight quickly. And whatever you do, make sure you add some more skill
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if you need music to motivate you to do something, you should find something else to do,
the $61 billion weight-loss industry has confused the narrative and made us believe that if our weight is what our doctor would recommend, then we’re good to go from an overall health perspective.106 This can be true, but very often it isn’t. There are plenty of people who are in the “normal” weight range who are profoundly unhealthy.
If you recognize that your blood pressure is too high or your weight isn’t where you want it to be, don’t fixate on it. Instead, prioritize increasing your activity and sitting less, building muscle, or reaching some kind of performance goal. You will likely reduce your blood pressure, lose fat, and increase lean body mass as a secondary benefit of pursuing such goals, while avoiding the pitfalls of weight loss that many people encounter.
As an individual who is designed to be self-reliant while remaining part of a society that has become too dependent on technology, too disconnected from its human essence, and too far removed from nature, you will, I firmly believe, reap many benefits by simply unplugging more often. If you can become more aware, retune your instincts, and get back in touch with your intuition, you’ll become a happier, healthier human being. And the way to do this is not by outsourcing more of your decision-making to technology as part of an indoor lifestyle but by reclaiming responsibility for your wellness
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