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Even within your home's confines, simple daily habits can potentially extend your lifespan.
The upcoming docuseries "Live to 100: Secrets of the Blue Zones," set to debut on Netflix on August 30, reveals that common activities like cleaning and gardening can rival formal exercise in terms of health benefits, decreasing disease risks and amplifying energy.
Dan Buettner, a renowned author and National Geographic explorer, delves into the lifestyles of individuals from Italy, Greece, Japan, and Costa Rica in this series. These locales, known as "Blue Zones," are home to some of the globe's longest-lived and healthiest individuals.
Despite rarely visiting gyms, Blue Zone residents showcase lower rates of ailments like diabetes and heart disease. Buettner suggests this is because they gain significant health benefits from natural movement inherent in daily chores, often unknowingly.
To emulate their lifestyle:
1. **Stay Active Indoors**: Even at home, stand and move more. Opt to sit on the floor rather than always using chairs or sofas. For instance, in the Okinawan Blue Zone in Japan, a region renowned for its centenarians, residents typically sit on floor mats. Buettner mentions some 103-year-olds who rise from a seated position up to 30 times a day, effectively doing 30 squats, strengthening their core and lower body. If your daily schedule lacks physical tasks, intersperse your day with quick exercises like pushups, planks, and squats.
2. **Keep a Clean House for Health**: In the Nicoya Blue Zone of Costa Rica, residents unintentionally engage in more effective workouts simply by doing manual household chores. Buettner explains that routine activities like housekeeping and food preparation result in "unconscious movement," which cumulatively exceeds traditional workouts. This concept, termed Non-exercise activity thermogenesis (NEAT), dominates our time more than structured gym sessions. Harnessing NEAT can simultaneously address chores and health goals.
3. **Garden for Fitness and Rest**: Gardening is a subtle yet effective way to incorporate physical activity. The docuseries notes that many Okinawans maintain gardens. Tasks such as weeding and watering promote healthy mobility and endurance without undue strain. Buettner comments, "This equates to one or two hours of gentle, low-intensity activity daily, promoting a healthy range of motion."
Adopting these strategies not only promotes a healthier lifestyle but also embodies the age-old wisdom found in the world's Blue Zones.