I used to calculate my clients’ macros and write meals plans when I was a personal trainer. I also wrote detailed workout plans for every exercise they should do outside our sessions. I’d take them through “back day,” “arm day,” “leg day,” workouts and we’d celebrate when they were sore in “all the right places.” I was focused on exercise and not in teaching them the importance of a daily movement practice.
I’d ask my clients for progress photos so that I could show my followers that my training worked. Our sessions were serious, and we had goals to reach within the allotted timeframe of the training package.
But as my personal fitness journey evolved, that rigidity didn’t align with how I wanted to partner with my clients on their journeys.
I knew there was something more when I started learning about the difference between exercise and a daily movement practice.
Things changed when I got curious.
I got more in tune with my clients’ personal struggles and I got curious about how their life outside the gym impacted their sessions for better or worse – workplace stress, parenting and relationship dynamics, sleep, home ownership and taking care of aging parents, etc.
I began a holistic approach to my coaching.
- I talked more about how to stay active outside the gym.
- We spoke of the importance of sleep and of how soreness and a number on the scale weren’t the only things to track.
- I started offering stretching sessions in place of lifting when a client showed up exhausted.
- I changed my language and asked clients how they were feeling in ways that had nothing to do with the specific exercises.
Clients started to consider other aspects of their training and during our check-ins, they proudly shared their non-scale victories.
I introduced clients to a daily movement practice.
Going to the gym can be a trap of becoming active but sedentary, meaning that you work out for 1 hour but sit the rest of the day. A daily movement practice is more beneficial for your health long-term, but how can you begin to unlearn the rigidity of exercise and adopt a daily movement practice?
How to cultivate a daily movement practice.
- Move your body in all planes of motion – Explore lateral movements and twists, raise your arms over your head and try walking backwards. Get to know your body from all directions.
- Listen to your body – Sometimes rest is the most productive thing you can do for your mental and physical health. Pain is a sign that something is wrong.
- Enjoy the journey – Celebrate every non-scale victory! Are you getting more restful sleep? Has your digestion improved? Are your nails and hair stronger, shinier?
- Be playful – Why so serious? Take a nature walk, try aerial yoga or a trampoline class.
- Appreciate what your body can do – Gratitude for every breath, every step, jump and lap swam regardless of metrics or where you “should” be because movement is a gift.
- Focus on alignment and optimal posture – There is no perfect posture, but your body does have a set posture that allows for comfortable movement and less tension while sitting. Focus on your set posture and gentle adjustments to your alignment when you sit, stand and lie down.
As a former personal trainer and figure competitor turned health educator and yoga instructor, I’m so proud of the evolution that the fitness industry has made in the past decade. There are now more messages about fitness being about more than weight loss, more talk of the importance of mindful movement, more encouragement to explore your body in a variety of ways and an entire anti-diet movement. Sure, we still have a ways to go and like any change, that starts with each of us reexamining how we’re showing up for ourselves (and the messages we share) in this space.
Need inspiration for your movement practice?
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Evening Stretches for Restful Sleep