Exercise as empowerment

(I am crawling out of the void to come at you with a piece that dawned on me today while I was working out - cue me pausing mid-glute-bridge to type furiously in my Notes app. The main idea I want to put across here is how empowering exercising feels, and why meaningful movement of any and every kind needs to be a priority for all of us.)

‘Meaningful movement’ is how I’ve recently begun rebranding ‘exercise’. While all of us come to fitness with different experiences, feelings, and self-perceptions, as long as you schedule different types of meaningful movement throughout the week, job’s a good’un. Think of it like making an appointment for future you. Movement for me varies between traditional weight-bearing gym workouts, 20-minute HIIT sessions in the comfort of my apartment, yoga, a stroll outdoors, an incline walk or run on a treadmill, or a cycle. Living in the desert means that outdoor exercise, for me anyway, occurs between October and May, as anything outside of that is just unbearable. (At the moment, I really do miss my walks!)

I have been lucky that I have always enjoyed exercising. Playing sports and dancing kept me going from childhood through adolescence, and later, as an adult, I would go on to see the gym as a special place where I could set myself goals and targets and push myself to not just meet them but go beyond them. That feeling of empowerment seeing myself in the gym mirrors pushing a weight over my head, or sinking deep into a lunge even when I want to give up, fills me with such a rush even still, and makes any residual pain the next day totally worth it.

I remember having a conversation with a friend a few years back about how going to the gym is almost like meditation. For the time that I am there, headphones in, workout plan written out, I am completely focused. Whatever worries have come through the door with me from work or my relationships, for 45 minutes surrounded by dumbbells and machines, they are totally forgotten. I am not distracted or fiddling with my phone. I barely even register the other gym users around me. This proved true a few months ago in Dubai where I introduced myself to someone who pointed out to me that they actually recognised me from the gym I used to go to when I lived in Cork, which was news to me because as far as I was aware, I had never seen this person’s face in my life!

I find if I go a week or so without meaningful movement, I can get a bit crabby and feel easily overwhelmed. Scientific research has proven that regular exercise makes us feel good and allows us to release pent-up energy. However, when we become overloaded at work or at home, or our free time is taken up with duties and life admin, physical movement is often one of the first things to get sidelined. “I don’t have the time to go for a walk / do a workout, etc.” sounds so familiar, because at some point or another, we’ve all felt this way. In this regard, I try not to put too much pressure on myself to see movement as something that must take at least 30 minutes or an hour or must leave me sweating profusely afterwards. Literally, some days, if I know my evening is busy, I’ll take the stairs from my car up to my flat rather than the lift. Or I stretch in various yoga poses or do a wall sit while I watch TV or am waiting for food to heat up. Emphasis on meaningful movement. Whatever this means to you. Because if you let it go due to feeling stressed, what will most likely happen is that not moving leads to more stress. And then you’re very stressed altogether.

Sometimes, something as simple as setting myself a step goal at the start of the week can get me to choose movement over remaining stationary. Parking a little bit further from the door, taking the long way to the break room, etc. The main thing is not to put pressure on yourself, to see movement as self-care, as empowering, and to start with small steps (pun definitely intended).