Ep 577 | How a 10-Minute Walk Could Change Your Entire Day

Thank you for joining me today. It's Brian Gubernick, and welcome to the No Days Off Podcast, where we believe that every single day brings a new opportunity to get better. Today we are going to talk about walking, but I want you to stick with me. I promise you, you may not think that this subject is all that significant, but I promise you, it has made a massive difference in my world, and understanding this concept may make a huge impact for you as well. You want more energy, you want better focus, you want lower stress, you probably want deeper sleep. The answer might not be the next new supplement or a new planner or some other productivity hack. I believe, and I know I have found, that it could actually be a short walk. We'll call it a 10-minute walk, not on a treadmill, but outside in the morning. And forget about what I know or what I said. We're gonna lean into Andrew Huberman, who you probably have heard of before, neuroscientist, big podcast. Andrew Huberman calls walking one of the simplest and most impactful tools we have. And I wanna break down exactly why this works, how to do it right, and why I think it fits perfectly with the No Days Off lifestyle. So first, morning light, as you probably know, I mean, whether you know it or intuitively you know it, morning light sets your internal clock. Let's start with sunlight. Your body has a master clock in your brain. It's got some crazy name, supra— suprachiasmatic nucleus, I think is what it's called, and it controls almost everything. It controls your energy levels, your focus, your hormone release, sleep timing, metabolism. This clock is actually set by light, specifically by sunlight exposure to your eyes in the morning. So when you go outside, even on a cloudy day, and you let natural light hit your eyes for a few minutes, it sends a very strong wake-up signal to your brain and to your body. Your cortisol will rise in a healthy way, dopamine kicks in, and you start to feel alert. Now that kickstart helps you feel awake now, and it also sets the timer for your melatonin to release later on in the day, which helps you fall asleep when you want to. Now the key here is to make sure you do it early in the day, ideally within 60 minutes of waking up. That's walking, okay? So we're gonna walk early in the day, ideally within 60 minutes after you wake up. Now, while you're walking, there's this optic flow that calms your nervous system. Have you ever noticed like, you know, when you walk, it tends to calm your nerves? Even when you're not actually trying to relax? That's not a coincidence. When you move forward, like during a walk, your eyes take in what's called optic flow, the visual pattern of the world moving past you. So, research actually shows, and Huberman talks around this quite a bit, research shows that the optic flow reduces activity in the amygdala, which is the part of your brain responsible for fear and stress and threat detection. So, in plain English, walking literally quiets your anxiety. That's really what it does. And that's why a morning walk doesn't just wake you up, it resets your mental baseline. So you become less reactive, you're more centered, and you're more ready to take on whatever is in front of you that day. Now let's talk about movement. Walking triggers alertness and energy. Walking first thing in the morning, it starts to raise your body's core temperature, and it activates key systems in the brainstem that promote all sorts of alertness. This is your body saying, "All right, it's go time, like let's go." And that physical activation leads to better cognitive performance, a better mood, even better impulse control throughout the day. Don't overthink this. You don't have to power walk or wear a heart rate monitor. You just gotta move your body in natural daylight and let biology do its thing. Let biology take care of the rest. Lastly, you know, around this, this, this walking concept, there's this momentum you create with it. There's this mental discipline you create with it. The walk isn't just physical. It's, it's got a discipline component to it. When you walk first thing in the morning, especially, especially before you start scrolling, you start reacting to emails and all that stuff, you're actually building a rhythm. You're choosing to lead your day instead of letting your day kind of lead you. You start to create momentum, not from chaos, but, but from calm action. Now, from a No Days Off perspective, I think that's pretty powerful because it's not about intensity per se, it's about consistency. It's about mastering, call it the first 15 minutes of your day, so the next 15 hours have a fighting chance. So, so here's your takeaway today. If you want better focus, lower stress, improved sleep, greater mental resilience, start your day with a short walk, with a 10-minute, 15-minute walk outside. If you can go 20, 25, 30, more power to you. 30 would be awesome. I know it's just tough to fit in that amount of time. I know for me, I walk, you know, I get up, I have some— I hydrate, right? Like as we've talked about here before. Be it with Himalayan salt water, we have past episodes about that, or I'm using some sort of electrolyte. Bottom line, I'm hydrating, I am grabbing the dog, and I am outside walking. Right now, sun's coming up around 5:15 in the morning. I am out about 5:15, 5:30. I'm not telling everybody to get up that early. I just— that's when I get the greatest benefit. So, I am out and I am walking. I'm not bringing my phone. I'm getting sunlight in my eyes, no sunglasses. If possible, no sunglasses for you. I'm getting sunlight in my eyes. I'm letting my mind process all different sorts of things, but I'm not scrolling. I don't have a phone, and I'm just walking. I'm just moving. I'm not trying to overthink my pace. I'm not trying to move fast, not worried about my heart rate. You do not need a complicated routine. You don't need perfect weather. You just need the discipline to show up for yourself before the world starts to show up for you. If you're building something, if you're leading a team, if you're investing in your future, I think that discipline becomes a real multiplier. You start talking about, you know, collecting small wins in the morning. For many of us, being consistently out there for 15 minutes— and a dog really helps this, especially my dog, he forces me even when I may not want to go— uh, that is going to aid you in building discipline. So try this tomorrow and do me a favor, commit to it for a week, commit to it for 7 days, and see what shifts. See if it— see, see how it helps you. I'm certain it will. And when it does, I want you to let me know. Find me on Instagram, I don't care, any other social, send me an email, shoot me a text. I want to hear how walking believe it or not, might be the most significant thing you undertake if you're not consistent with it right now, and improves all sorts of things for you, things that you never even thought possible. That's all we have for you today, the No Days Off Podcast. Thank you so much for listening, and remember, every single day brings a new opportunity to get better. So let's get after it.