Rethink Movement, Physical Activity and Exercise
Our relationship with movement, and thus the relationship with our body, has been affected by messages about physical activity and exercise. Most people know they should. Most people struggle with doing it. Before you head into the New Year, ensure you start well with anything you are doing for your health with a healthy relationship with your body by getting back to the core meaning of moving. In this article, I invite you to step back from the way you currently think about moving, physical activity, and exercise to ensure you start well and stay strong as you move into the new year.
Any time the body turns energy into muscle action, movement occurs. That muscle action can range from the barely noticeable movement of breathing to dancing at a concert like nobody is watching.
Movement happens from the two-way connection between your nervous system and musculoskeletal system. These two systems work together with incredible synchronicity to create movement, whether that movement is automatic or intentional.
Automatic movements are created through the autonomic nervous system. Automatic movements include breathing, your heart beating, your food digesting, or your hand yanking away from a hot stove. These automatic movements of our body adjust depending on signals from our sympathetic (fight/flight) and parasympathetic (rest/repair) nervous systems. Fortunately, we don't have to think about these types of internal movements or we would use all our energy to just survive.
Intentional movement occurs when we think about doing something such as picking up a pen and writing a note. To turn that thought into action, our brain sends the specific signal through the exact nervous system pathway that reaches the exact muscles to move the exact joints that turn into the movements of writing. The first time you try any such movement, it is awkward and clumsy because this nerve pathway has not been fully developed yet. But, with practice intentional movements become smooth and fluid.
Pause to think about that for a moment. These simple movements you do without thinking are the result of a complex and intricate pathway that has developed between your brain, nerves, and muscles through intentional practice. Pretty incredible, huh?
This intentional brain-body connection through nerve pathways is called muscle memory. It is a feature of the brain and body that allows you to conserve brain energy for doing the movements you do often. That means you can have more energy left over for more complex and novel intentional movements.
Another word commonly used for intentional movement is physical activity. There are two types. Most of our intentional movement is done to complete tasks in our daily lives like working, cleaning, or shopping. These activities can also be broadened to create novel movements that allow us to enjoy more of life like playing a game with grandkids or learning a new dance step.
When intentional movement is done to improve a specific set of skills for your brain and/or body, it is called exercise.
Pause for a moment and notice what images, thoughts, and emotions come up when you hear or see the word exercise. Notice what your body feels like when you think of the word. This mindset has been shaped over many years, images, and experiences. Studies show mindsets shape habits and thus determine if your goals will lead you toward or away from being well and thus being healthy.
Exercise is the other type of intentional movement. It is moving for a specific purpose. Just like when you practice something for the specific purpose of improving a specific skill, it is done regularly to make progress or see improvements.
Exercising could mean you are practicing specific movements to enhance athletic performance, rehabilitate a part of the body after an injury, reestablish health after a heart attack or illness, or change brain chemistry to improve emotional states or think with greater focus and clarity. Practice is intentional. Like with anything else, how well and fast you progress depends on how you practice, not just that you practice.
As you are Celebrating December Well and mulling over your New Year goals, resolutions, and habits, consider your thoughts about what you want for your body's skills. Before you even call it exercise. Start with a specific purpose of doing it.
If weight loss comes to mind, go deeper, what do you want from the weight loss? Get specific about what you want to be able to do, not just the outcome you want to reach. Ask yourself what intentional movements do I want to be easier, stronger, and more sustainable as I age? The more clear you are about what you want, the more effective, sustainable, and life-giving your results will be.
Taking time to Rethink Movement, Physical Activity, and Exercise now sets you up to thrive in 2025.
Share this with someone you know who wants to celebrate December in the Well State.
Why wait until January? Be Well Now!
Exercising Well is so much more than an exercise program. It's a pathway to rewiring mindsets so you know how to Be Well Now. This is a short-term program that gives you lifelong skills for moving well, nourishing well, and resting well. Move on with confidence in your self-motivation skills. even when you are limited by pain, medical issues, stress, or lack of time.
