Stacking Your Life
What’s the largest unrenewable resource? Time.
What are we always running out of? Time.
What do we wish we had more of? Time.
I can’t add more minutes to your day, but I can teach you a little trick to help you free up some more of your time.
Interested?
Ok, here it goes:
It’s called “Stacking Your Life.”
What are the big categories we have to accomplish to get through life every day?
Food
Shelter
Sleep/Rest
Community
Movement
Family
Nature
Transportation
Work
Play
We tend to separate each category and not combine them. I don’t really know why, except maybe we thought we were saving time by checking off one thing at a time?
What if we rolled the list up and combined at least two categories together? Then our list would go from 10 items to check off to 5. Automatic time saver!
Here’s an example I just did today:
My Family and I Went Apple Picking
This checks off the categories of Food and Family. But guess what? Since it involved playing at an outdoor pumpkin patch, there was a lot of movement and it was outside in nature. So technically it checks off Movement and Nature too.
One experience checked off four categories in two hours!
Conversely, I could have shopped at the store for apples, played a board game with the kids, taken a yoga class and sat outside and checked the same four boxes. The difference is, it would have taken a lot more time and resources.
Starting to get it?
Here’s another example:
Backyard BBQ Party
This checks off the categories of Food and Community. And since it’s outside, it also checks off Nature. If a guest is laying in a hammock, that checks off Rest. If kids are running around and playing, that checks off Movement and Play. All of these activities can happen simultaneously, versus separating the categories and doing one task at a time.
The more we can “Stack Our Life,” the more time we can save. Pretty cool, right?
Life example:
My Daily Commute
I commute by train to work and walk approximately 10 minutes to the train. I deliberately walk through a wide median with natural terrain, trees and wood chips. Then, when I’m on the train, I answer emails and social media for the day. That checks off #5, #7, #8 and #9. It’s built into my day, so I don’t even have to think about it.
Boom! Saved gobs of time by just going to work!
When you make your schedule for the week, see if you can be more deliberate and find opportunities to stack your life!
Having taught Pilates for over 20 years, let’s take that same principle of “Stacking Your Life” and apply it to exercise.
When you work out, the big categories you want to address are:
Strength
Mobility
Balance
Endurance
You could go for a run and check off Endurance. Then lift weights and check off Strength. But how can you “Stack Your Exercise” and combine multiple categories for the best time management, as well as workout results?
Enter Pilates and Restorative Exercise. Pilates is well known for its core and posture work, and Restorative Exercise provides corrective exercises to bring more natural movement to your life.
Combine the two and you get a great crossover practice of stretching, strengthening, ways to layer natural movement into your daily routine, and how to properly align your parts for optimal results.
Here’s an example:
Cat
This powerhouse exercise is sneaky hard and can work lots of areas of your body, by just holding the shape. In Classical Pilates, Cat is usually about flexing (rounding) and extending (back bending) your spine which checks off the category of Mobility. As a bonus, your arms and legs are working to hold your spine up so that checks off Strength.
In the Restorative Exercise version of Cat, you float a hand off the floor, which is shockingly hard. Since you’re loading a single arm in this version of Cat, you’ll elevate your heart rate and check off Endurance. And then because you’re teetering on three points you’ll check off Balance.
You’ve gotta love when an exercise checks off every box! That’s great Stacking!
Another example:
Rolling Like a Ball
This Classical Pilates exercise is where you sit on the floor, make your body into a ball, and rock back and forth. It’s incredibly functional because it’s a way to get up off the floor. Rolling Like a Ball checks off Mobility by loosening up your spine and Strength by engaging your abdominals.
The Restorative Exercise version of this has you rolling around in a circle, which is fun and difficult. This variation challenges the obliques and stretches each side of the back. As a result, this exercise checks off the category of Balance because one direction of the circle tends to feel less coordinated than the other. Both are great ways to “Stack Your Exercise.”
Lastly:
Walking While Carrying a Heavy Object
While not a Classical Pilates exercise and more of a Restorative Exercise movement, carrying something heavy is a great way to check all the boxes. Consider walking as a Macronutrient. We need to do as much walking as we can throughout the day so that checks off the categories of Mobility and Endurance. Add carrying a heavy object, and you can check off Strength and Balance.
Carry a basket instead of pushing a cart at the grocery store. When you’re at the zoo, forgo the stroller and carry your child when they get tired. When you’re traveling, carry a duffle bag versus rolling a suitcase.
These are simple, life-friendly ways to “Stack Your Exercise” and thus “Stack Your Life.” The more you can cross-train your workouts to address the four categories above, the better your workout. And then, if you can incorporate that workout into your daily life, you’ll get a double stack, which is an amazing time saver!!
What are some ways you can “Stack Your Life?”