Want More Energy And Better Health? Do This…

Episode Resources

• Listen to ‘Open Wide’
• Watch the ‘Open Wide’ music video
• Oura Ring
• Earth Runners
• Born To Run by Christopher McDougall

Welcome back to The Nick Broadhurst Show. I’m your host, Nick Broadhurst. You can catch all of my work at www.iamnickbroadhurst.com and that includes all of my podcasts, all of my music, my music videos, blog posts, basically everything that I do is on that site.

And if you listen to Spotify, head to iamnickbroadhurst.com/spotify and that will take you straight to my artist profile where you can hear more of my music. But of course, wherever you listen to music, just search for Nick Broadhurst and you can check out all of my tunes.

That song we were just listening to is my latest single, Open Wide, and it’s about my wife and I, about the challenge of staying open wide in a relationship. What I’m going to talk about today is one thing that always opens me up, it always fills me with energy and gratitude. Today, I want to share with you one simple thing which you can do which will have a more profound effect on your life than any fancy superfood ever can.

My intention is always to present ideas and strategies that at times may be pretty damn sexy. I know there’s some pretty cool stuff that we get to talk about and some things might be totally new to you, while others might just seem pretty obvious and a bit boring. Here’s the thing. The obvious and sometimes boring things are often the most powerful yet the most ignored.

This kind of comes back to my episode I did the other day about the simple things being easy to do and also easy not to do. You might say, all right, come on Broadhurst, give me the sexy stuff. But in my mind some of this most simple stuff is the sexy stuff, the stuff that you can do right now starting today that will absolutely 100% impact your health and your mindset in a massive way. And that’s what I’m here to do, I’m here to show you the shortcuts.

Today we’re going to talk about 10,000 steps. Now, you may have heard of this before, it’s kind of like a basic benchmark of human movement. This is not so much about fitness. This in my humble opinion is a basic, super basic daily movement requirement. Just like drinking water. There are certain things that our bodies need in order to just be optimal to stay in balance and movement is absolutely one of those things.

Why is 10,000 steps good for us? See, moving our body is obviously a good thing, but in a world where so many of us are sitting for so much of the time getting tight hip flexors and shorter hamstrings, walking allows you to basically counteract that. It gives your legs and hips a good stretch with every single step while at the same time it’s pumping oxygen-rich blood through your body.

I’m going to talk about movement a lot more in my upcoming longevity series and this is going to focus on people who live through a hundred and beyond. Like what are they doing that helps them get there? Movement, funny enough, is a key thing.

Another key part of movement is that it has a lot to do with the lymphatic system, and if you’re not familiar with how the lymphatic system works and what it is, it’s basically a network of tissues and organs that helps the body get rid of those yucky toxins and waste and all those unwanted nasties.

The primary function of the lymphatic system is to support lymph. Lymph is a fluid that contains infection-fighting white blood cells and it goes around the body. How do we pump lymph through the body? This is through musculoskeletal contraction by moving our bodies.

So, if you’re not moving enough, guess what? All those yucky toxins are hanging around and that’s where disease can start in the body. Is that starting to make sense? I know it’s very simple. It’s not rocket science. Sometimes the simple things we just don’t do them.

On top of that, there have been countless studies on the benefits of walking. But just for you scientific folk out there, here are a few facts for you. There was one study which found that walking for just two miles a day or more can cut your chances of hospitalization from a severe episode of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease by about half. Come on now. How simple is that?

Another study found that daily walking reduced the risk of stroke in men over the age of 60. Walking for an hour or two can cut a man’s stroke risk by as much as one-third. It doesn’t matter how brisk the walking pace was, just that you are taking the time to walk. If you took three hours of walking each day, it slashed the risk by two-thirds. Two-thirds. Seriously.

Chronic sitting, you might like to know, has a mortality rate similar to smoking. How freakin scary is that? The simplest way to avoid these negative health effects is to basically sit less. You can get a stand-up desk for example, but try and sit less. Try and sit for less than three hours a day if you can.

