The Best Workout Is Still the One You’ll Actually Do

Like everyone else at the peak of COVID, my husband and I bought a Peloton bike with the purest of intentions. We’d ride every day from the comfort of our own home, it would pay for itself in less than a year, and we’d become the kind of people who casually referenced our ride streaks in conversation.

Five years later, the bike has technically paid for itself — thanks entirely to my cardio-loving husband — while I’ve mostly used it as a very expensive coat hanger. Meanwhile, I exercise at least four days a week, rotating between Pilates, strength training, and walking, just not on the piece of equipment that once symbolized my fitness aspirations.

For a long time, I framed this as some kind of personal failure, as if not loving cardio meant I wasn’t doing exercise right. Which is why two recent studies felt unexpectedly reassuring. One found that even a brief burst of intense exercise (as little as ten minutes!) releases molecules into the bloodstream that help switch on DNA repair and shut down cancer growth signals. Another showed that exercise variety, not just volume, is linked to a lower risk of premature death. 

Translation: your body doesn’t actually care how you move, only that you do.

There’s something deeply freeing about that. Permission, maybe, to stop forcing ourselves into workout identities that don’t fit, or chasing whatever form of movement happens to be most optimized, viral, or aesthetically pleasing at the moment. Consistency, it turns out, doesn’t come from discipline alone; it comes from enjoyment, from choosing movement that feels sustainable rather than aspirational.

We already spend so much energy trying to “hack” our health. Maybe this is one place we can ease up. If you love running, run. If you hate it, don’t. If Pilates feels grounding and walking clears your head, that counts — apparently, it all does.

It makes me wonder if the healthiest shift isn’t actually exercising more, but judging ourselves a little less.