It starts with moving
I feel the heat, but I'm not burning
‘Falling’ lyrics, by Haim.
Introduction
I feel I was raised in a generation where exercise was used to lose weight and get skinny. But I love everything sport, always have, always will. And so I have struggled with this idea of exercise.
What if instead, so long as you move, as you were designed to and shouldn’t have lost in the first place, you’d never really need to exercise?!
Exercise
Which is well and good if you haven’t lost it, I guess. If you have, now is the time to get it back. Start today, You’ll only feel great. All the time!
Most people think exercise is a one hour session, three times a week kind of thing to get done and dusted. Of course, you’ll go through cycles of committing and losing interest - but what does that mean for your body, especially the stiff parts or others in need of some anti-stagnation; it’s restrictive yet addictive - so you’ll love what you can do and avoid what you can’t which isn’t really benefiting you, only making your strengths stronger and weaknesses weaker and injury is inevitable then; and mindlessly robotic - our minds are always on overdrive and this time could be used to calm down and focus on probably the most important thing in your life (you!). It stresses your body and will eventually wear you down.
Movement
So why is movement different? It’s moving better for longer with more energy and less stiffness (which simply means your energy is being used for something else rather than feeling great in your body). By assessing your own body and where it’s at each time you go to move - whether to move from sitting too long, going for a long walk, taking up a new sport like skateboarding, sport climbing, surfing, tennis, whatever your jam, move to love it more and more and then some!
(side note: I trained and ran the NYC marathon (3x!) but each training session wasn’t going to be so exhaustive that I couldn’t function in my everyday life, right to the moments after the actual race when I finished, in 3.30, had some food and a nap, then went ice skating in Central Park. Now that’s a marathon adventure!).
Training movements not muscles is truly functional and the flow over into our lives should be seamless or at least regressively useful. Movement is training for the sake of moving, moving better, moving well, moving to feel into and uplevel your potential as a human
Cardio
So what about cardio? While I have run (and more so trained for!) numerous NYC marathons, I do not include cardio per se into my training. I do not run weekly and even if it’s pouring, I never run on treadmills. It took me a long time to shake that habit I had trained into myself.
So what now? Yesterday I ran efforts at the Palm Beach sand dunes. If you know Sydney and you know where I’m talking about I hope you’ll agree it’s just somewhere you simply cannot help but run.
And then this week as the sunset is getting later and later, I skipped with my son after my mum had bought us both glow in the dark skipping ropes. I mean who couldn’t! Glow in the dark!
And then I have to admit I am lucky enough to live on the top floor of an apartment block, and as I have a 7yo, we often run the stairs, in 2s or 3s of course. Because it’s what you do, right?
So cardio?
To me it’s something I need but not so much to train. I do it to see that I still can, and becasue I need to in my everyday life.
Strength
From a physiological standpoint the body thrives under resistance. If we think about this in terms of muscle, our body needs resistance in the form of tension to grow.
Conversely, a car doesn't go anywhere when it’s just parked and the engine is running (and the battery will eventually die!). Eventually failure to put in motion means it won’t start due to lack of input. And just like cars, humans are designed to drive, not sit parked, too.
Without stress, we too atrophy (waste).
We all need to progressively overload and we all should be looking to keep, gain back or progressively move through a full range of motion, exercise terms still with a very real role in movement. We gotta get a little bit of stress , and in different ways or we stagnate. A life with friction is a life with growth.
And on the topic of stress, which has such a negative connotation in our worldview these days, your internal narrative is yours: instead of saying, ‘omg I’m so stressed’, do all the things you need and want to do to gain that next level with your name on it, and say ‘bring it, let’s go!’
To do today
Start.
But where do you start today? When I workout, I work out what I need. Workout, as in work it out: not to get rid of something inside you but to discover what you can do with what you have and then work from there, becoming more able rather than less, with age, training to move cos you’re human.
Go to your level, where you’re at today. Go with that.
Bend your knees and touch your toes right now. How’s it feel? Where’s it tight (or feel good?)
Next bend your knees some more and really push your butt out the back and feel the backs of your legs. Now stand back up and touch your toes. How’s that feel? Any different, better, more tightness?
Trying touching your toes one more time (for this movement snack!) and tense your thighs by imagining turning them inwards, then lean forward a little. Now try touching your toes. Any different?
Congrats you’ve just moved (your spine in a frontal plane) today
You’re your own self assessing genius. We don’t need machines to train. Human bodies are the ultimate machine - seeing what you can do and upleveling that to see what the next level with your name on it really it. You’re in the driving seat of the ultimate machine. Go for it. Your way, like no one else can see, touch or feel. You’ll know your limits, you’ll feel them. And then feel great. Cos it’s good to feel great. (And then share that with others cos feeling great is even greater with friends).
