Latest / The Embodiment Lab / Do You Really Need 10K Steps? Rest Days, Active Recovery & My September Step Challenge

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Do You Really Need 10K Steps? Rest Days, Active Recovery & My September Step Challenge · The Embodiment Lab

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Oftentimes, as overachievers, we find ourselves having a really, really hard time with the idea of rest.
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_00: And that is something that can absolutely be contributing to the reason why your body is not changing.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome back to the embodiment lab.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_00: My name is Addy.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_00: And today we are talking about rest.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_00: We're talking about steps.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_00: We're talking, we're talking about active recovery.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_00: We're talking about all the things.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_00: And I just want to have just honestly an open conversation and just let my thoughts fall out of my brain and into your ears.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_00: That was a really weird way to say that.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_00: But that is my personality just flowing.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_00: We're going to let her just flow.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_00: If you know me, maybe you know this, maybe you don't.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not really an Apple Watch kind of girl.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_00: I was never a Fitbit kind of girl.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_00: I was never a like step tracker kind of girl.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_00: But recently, and when I say recently, I mean like 10 days ago, for the month of September, the mentorship that I'm in for business is doing a challenge.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_00: And one of the daily non-negotiables is 10K steps.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_00: And I am like, okay, this is a challenge for 30 days.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_00: We've got to do all six of these daily non-negotiables.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_00: How do I make sure I'm actually going to do the 10K steps?
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_00: Guess I got to get a tracker.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_00: So I ordered a ring.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_00: No, not the aura ring.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_00: I did get, I don't even know what the brand is.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_00: It was like one of the first options on Amazon when I typed in ring tracker.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_00: And so far I'm really loving it.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_00: I was a little suspicious because it is$40 and it came from Amazon.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_00: But so far, I am loving it.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_00: It tracks things like step, sleep, stress, heart rate, oxygen levels, menstrual cycles, like all of these really cool things.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_00: And yeah, it's just, it's been super, super cool.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_00: But I've learned a couple things and I have solidified a few beliefs.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_00: So before getting this tracker, like I am a very active human being.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_00: I always have been, obviously growing up a dancer and then working out most of my life.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_00: Steps were never something that I really concerned myself with.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_00: I have a couple clients that do track steps.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_00: Steps are not a requirement in my program, depending on the client, obviously, because everything is very personalized to each client.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_00: But I do not track steps.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_00: And the reason for that is I've always been active.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_00: I work out five times a week.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_00: I usually walk after my workouts.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_00: I'll go for walks in the morning.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_00: Like I'm moving around.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_00: I work from home, but I move around quite a bit.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not just like parked at my desk for eight hours straight and I don't get up to walk.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_00: Like I move around quite a bit.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_00: And when I got this ring and I started tracking my steps, I realized because the first day I started tracking was on a Monday.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_00: And I realized it actually wasn't like that hard to hit like a decent amount of steps.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_00: I would say I probably hit about like 8K steps that day without really trying too hard.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_00: That first day I was just trying to see, like, okay, like naturally moving, going to the gym, moving around my apartment, you know, doing my normal things.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_00: How many steps do I get without really trying?
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_00: And I was getting about like seven to eight K steps.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_00: And then the next day I was like, okay, we got to kick this up a notch.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_00: How are we going to make sure that we get the rest of them to get to 10K steps?
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_00: So at first I was like, 10K steps is like such an easy goal until I did it a couple more days and went, wait a second, this takes a little bit of effort.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_00: So what I've learned is I think 10K steps for most individuals is actually a really decent goal.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_00: Because as long as you're not just like sitting at a desk for eight hours and not actually moving and you're moving around throughout the day, it's not too hard to hit seven to eight K steps.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_00: 10K is that line where it's like, okay, we got to actually be a little bit more intentional, a bit more strategic about hitting the 10K steps, which is part of why I do actually really like that goal of hitting 10K steps because you got to be a little bit more intentional about it, which challenges you to get a little bit more active.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_00: It challenges you to take the long route to get places, it challenges you to park at the back of the parking lot.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_00: Different things like that.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_00: You're just being a little bit more intentional about okay, when am I gonna go for some walks?
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_00: And I love that about it.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_00: I love that.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_00: But my first weekend with this tracker was this past weekend, and I got pissed off because it was really freaking hard to hit 10K steps on a weekend where I just want to be a couch potato.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_00: And you might be listening to this going, Haddy, duh, you're not moving, you're on the couch, you're not getting steps in.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_00: Duh.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_00: And yeah, I realize that.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_00: But this is a struggle that a lot of my clients have.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_00: And a lot of women that feel that they need to be constantly in motion to get results have a hard time with the idea of rest days.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_00: And I've gotten this question often, pretty often, from clients of like, what do you do on rest days?
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_00: What do you think of active rest days?
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_00: And I've always told them, like, if you want to get your steps in, you want to stretch, you want to do some core, you want to do whatever, like, go for it.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_00: I don't see any harm in that.
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_00: And for me, I've always just taken my rest days as like couch potato days.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I don't really do active rest days.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I want to just rest.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_00: And so that's kind of how I've approached it.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_00: It's been a very loose approach to rest days until this past weekend, where your weekends, my weekends at least, are times for me to recharge mentally and to recharge physically.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_00: On a Sunday, I don't want to remove myself from the couch unless I have to.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_00: So on a Sunday, I would probably get maybe, I haven't tracked it yet, maybe two to four K steps, maybe.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that's completely okay.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_00: Completely okay.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_00: Especially if you are somebody who is doing a lot, your job is very demanding, you have a lot of chores to do around the house, you're taking care of other people, you're going to the gym five, maybe six days a week.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_00: It is completely okay to take a full rest day and absolutely relax.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_00: Completely okay.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_00: I don't think one day, even two days, where you are out of the gym is going to set you back.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, it's not.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_00: It's not gonna set you back, it's not going to ruin anything.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_00: It's going to be so good for you.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_00: Because if you are constantly in motion and constantly moving and constantly doing things, at some point, that is overload for your body, and it's going to contribute to some inflammation.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_00: Whereas if you were to rest, give your body a chance to recover, reset, fuel yourself, and allow that food to go into your body and help you recover, then you might flush out a lot of that inflammation.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_00: And this isn't giving you permission to just be a lazy couch potato five days out of the week.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_00: No, like still get in your workouts, still get in your steps, but actually let rest days be rest days.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_00: Now I have decided that as soon as September is done, I will be going back to my full-on rest days, and I will not give a shit about hitting a step count on my rest days, which are at this point in time, Thursdays and Sundays.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_00: I will not.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_00: But until the challenge is over, because I am a girl of my word, and I will be hitting the 10K steps for every single day of September.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I will be getting in my steps on Sundays and Thursdays.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_00: But this solidified my belief that no, rest days are like meant to be lazy days.
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_00: Like be lazy.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_00: Give yourself permission to be lazy and understand that it's not just being lazy and lazy equals unproductive.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_00: If you are hitting your workouts, rest is so productive.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_00: The only time that rest becomes unproductive is when you have too much of it.
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_00: Put that on a t-shirt.
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_00: That's good.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_00: But take your rest.
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_00: I'm giving you full-on permission to rest.
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_00: And I stand on that.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_00: Anyways, I think that's all that is coming out of my brain on the concept of steps and rest.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_00: So we're gonna keep this short and sweet and cut it off there.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_00: If you have any questions about anything that I talked about today, you're more than welcome to message me on Instagram.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_00: I love chatting with you guys about the podcast.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_00: But that is it for today's episode.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_00: I hope you enjoyed and I will chat with you in the next episode.
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_00: Bye.