💪 Working out vs being active

👋 Hi, I’m Pedro Wunderlich, designer and co-founder of Wakeout. Thank you for being a subscriber. First, a few announcements:

⚡️ Last week we launched the new Wakeout Community, a place to get pumped to be active together. Check it out and become a member here.

🎯 Several hundred of you answered our survey. Thank you!! It’s been incredibly insightful and you’ve already influenced future updates. If you’d like to answer it and get a free month of Wakeout, we’re leaving it open for another week.

🔥 Today we discuss a topic that’s central to what we’re working to accomplish at Wakeout—the difference between working out and being active. I think it’ll be of great interest to many of you who seek to be healthier without having to become gym rats.

During the 70’s there’s was a bodybuilding boom. Weight lifting came into vogue and every guy wanted to look like Arnold. Then came the aerobics revolution. Cable networks would air them every day at a specific hour, or you could buy the VHS tapes that made a lot of people multi-millionaires. Now we have the CrossFit revolution, spinning classes like Peloton and Soul Cycle, and the old fashioned gym memberships.

Fads have engrained in us that you need special equipment, in a special place, during a specific period of time to get fit. Trends have sold us that we need six packs and shredded legs to feel good.

Furthermore, modern life has a tendency toward more and more comfort: food delivered straight to our homes, supermarket shopping done for us, automated cars that will take us right to the door of wherever we’re going, and unlimited entertainment that gives us little reason to leave our living rooms.

Here’s where it gets dicey. Modern life also demands more productivity from us. Longer work days, restless work weeks and soul-sucking commutes are the norm. Work has taken over your every waking hour.

It’s not surprising that over 90% of people quit the gym after 3 months. Only about half that remain go regularly. Over 50% of Americans don’t get the minimum required daily exercise. And how could they? The system is rigged against you!

If the only way to be healthy is to make time to hit the gym, but your work life is so stressful that all you want to do during breaks is get comfortable (to reduce stress)—no wonder so many people aren’t getting the exercise they need!

A paradigm change is overdue. It’s time to shift our focus from getting fit, to just being active. What’s the difference?

Working out is blocking a specified amount of time during your day to exercise. It means you’ll stop what you’re doing, have a change of clothes, go to an exercise-friendly place, and do your workout.

Having an active lifestyle, however, takes exercise and blends it into your personal situation, your habits and your surroundings. It’s about making physical activity a natural part of your daily routine. It’s embedded into your schedule. It takes advantage of all the opportunities to be active that your surroundings offer. It doesn’t need special equipment or a special workout location—your world is your gym!

What’s beautiful about having an active lifestyle is that you can continue to enjoy your current habits. There’s no real sacrifice in time because it’s embedded into your every activity. For example:

There are endless opportunities during your day to squeeze in a little activity. The more you do it, the better you feel, the more you want to do it. And since you’ve embedded physical activity into your existing routine, it’s easy to remember to get active at multiple times during the day.

How will you adopt an active lifestyle?

Discuss it in the Wakeout Community

👉 Working out vs. Being Active — Wakeout Community