I was talking with my housemate about how to be more physically active if you’re not used to it at all because everywhere you’re told to start a training routine where you push yourself a little every day, and while that may seem easy for some people it can be really fucking daunting if you start from zero.

As someone who comes from a very physically active family that doesn’t exercise just for the sake of exercising but do things like walk to the grocery store and bike to work, here’s my advice that has always worked for me:

Go super duper easy on yourself.

If you want to walk more start by walking for 3 or 5 minutes. The shortest possible walk you feel you’re capable of. A trip around the block or across the yard. You don’t need to sweat or get your blood pumping. Just a short stroll. The hardest part is to convince yourself to set aside 5 minutes every day to go on this short walk but nothing else about it should be hard. Do it every day and one day you’ll realize that you don’t want to go home just yet. It’s very important that you don’t think “I want to pressure myself to walk further” but rather “I haven’t spent all my walking energy yet. I have more walk in me” and only then do you lengthen the walk. I repeat, at no point should it be exhausting or difficult because even when it feels easy your body will be building muscle and stamina and it will eventually feel too easy and you’ll naturally want to crank it back up to easy again.

If you’re not used to being physically active it might not make a ton of sense when I say that you’ll have more walking energy left but trust me, you’ll get it when you get there.

I grew up with going on evening walks with my parents and passed that on to other housemates who didn’t get it at first but are now going on walks long after they moved somewhere else. Because once you get the hang of it you’ll realize how calming it is on the brain to move the body even if the body isn’t exhausted afterwards.

And it of course helps to entertain yourself especially in the beginning. My housemate started out listening to audiobooks and podcasts but eventually realized Pokémon Go was the best motivator. Whatever you feel like you want to do on your 5 minute easy stroll.

to add to this, you literally don't even need to go outside if the thought of getting dressed and "presentable" sounds like too much work to do or the risk of being perceived by other people or having to socialize sounds too stressful every single day for just 5 minutes of walking. it does for me, so i just... don't bother with all of that. i do my walks INDOORS‼

so long as you have a path to walk through your house you have a place to take a 5 minute walk, just pace around back and forth or trace circles around your breakfast bar or something while you're waiting for food to cook or writing on your phone — i do recommend distracting yourself heavily like that, and preferably in some kind of brain-engaging activity that you actively have to think about, so you aren't thinking about the passage of time cause thinking about time makes it go slower. and this way you don't even have to set aside time for it! just do it while you do something else, you can watch that food you're cooking while you walk! use that dish you're microwaving as a timer!

fresh air is good for you, sure, but your muscles don't know the difference between walking indoors or outdoors, and if you're indoors you don't have to worry about getting sweaty where other people can see you, and you can immediately stop and sit down if you need to anytime you want, and you have water and ice and maybe air conditioning or a fan. and once you get stronger walking indoors, walking OUTdoors will also become easier and less unpredictable

it is *surprisingly* easy for me, a guy with ehlers danlos who gets little other exercise than just pacing around, to bang out a full hour, hour and a half of walking while completely zoned in writing something— i'm literally doing it right now while typing this post. it's been 25 minutes i haven't even noticed. i am fresh out of the shower hair wet wearing pajamas. doesn't matter. i'm indoors. i can do as long of a walk as i please and not have to worry about looking "presentable" or overestimating my limits and being too tired to make it back home