7 Elements of a Holistic Movement Practice
#1 Move Your Body Every Day In A Way That Feels Good To You
What: Any type of movement that is joyful for you, from simply stretching your arms up toward the sky first thing in the morning to dancing while your coffee brews to swimming to hitting tennis balls to playing tag in the park.
How Often: Every day
How Much: As much as feels good to you, from 1 minute to over an hour, spread throughout the day however you’d like.
Why: If we are truly to be strong in body and heart, we must reorient our relationship to pleasure, come to know and trust our impulses and learn to listen to the language of our bodies.
#2 Walk Every Day
What: Walk
How Often: Every day
How Much: 20 minutes or more
Why: Walking is a foundational movement that can easily meet most of your aerobic conditioning needs. Walking is gentle on joints and can be done almost anywhere at any time without specialized gear. Walking integrates body and mind.
#3 Get Strong
What: Compound movements that work your entire body and use weights to tax your muscles beyond the level of exertion of your typical daily life tasks.
How Often: 2 - 3 days per week
How Much: 3 - 6 exercises x 6 - 12 repetitions x 3 sets = 20 - 40 minutes
Why: I like to refer to strength training as “Your trusty best friend.” Just like a good friend makes everything better, being strong makes everything more enjoyable, from the tasks of daily life to your favorite adventure activities. In addition to the myriad benefits of exercise in general, strength training prevents bone and muscle loss, which means greater chance for independence well into old age. Raise your hand if you want to be able to get off the toilet by yourself when you are 80! Sign me up!
#4 Serious Sweat (Optional)
What: Short bursts of very hard work (8 - 10 RPE) paired with short recovery periods. Often referred to as High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT). Cycling, running stairs, jump rope, swimming sprints, or any other type of exercise that gets your heart pumping. You can also do a metabolic strength training session in which you move through strength circuits with little or no rest between movements.
How Often: 1 - 2 days per week on its own or 1 - 2 days after a strength session.
How Much: 15- 20 minutes when done alone. 5 - 10 minutes when done after strength training.
Why: All the benefits of moderate intensity cardio, but requires less time and delivers an additional metabolic boost, which can help with belly fat loss. The downside of HIIT is that it is more stressful on the body and requires more recovery time. It can also greatly increase appetite, causing people to eat more, which can negate the potential for belly fat loss.
#5 Targeted Mobility
What: Modalities aimed at restoring functional range of motion to compromised joints. Systematic stretching (static and dynamic), soft tissue work, joint capsule mobilization, Feldenkrais, some forms of yoga, etc. This can also include bodywork such as structural integration, rolfing or osteopathic adjustments.
How Often: 2 - 7 days / week, as needed
How Much: 10 minutes
Why: When range of motion is compromised, it affects the joint directly (potentially causing unwanted friction) as well as your entire body. For example, losing ankle mobility changes the way walk with every step, affecting your knees, hips and more. Once you improve functional range of motion at a joint, you can maintain your new range of motion with regular movement and strength training.
#6 Skill Practice and Play
What: Dance, sports, parkour, rock climbing, handstand practice, any modality that exposes you to unexpected movements and/or allows you to master a new movement skill. Activities done outside have the added benefit of engaging multiple with varied smells, sounds, light and temperature.
How Often: 1 - 7 days / week, as desired
How Much: 10 - 90 minutes
Why: Engages your brain with novelty.
#7 Move With Gentle Attention
What: Paying attention to your movement technique, alignment and postures. It’s not just what you do that matters, but how you do what you do. Modalities like Feldenkrais, Alexander Technique, Qi Gong and certain types of yoga. Corrective style exercises you might get from a physical therapist also fall into this category.
How Often: When exercising, performing physical therapy movements, in general throughout your day.
How Much: Variable, as needed, as desired.
Why: We live in gravity and our bodies are an interconnected system of pulleys and levers. Therefore the orientation of our bones in relationship to one another affects everything from joint health to organ function. Notice that I used the phrase “gentle attention” and not “perfect technique” or “proper alignment.” This is not about attempting to find a pinpointed place of perfect posture that you must maintain. Rather this is simply about bringing your awareness to your movement technique and how this technique affects your embodied sensations and performance.
*The above 7 categories are not necessarily distinct and separate from each other. Many exercises and modalities span several categories, creating a potent movement experience.