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Wellness

Wellness practices worth keeping

Your hour on the table matters. So do the other hundred and sixty-seven. These are the things we find ourselves talking about most with clients — the small, doable ones that actually hold.

Take the one that fits the week you're having. You don't need all of them, and you don't need them today.

Movement

Move 150 minutes a week

Aim for 150 minutes of moderate activity a week, plus two days of strength work.

The federal Physical Activity Guidelines ask adults for 150 minutes of moderate-intensity activity each week — that's 30 minutes, five days — or 75 minutes of vigorous activity, plus muscle-strengthening work on at least 2 days that covers legs, hips, back, abdomen, chest, shoulders and arms. You can break the 150 minutes into any pieces that fit your life; going beyond it earns you more benefit, not less.

Source: CDC — Adult Activity: An Overview

Movement

Break up long sitting

Stand or walk 2–5 minutes for every 20–60 minutes of sitting.

US adults sit for an average of 7.7 hours a day, and the first guideline for adults is simply to move more and sit less — sedentary time is strongly linked to all-cause mortality, heart disease and high blood pressure. Short breaks of 2–5 minutes of standing or walking for every 20–60 minutes of sitting are associated with better cardiometabolic markers. If you work at a desk, this is the single easiest change to make.

Source: ODPHP — Physical Activity Guidelines Q&A

Rest

Protect seven hours of sleep

Adults 18–60 need at least 7 hours a night. Same bedtime, same wake time.

The CDC recommends adults aged 18–60 sleep at least 7 hours each night. Sleeping less is associated with higher risk of obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure, coronary heart disease, stroke, frequent mental distress and all-cause mortality — and in 2024, 30.5% of adults were averaging under 7 hours. What actually helps: go to bed at the same time each night, rise at the same time each morning, and take televisions, computers and phones out of the bedroom.

Source: CDC — Sleep in Adults

Rest

Walk today, sleep better tonight

Even a 10-minute walk improves how you sleep.

Exercise improves sleep, and the threshold is far lower than most people assume — the CDC notes that even a 10-minute walk during the day will improve your sleep, and more is better. If you are lying awake at night, the fix often belongs to the afternoon.

Source: CDC — Tips to Improve Your Sleep

Mind

Give stress somewhere to go

Mindfulness practice has real, measured effects on stress, anxiety and sleep.

This is not wishful thinking. A 2023 randomized trial of 208 people found mindfulness-based stress reduction was noninferior to escitalopram, a first-line medication for anxiety disorders. A 2021 review of 23 studies covering 1,815 adults with diagnosed anxiety found mindfulness-based interventions reduced anxiety in the short term, and a 2019 review found moderately strong evidence that mindfulness meditation improved sleep quality in people with sleep disturbance. NCCIH notes these practices usually carry few risks.

Source: NIH NCCIH — Meditation and Mindfulness

Bodywork

Massage measurably lowers stress

Blood pressure, cortisol and oxygen consumption all drop — after as little as 10 minutes.

Massage reduces stress on both the physical and psychological level. In controlled studies, oxygen consumption, blood pressure and salivary cortisol were all lower after a 10 to 15 minute chair massage, and just 10 minutes of massage produced significant increases in heart rate variability — a marker of the body shifting out of fight-or-flight. You do not need a long session to change your physiology.

Source: AMTA — Massage Therapy Can Relieve Stress

Bodywork

Bodywork for low back pain

Massage can reduce low back pain, the disability that comes with it, and the anxiety around it.

Research indicates massage therapy can decrease low back pain, reduce the disability associated with it, and lower the anxiety and depression that travel with chronic pain. In a study comparing massage to progressive muscle relaxation, the massage group reported less pain, less depression and anxiety, and better sleep. This is what a Therapeutic session is built for — tell your therapist exactly where it hurts.

Source: AMTA — Massage Therapy Can Be Effective for Low Back Pain

Nutrition

Drink water on purpose

Dehydration shows up as headaches and foggy thinking long before thirst feels urgent.

Adequate water intake is essential for preventing dehydration, which is associated with headache, kidney stones and impaired cognition. Interestingly, people who meet the 150-minutes-a-week activity recommendation also drink significantly more water — the two habits pull each other along. Keep a bottle where you actually sit; the trips to refill it double as your movement breaks.

Source: CDC — Preventing Chronic Disease: Drinking Water Intake

Book the hour your body keeps asking for

Everything above is for the days in between. When you're ready for the hour itself, it's yours — customized to the body you walk in with.

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