Exercise as medicine - A new way of looking at movement
There’s no doubt about it – exercise IS medicine.
And in this blog, I’m going to talk you through the benefits, the guidelines and the statistics.
These are important things to know and understand.
But this is not a lecture about how or why you should be moving your body.
Instead, it’s a call to set those ‘shoulds’ aside, and consider your movement in a different way.
A way that nourishes. Energises. Heals.
We know that moving our bodies has widespread beneficial effects on all systems in our bodies.
It improves mood.
Reduces stress.
Helps to manage anxiety.
Improves cognitive function.
Leads to improvements in energy levels – I know who would have thought?
Exercise that involves jumping, skipping or weights helps with bone strength and reduces the risk of fractures later in life.
Exercise improves blood sugar control – reducing the risk of Type 2 Diabetes, can help to reverse early stages of Type 2 Diabetes and is essential in the management of reducing the risk of complications with Type 2 Diabetes.
Exercise reduces the risk of stroke AND heart attacks. Improves joint health.
It can even improve immune function, reduce the risk of certain types of cancers and help us to keep functional in our daily lives.
It is a healing modality that has more benefits than any medication. Any therapy.
It IS medicine.
On the flip side, too much of it is also harmful. Particularly if there is not enough nourishment through food to support wellbeing.
This can lead to states of relative energy deficiency and chronic fatigue, increase the risk of injury and have widespread detrimental effects on all systems of the body.
Moving our bodies regularly, with enough nutritional intake is a key component of nourishing our bodies. It improves almost all our functions.
Yet a large proportion of Australians do not meet the physical activity guidelines and the majority are not meeting the strength based guidelines.
The TL;DR extreme summary is that we should:
Avoid sitting for long periods of time, get up regularly and stretch or move our bodies in some way throughout the day.
Incorporate physical activity into our regular routines.
Aim for 30 minutes to one hour of exercise a day, where at least 30% of the time (that’s 10 to 20 minutes) is ‘vigorous’ i.e. gets our hearts pumping and we are breathless to the point of not being able to talk normally. The rest of the time shouldn’t be too easy – we should feel like we are actually doing something.
Incorporate muscle building exercises at least twice a week.
Start low and build up over time to avoid booming and busting (when you go too hard, too fast and can’t recover properly or keep up regularity).
Reading this – are the ‘shoulds’ appearing in your mind?
Even though there are many reasons it is hard to meet guidelines (a job that requires a lot of computer time … feeling exhausted … physical or mental health limitations and injuries … it’s cold outside …) I can imagine whilst reading the benefits, recommendations and statistics, that many ‘shoulds’ are arising in your mind.
“I should do more exercise.”
“I should make my workouts harder.”
“I should stop making excuses.”
When we have a mindset that exercise is something we should be doing or that needs to be achieved, we are equating it with moral value.
Exercising = good.
Not exercising = bad.
It then becomes something negative. Something we don’t really want to do. Another thing on the list of things we aren’t doing.
On the other hand – if you consider exercise as a key component to nourishing your body, as a healing elixir, and a revitalising medicine – does that change the exercise that you think you ‘should’ be doing?
Exercise has health benefits regardless of what weight or shape your body is. It has key benefits in healing even when sick. Gone are the days when bedrest is a good thing.
In the ‘Health at Every Size’ movement there is a concept I love – ‘Moving with Joy’.
I ask you to consider:
How would you move your body if you could move in anyway that gives you joy, satisfaction or pleasure?
How would you move your body if you were not trying to shape it in some way? Or for a specific achievement?
What would your body want to do if it could move in any way it wanted to move?
Where would you go? Who would you be with?
How would you create the conditions that made you feel as if it was the most medicinal element in your life?
How would you curate, ritualise and contain this healing process in the same way you might curate, ritualise and contain journalling or meditation?
What would you need to do to make your body comfortable? What would you wear?
How would you know afterwards that it was nourishing? Healing? Helpful?
Exercise for me has been one of the ways I have maintained contact with my body. The way I connect with nature. A way that I explore my inner world.
Strength training showed me that I can do hard things, that it feels hard because it IS hard and that I enjoy the social component.
I have also had many barriers and challenges in the last three years.
I’ve had injuries, foot lacerations and major health conditions that have limited my capacity to exercise in line with the guidelines.
I’ve still found ways to support my body. To move my body how I like. To be with it in ways that are supportive.
They are not always the ways I usually enjoy, but ways that suit my needs at that moment.
I’ve learned to be flexible. To shift with the tides of what my body is needing. To support its process wherever it is at.
That’s why moving as medicine is a key component of the first of the Five Pillars – Pillar one: Nourishing your body.
The way I work with people on moving their bodies is freedom-based.
It takes us away from the ‘shoulds’ and makes exercise a key tool for healing.
My job is not to give you specific exercise programs or prescriptions (exercise physiologists are the experts in that), my job is to help you find the specific ways of moving that are beneficial to your health conditions, break down barriers and unlock the experience of being able to feel joy within that.
So that movement becomes something natural, joyful and freeing, rather than punishment or another task on the list.
If you’d like to explore these ideas with me further, you can book a Mind-Body Medicine package or join my 1:1 program Vitality Medicine.
Upcoming workshop
In August-September, I will be offering a mini-workshop on how to flexibly work within the Australian Guide to Healthy Eating in a way that is nourishing and caring rather than hateful or punitive.
It will:
Be based on what you can ‘add’ in, swap or incorporate, rather than leave out, exclude or restrict.
Cover what is commonly undernourished, overnourished and how to adjust what you do day-to-day while considering red flags of disordered approaches.
Introduce a mind-body check in for exercise and eating, where you can consider your true motivation and real needs as a first step towards coming into a caring connection with yourself.
I will not guarantee that doing this will change your shape or weight. Because that is not the aim. Eating for health and nourishment is not the same as eating for thinness.
But I will give you more tools to choose for yourself – and what it is that you want for your relationship with food and your body.
And I’ll be delivering this from a place of integrity and authenticity – as someone who has been on this journey of life and what it means to live in a world obsessed with image – right alongside you.
You can expect to hear more about this in the next few months. If the topic calls to you and there are specific ideas you’d like to explore, I’d love to know.