The Power of a daily movement practice
Some motivation to remain consistent on your health and fitness journey. And also avoid pitfalls on the path
“Body is meant for movement. Move your body everyday."
When I look back at my own life, I know that this concept of, "movement as a compulsory daily activity" was not impressed upon me. I used to go for aerobics classes in my 20's. I enjoyed the heart racing music and movement. It energized me. I also did yoga and enjoyed the peace and calm at the end of the practice. However, I did these things when it was convenient. When life took over, all of this took a back seat. It never really occured to me to carve time out for movement. Or consider what can come out of being regular at this "daily movement" thing!
Fast forward to a few years, and I made the career switch to become a fitness instructor. And suddenly movement became top priority. Not because I understood the whole “movement is medicine” thing, but because it was now my full time job. And dedication running in my blood, I just had to show up on my mat and do whatever was necessary to make something out of this new career I had chosen to pursue. So now I was walking this path, with commitment to it, without knowing what was in store.
Many learnings came ( and continue to come ) as I stick to this path. I want to share some experiences I have had on this journey that go way beyond weight loss, inch loss, muscle gain or looking good.
A. A consistent movement practice maintained for many years can make you feel more & more comfortable in your body. There is freedom & ease of movement. As you move efficiently, you accomplish stuff with ease. It's difficult for me to describe this in words. You actually "feel it". And it's an empowering feeling. Getting into a squat to clean the floor or whatever else chores, don’t seem a big deal. Having a high level of energy to go on long treks, play with kids without losing steam are all empowering. I often get off the floor holding stuff in both my hands. This sort of ease of getting up and moving around feels good.
These sort of experiences come to you like flashes as you live your life and you begin to see how all of that you have been doing start adding incredible amount of ease to your everyday life.
B. Finding joy in movement : With time movement seizes to be something you do as a punishment to undo the seemingly bad stuff like being overweight, or to avoid lifestyle diseases. You begin to look forward to moving your body for the joy it brings, and for the love of it. Atleast that is where I am in my journey.
And I can tell you for a fact that I wasn't here a few years back.
The change from "have to do it", to "want to do it", took time.
C. You begin to respect your body genuinely and it becomes a lot easier to make the right choices for its well being. Because you now begin to see clearly how your body serves you beautifully when you treat it right.
To draw a parallel, to me this whole health and fitness journey is like trekking up a beautiful mountain. Some places up the hill are going to be scenic and beautiful, then there are places that are going to be dull and lifeless. Just because there is dullness on the way up, we don't just abruptly stop and start climbing down. We continue on the way up knowing the view from the top is going to be beautiful. We endure those boring or maybe even more difficult parts of the journey.
These dull moments are your weight loss plateaus, boredom with the routine, other things taking away your focus, or a temporary injury. Only advice I have, to deal with this is - "expect them", they are bound to occur. And just persevere. They will pass and good things will come again.
Now, coming to the pitfalls on this journey:
A. Looking at what other people are doing and comparing your progress with them, either becoming greater than or less than someone : In this journey, what matters is how your daily movement practice ( whatever modality of training you are doing ) makes “you” feel.
Just because somebody can do 50 push ups that you cannot do at this point in your journey, does not make you inferior and them superior.
Most times, doing those 50 push ups may not even be relevant to your lifestyle or add any extra value to your life.
And if it does add something, then you can always train for it without feeling less or thinking you should be doing something else or unfairly judge your current practice as useless based on that one metric.
There are many people doing many different things. If you keep looking at this person and that person, you can lose sight of the benefits you are getting from your existing practice and how it's adding value to “your” life.
B. Ego serving : Pushing yourself way beyond your capacity, not giving your body the time to change and get better, and judging your practice too frequently can have adverse consequences. You begin to risk injury to the body and suffer mentally too.
It is important to understand that being able to stand on your head, or doing any other complex feat is not going to make you great(EVER), you are not going to experience everlasting happiness or become immortal.
Yes, there are many things you will learn on that journey to being able to stand on your head and many things will change from within & that's something worth pursuing. And when you pursue something with the right intentions, you experience a greater degree of happiness when you achieve those things. You become a better person.
Doing it for ego aggrandisement does not really serve you. Doing it for the higher good does.
C. Too much of physical / aesthetic focus : If you were to look at working out for looking good alone, then you run the risk of slipping into the mindset of “obsession with the result” and not enjoying the process of training. Exercise then can start becoming a punishment. Focusing on how you feel over how you look is a better approach. Pay attention to your mental health as well and check in with yourself if you feel happy doing what you are doing ( a question we seldom ask ourselves when we are only focused on the result of looking a certain way ). Looks happen as a consequence but making that the primary goal can be a hindrance to staying in this path and remaining sane.
D. Setting fitness goals that don't align with one's individual lifestyle : Just because those bikini body pictures look great on Instagram, does not mean that is the right goal for you. I am not saying that you should not aspire for a bikini body. But before jumping onto training for it, spend sometime reflecting on why that's important for you, how achieving that is going to change your life, and how you intend to sustain the results. This sort of reflection can help strengthen your resolve to have that bikini body or you might discover something else about yourself and maybe even drop the goal as irrelevant, who knows!
Take the time to understand your deeper motivations. Having goals with a higher purpose that are in line with your values will be more fulfilling as compared to goals set on a whim / fancy / or looking outside at other people.
E. Spending disproportionate amount of time on fitness and compromising other areas of life : Yes, it's true that you get better at something by doing more of it. If I have to get better at yoga, I have to do more yoga. If I have to become a better dancer, I have to dance more. How much is that more, is a critical question that will determine the quality of your life.
Movement is medicine and any kind of movement done consistently will benefit the body. But getting better or way beyond better at it, is a whole different thing.
Does compromising on other areas of life such as your friendships, romantic relationships, hobbies, family life etc for long hours of training, worth it? That's a question that only you can answer. Answer it because that will give you clarity on how much is good for you. Be true to yourself and your lifestyle.
This isn't a competition to get better in comparison to others. It is a way of life that helps you get better than your previous self. A life long journey to betterment of the self.
Having the right attitude and being rooted to your own individual needs and values alone will bring peace and contentment on this journey.
This has been a very long post, isn't it? It's long because it's something close to my heart and I think I can reflect and talk about it the whole day❤️🙂 I hope you resonated with some, if not all of my views🙂
Let me know what you think in the comments.
Yes... It's a long post... I speak only the truth 😂😉
Yes I do feel dullness on and off...
The dullness in the vigor...
Plateaus and pains are the reason why I become dull, but that doesn't mean that I don't have perseverance... I am a specimen which has always been overambitious, aims for the tiger when my need is just to hunt the cat... That much effort I have been putting to accomplish things...when it comes to fitness the benefits are coming in snail speed. May be as u said the invisible benefits what I am getting by moving my body I m ignoring completely... Always looking at the scale and tapes... You just banged on my head with your words... As you have clearly said all those dullness are expected in this journey and it's temporary that should not affect my aim to see the view from the too of the mountain...
Well written... Applause...
I liked your articulating the concept of how "movement is Medicine". It is well known that our Mind and Body are intimately connected. Movement Therapy is a great science that works well in areas where even medications fail. A complex and intelligent Body needs to operate like a well-oiled machinery to stay mentally and physically healthy all the time and to be able to offer support to others if and when needed.