Someone e-mailed me the other day:

Would it be bad to only do exercise you like even if it’s not a balance of cardio/strength/different modes of moving? Like would doing just yoga or only running be a bad way to be an active person?

Anonymous

Let’s address the fact that the person used the word “bad” twice in their question. I don’t think this says anything about the questioner – I think it says a lot, however, about how we culturally frame our mental approach to exercise, weight, and health. Let’s just quickly reaffirm the fact that there is no bad way to be active, and move on.

What they’re really asking is: “Is it possible to yield good physical returns if your exercise portfolio is all invested in one stock?”

This is a great question!

As usual, my answer has some caveats attached. Let’s explore!

First of all, yes, it is possible to be healthy and to be active and really, really focus in one domain of exercise, like yoga or running. In fact, most people who exercise will have an inclination toward one specific activity.

For me, it’s running. I absolutely love to both walk and run. In fact, if I had to choose that I could either never weight train or never run again, I would definitely pick running as my forever exercise.

But the problem with doing only one kind of exercise over and over is that it limits you in three ways:

• Repetitive, unvarying exercise tends to create a “perfect storm” for nagging overuse injuries and discomforts.
• It stops being as effective – your body will quickly adapt to a specific activity and you will not continue making progress if you don’t vary your program
• Depending on the type of exercise you favor, you will have major blind spots in terms of strength, flexibility, or cardiovascular health.

Let’s dive into the solutions for these three problems!

#1 Preventing Overuse Injuries

First, to really enjoy being active, injury prevention is incredibly important.

To avoid injuries from overdoing your preferred type of movement, it’s essential that you do two things: take rest days, and do at least 1-2 sessions per week that are a different kind of exercise that addresses your weak spots.

So if your preferred type of exercise is running, it really benefits you not to run every day, and to do some strength and flexibility training a few times a week.

If your preferred type of exercise is yoga, it would help you to take 1-2 sessions per week to throw in some cardio and strength training.

If your preferred type of exercise is a HIIT class like CrossFit, it’s a smart idea to take rest days, and also do some lower-intensity exercise like easy cardio.

#2 Preventing Unwanted Plateaus in Progress

Sometimes, adaptation is good. Otherwise, our preferred activity would never get easier. Every run would feel just as hard as the first one, accomplishing increasingly difficult yoga poses would be impossible, and we would never make any progress in lifting weights.

But to some degree, adaptation is also a negative, because it means we stop making progress (or it dramatically slows down) if we don’t intentionally switch things up, even within our preferred type of exercise.

For example, if your preferred type of exercise is HIIT strength classes, those classes may be fun, but you’re not going to keep getting stronger and fitter unless you build variety into your schedule so that you have the gas in the tank to keep increasing the intensity of your HIIT workouts.

When I coach runners, for example, I always make sure that we approach running from many different angles – long runs, fast runs, hard runs, easy runs, sprints, and speed play. This helps runners continue to make progress without stalling out at a particular speed or distance.

#3 Using “Minimum Effective Dose”

Finally, for people who particularly enjoy one type of exercise, I recommend that they adopt a “minimum effective dose” mindset for your other types of exercise. In other words, if running is your pleasure, then only do strength training and yoga as much as is needed to benefit your primary exercise (running).

Diversifying your exercise portfolio doesn’t mean that you need to spend hours and hours doing a type of exercise you don’t enjoy. Think of it more as taking a pill – if you’re a runner, taking your weekly “prescription” of a glute strength training session will make you a better runner. You don’t need to do that much of it, but it does need to happen.

Exercise should be enjoyable and rewarding – otherwise we won’t stick with it. Find the types of activity you enjoy and go hard in that direction, but use the tips from this blog post to include balance, as well. By including little bits of your non-favorite types of training, you will be even better at the activity you really enjoy, and will be a fitter, healthier person overall.