Please follow these simple instructions:

  1. Sit up tall on the front edge of your chair.
  2. Take a slow, deep inhale through your nose. Expand your stomach out.
  3. Exhale vibrantly through your mouth. Make a “sigh” sound.
  4. Roll your shoulders backwards a few times.
  5. Using your hands on your legs to provide assistance, twist your spine and neck to the right, focusing on rotating from the stomach and shoulders.
  6. Repeat on the left side.
  7. Reach both hands in between your legs to the floor. Feel the pull in your low back.
  8. Inhale deeply, sit up tall, and reach both hands as high in the air as possible.
  9. Relax.

You feel better than you did two minutes ago, correct? This is the magic of movement.

Movement: Ponder what that term means to you.

The fitness industry and media try too hard to fit movement into a completely scientific and mechanistic realm. We adorn the body with various devices to precisely count the 10,000 steps we strive to take each day, to calculate the number of calories we burn, to measure the rate of our beating heart, and even to track sleeping patterns. We encourage people to exercise 150 minutes every seven days whilst maintaining a heart rate of 64-76% of its maximum estimated rate. We go on to tell them to complete 8-10 resistance exercises for three sets of 10 repetitions. We time our “WOD” with the goal of achieving the shortest time possible, down to the second. We break down the human body into hundreds of different moving parts and attempt to isolate each muscle group.

This is neurotic. No wonder so many people have negative views of exercise.

What if…

  • Instead of compartmentalizing the body into 650 different muscle groups, we viewed the organism as a whole, as one moving unit?
  • Instead of recommending people slave away on one-size-fits-all machines, we encouraged and empowered them to view movement as an exploration of the self?
  • Instead of tracking and measuring every detail of our workout, we embraced the sensations of the active body?

Movement is as much an art as it is a science, yet we tend to ignore this viewpoint. We have become so out of touch with our physical being that a large percentage of our population could be defined as “physically awkward.” Pause and quiet yourself for a moment. Can you feel your heart beat? Do you know how it feels at rest, compared to how it feels during activity? Are you aware of the places your body is holding tension and those that are relaxed? Are you in touch with how your feet strike the ground as you walk? Are you cognizant of how you hold your spine as you ambulate? Can you feel which muscles are contracting as you propel forwards? What about when you side-step, or step backwards?

Awareness of movement is the art of movement.

When was the last time you moved outside of the confines of a machine, without the use of external equipment or props, or even clothes and shoes? When was the last time you varied your movement, looking for new sensations and feelings in the body?

Exploration of movement is the art of movement.

Movement is beautiful and pleasurable, yet I hear daily how tedious, boring, and painful exercise is for people. They are relieved when they are finished, and they dread having to repeat the process tomorrow. A large driver of these negative mind-states is born from an overly mechanistic view of how we should move.

We always search for the latest and greatest fitness craze, thinking it is our ticket to enjoying movement. This is delusional, as each craze is only a rehash of the sensationalistic marketing that enveloped the masses a few months earlier. Do you truthfully enjoy panting on your living room floor while a celebrity trainer yells at you to ‘fight through’ one more set of ‘perfect pushups’? Do you really need a disco ball and loud pop music in your indoor cycling class to stay entertained?

Enjoyment of movement is innate; it is part of your biology. Do not leave your physical ability and joy in the hands of the industry’s hottest new trainer. They profit by making you feel bad about yourself as you stand in front of the mirror. Acceptance of the body forms through awareness and exploration. Try various different types of physical activity. Notice how your preferences change as your body adapts and your interests evolve.

Embodying the art of movement means adopting a physically active lifestyle. Movement in some form should occur every day, preferably multiple times per day. This is not a suggestion to perform vigorous, intense physical activity each day. There is no need to punish the body; the goal is to build it up. Each of us is aware of the generic reminders such as parking far away and taking the stairs, but take time to seek out and enjoy movement at other times of the day, too. Take a ten minute walk after lunch to rejuvenate your mind for the afternoon. Stretch in whichever ways feel good ten minutes before bed. Play with your kids, grandkids, friends, or spouse, whether an established game or make believe.

When it comes to exercise, think about energizing the body.  Your workout should leave you vital and strong, not tired and stiff. If you truly enjoy tracking data such as steps, time, speed, or heart rate, do so; but also take time to listen to what your body has to say. The same goes for working on aerobic and resistance machines; if they are truly enjoyable and beneficial for you, use them. Know though, that they are not the only way to move.

The art and science of human movement should live in symbiosis. There is a time and a place to be detailed and exact with our physical measurements and recommendations. There is also a time and place to let go of the details and tap into the innate knowledge, born from millions of years of ancestry, which resides within each of us.