But if sitting is part of your everyday, like it is for most people, then we have to move our butts. We’ve got to walk. We’re not talking about exercise or talking about just basic movement. Obviously we’ll be doing our other exercise on top of that to keep us strong, like resistance training. Taking a walk during your lunch hour can have a significant impact on your mood and help you reduce work related stress which so many people battle with work related stress.

If you’re wondering how long this all takes to do 10,000 steps, for me it’s about 1 hour of pretty brisk walking. I’ve measured this with what is called an Oura Ring. It’s a pretty fancy pants piece of tech that you wear on your finger and it measures everything from movement to sleep patterns and recovery. I’ll link to that in today’s show notes at iamnickbroadhurst.com/38.

I absolutely love, love, love this piece of technology. It’s so cool. They just brought out a new model which is even slimmer and smaller and looks pretty awesome actually. Definitely check that out if you are into biohacking and a bit of a geek like me.

But if you just want to know if you’re getting your 10,000 steps, my general recommendation is just aim for about an hour of walking on top of your normal everyday activity because you’ll probably do about 3,000 steps anyway. If you do about an hour, you should get in that 7,000 to 10,000 step range.

If you want to take it up a notch, here is a power tip. Go barefoot. Going barefoot allows your body to absorb the free electrons from the earth through the soles of your feet. You’ve probably heard of the practice known as grounding. That’s what we’re talking about. These electrons have powerful antioxidant effects that can protect your body for inflammation and in the world we live in, my dear friends, information is a real problem.

Anything we can do to help information is a massive plus. If you’re fortunate enough to live near the beach or near the bush or the woods and you can walk barefoot, although in Australia walking through the bush in barefoot is probably not a good idea; you might meet some nasty deadly animal along the way, but just getting your feet in the dirt or on the sand is awesome.

But there is a little power hack I’ve got for you which I love and that is, you can look at getting a pair of Earth Runners. Earth Runners are what I wear to walk and run in, and these are sandals that are based on the basic leather sandals that were worn by the famous Tarahumara Tribe of Northern Mexico.

They were brought into the spotlight by the incredible book, Born to Run. If you haven’t read it, it’s so, so good. I’ll link to it in today’s show notes at iamnickbroadhurst.com/38, as well as a link to buy your very own pair of Earth Runners. They’re a cool, cool company.

Basically they’re sandals, but they hook around your feet in a way which makes them amazing to running and to walking. They’ve got copper plugs in the sole and then that plug attaches to copper stitching that goes through the straps that touches your skin so that you’re constantly connected to the earth’s field and grounded while walking or running.

This is really, really cool and I actually don’t wear shoes anymore. Very very rarely do I wear shoes walking or running, maybe in winter when it’s cold, but I absolutely love my Earth Runners.

Another little tip when you’re walking, put on Spotify, listen to my music, #shamelessplug. Or even better, don’t even take your phone. I don’t take my phone. Use that as technology free time. It’s pretty cool. It’s amazing what creativity bubbles up when you just give your space the time to go out for a walk. And I’ll tell you what, I have the best ideas when I’m walking. In fact, the whole Open Wide Tour concept between Melissa and I, which we recently finished touring around Australia, that came into us on a walk and it became a real thing.

I hope you enjoyed that today. It’s a very simple tip but it’s a very important tip. It’s something which we should all aim for because we all need to move our bodies and we all want to take care of our beautiful earth suit.

Please, if you get a chance, I would be forever grateful if you could head into iTunes and leave me a 5-star review and tell me what you want more of. I am totally at your service and totally open to your feedback. If you can share this with one person today or on your social media using the handle @IAmNickBroadhurst so I can see it and I will personally respond. I promise.

Remember today to look up, see the beauty around you when you go for your daily walk. See the beauty within you. Be gentle with yourself. Be loved. Move your body with love. Listen to your intuition today, so important. And as always, have a beautiful day. I love you heaps. Ciao.

I would love to hear from you, so please tag me @IAmNickBroadhurst on social media, and use the hashtag #TheNickBroadhurstShow, or leave me a comment below (I read every single one!). And if you could take a minute to leave me a 5 star review on iTunes I would be very grateful.