THE POWER OF EVERYDAY MOVEMENT:
WHY IT COUNTS
At Degree, we know that staying active isn’t always about the big workout; the small, everyday movement counts too, for your body and your mind. We partnered with Chibs Okereke (MSc Organizational Psychology) to share why a simple daily walk can do more for your stress than any perfect gym session.
Chibs is a stress and burnout coach, mindfulness expert, and former CEO. A qualified MBSR facilitator, certified clinical hypnotherapist, and meditation instructor on the Calm app, he blends neuroscience-backed strategies with his own experience of burnout to deliver practical tools for resilience. His YouTube channels draw around 3 million views a month, and he has delivered keynotes for leadership teams at Fortune 100 companies worldwide.
Read on as Chibs shares why everyday movement counts more than you think.
Years ago, when I burned out, the gym was the last place I could face. So was the run, the class, anything with a start time and a standard to meet. Walking was all I had left.
Twenty minutes around the block, most days. I didn’t do it because I believed in it. I did it because it was the only thing that didn’t feel like another demand. And looking back, those unimpressive little walks did more for my recovery than anything heroic would have.
THE ALL-OR-NOTHING TRAP
Somewhere along the line, a lot of us picked up a rule: movement only counts if it’s scheduled, strenuous, and leaves a sweat patch as proof. When we hear about the benefits of regular exercise, we picture the gym, the class, the running club.
Don’t get me wrong; those are all good things. But the rule has a cruel side effect.
The weeks that are too full for any of that are usually the weeks our stress is highest, and the rule tells us that if the perfect session isn’t on offer, we should take no session instead.
I know this trap from the inside. I travel a lot for work, giving talks on stress and burnout around the world, and the irony isn’t lost on me: traveling is one of the more stressful things I do. The jet lag, the strange beds, the routine left at home with the dogs.
The more stressed I get, the harder that rule grips. No gym, no schedule, so somehow no movement at all, in cities I could have spent an hour walking through.
I watch the high achievers I work with do the same thing constantly. It’s all-or-nothing thinking. Your body doesn’t follow that rule. It doesn’t check what you’re wearing or whether the movement was official. It just registers that you moved.
THE BENEFITS OF A DAILY WALK
These days my walking is non-negotiable. My dogs don’t care about my deadlines. The afternoon walk happens whether the work is finished or not, and somewhere along the way I stopped pretending it’s for them.
Here’s what that walk reliably does. It interrupts the sitting and the screens. It gives the day’s tension somewhere to go; the research on exercise and stress backs this up, and you don’t need intensity to get the effect. And for a lot of us, problems get a little lighter at walking pace. I’ve lost count of the knots that quietly untied themselves somewhere around the block.
Stack those up, day after day, and the benefits of walking daily start to look less like a consolation prize and more like the main event.
WHERE EVERYDAY MOVEMENT HIDES
Once movement stops needing to be impressive, you start spotting opportunities everywhere:
- Take the call on your feet. Pace the hallway, circle the block. You’ll think better, and you’ll have banked a thousand steps without noticing.
- Choose the stairs over the elevator whenever there’s a choice.
- Get off a stop early or park at the far end. The slightly annoying version of the journey is the useful one.
- Ten minutes on your feet after dinner. It’s great for digestion, and also the mind.
None of it needs an outfit, a plan, or a shower afterwards. Although, walk fast enough on a summer afternoon and you’ll still work up a sweat. That’s allowed, too.
WHY IT ALL COUNTS
I still aim to train properly, whenever life allows. But the foundation, the part that never gets canceled, is the walk. It carried me through the worst of it, 20 unimpressive minutes at a time, and these days it asks almost nothing to keep doing its job.
So, if you’re in a season where the proper workout keeps falling off the list, lower the bar without guilt. The question isn’t whether you exercised today, it’s whether you moved. Where’s the movement already hiding in your day?
HOW DO I CHOOSE THE RIGHT PRODUCT IF I HAVE MULTIPLE SWEAT CONCERNS?
Sweat shows up differently from one day to the next. A stressful morning, a hot commute, and an active afternoon each call for slightly different protection. The trick is to match the product to your main concern rather than look for one fix for everything.
If you need long-lasting sweat and odor protection, Degree Clinical Strength Antiperspirant is formulated to give you up to 96 hours of coverage. The range features MotionSense® technology, which releases freshness as you move. To find your perfect match, take this quiz.
