What goes into your movement diet?

healthy movement

May 3

Much like we think about food in terms of food groups, nutrients, vitamins and minerals, we can think of our movement like a diet: how what we put into our body effects what we get out of it.

So I would like to share with you the “food groups” of my movement diet, which might help you think about what kinds of movement you are doing, what you need more and less of and what combination makes you feel your best. These groups are organised with numbers but not based on their value.

Type 1 ~ Daily movement activities: Walking, putting dishes away, housework, picking up children & their toys, carrying shopping bags, closing car doors…

Type 2 ~ Remedial movement to organise and heal the body

Type 3 ~ Expansive movement that takes me beyond daily movement range: yoga, pilates, dance, or something that changes my relationship to gravity, weight and resistance like swimming or climbing

Type 4 ~ Strengthening

Type 5 ~ Rhythmic movement aka Cardio

Type 6 ~ Personal goal based movement: training for a high jump competition? Working on a double axel? A handstand? A marathon?

Type 7 ~ Rest

Each of these types of movement is important and has benefits to your whole body and being. Let’s go More in depth with each To explore what it can give to your life.

Type 1 ~ Daily movement activities: If you break a wrist or an ankle, and can’t do these activities, you soon learn how key they are. Whilst everyone’s baseline for daily movement is different, a sudden change in capacity can be very troubling and a long term change may require adaptations to a new embodied situation.

These daily activities can be called NEPA: non-exercise physical activity. The energy required to do this daily movement is categorised as NEAT: non-exercise activity thermogenesis. “NEAT” is reference to the calories burned (energy consumed) to do this movement, which is significant. In some studies, participants who exercise more vigorously in a single session reduce their NEPA for the rest of the day. Their daily calorie usage is the same, because of the reduction in NEAT.

Calorie burning is not the main importance for me of the daily activities. The first, and most important piece is feeling able, to the best of my ability, to engage fully with life. I know it is possible to make adaptation based on ability or disability, and that we cannot compare different people’s quality of life on that basis. When our environment makes these movements too challenging or dangerous, we might start to avoid them, and miss out on opportunities to move our bodies. For example, there was a playground near my home that I used to go to with my young children. The stairs and ladders up to the platform for the slide were not suitable for young toddlers. So for my children to go down the slide, I had to pick them up to a platform that was above my head height. Ordinarily, for my body, this wouldn’t be a huge issue, but when I was pregnant, I felt uncomfortable lifting my toddle like that. This is an example of a design that makes the activity difficult or dangerous, and if it were the only playground around (thankfully it wasn’t, but then many of the playgrounds had their own design issues) I would not have accessed the movement potential of playing in a playground with my kids.

Daily movement requires strength, coordination and adaptation to the environment and is important for us to maintain, as much as possible. If you don’t use it you lose it.

Type 2 ~ Remedial movement to organise and heal the body: At first, I considered this type 1, as at some moments it is the basis of all my movement activities.

Remedial movement can refer to anything that is specifically about awareness or attention to the detail of movement for rehabilitative or movement restoration purposes. I would argue that too many of us only do this kind of movement when we have a big injury, and we don’t do it enough as daily refreshing, daily cleaning-the-slate in our movement practices.

In my body, there is a tendency towards a curvature of the spine. My grandmother and my father have both developed scoliosis during their lives, and I can feel that there is something moving in that way in my body. Sometimes, if I don’t do enough of this movement-type, I start to feel a pinching in my upper spine, and tingling numbness in my arms.

My remedial movement practice is based on Feldenkrais and Franklin Method. I have daily practices that I do, like finding my hip joints and freeing my shoulders and diaphragm, which feel to me like teeth brushing in terms of their importance. Basic level, functioning of my body requires these few daily exercises. But to really function well, even when I am feeling good, I need 1-2 longer sessions per week of deeply focused “remedial” movement. That is enough to keep my body educated, clear, organised. I can do more, but when I do I tend to evolve more towards type 3, which we will get to.

However, if I am injured, I may need more. When the body is tired, or processing injury or pain, it may be that more time needs to be spent in this rehabilitative, restorative space. This movement can be done in a class, with a practitioner (physio or movement therapist) or on one’s own, if you have the right tools.

Type 3 ~ Expansive movement: In my type 1 movements, I might have to reach up to pull down the door to the boot (trunk) of my car. I might have to reach the top shelf, or step up onto a stair of a certain height. While daily movement is diverse in some ways, it doesn’t usually expand our range of movement. So this is where type 3 comes in. Type 3 is where we make steps that are bigger than normal steps (Warrior 1 in yoga is like a big step that gets paused). We might reach up more than we would, or hold these movements longer than “necessary”. These movement practices allow us to expand our range, challenge the body, explore our possibilities.

As I said above, when I am healthy I need 1-2 sessions of remedial movement per week. More sessions than that, and I start to move more into this level. I might start with small movements of my pelvis, that progress to more full bodied movements. This change from type 2 to 3 is not fixed or objective, but refers to the expansiveness of my movement. I might for example play with how I am moving, roll on the floor in different patterns, adding playful variations to a simple investigation. In fact, when I am feeling good, I can flow between remedial movement and expansive movement: I do a Franklin method process that cleans the slate, then I take it into a yoga pose, which creates another layer of challenge or range. This video is an example of this type of progression.

This type 3 movement does not have to be yoga. Some pilates classes do a similar progression of type 2 to type 3 movement. Dance can also fit into this category, as can martial arts. Some people put stretching into this category (or into category 6 below). At the moment, I do less stretching than I used to. I find that my type 2 movements create a good level of mobility in my joints, and that “stretching” seems to cause more pain in my body. So I do much less “stretching.” However, I do a lot of these big range of movement practices, reaching, twisting, squatting, lunging… with the emphasis on moving through them and on rebound, rather than on stretching to the end. It feels better in the moment, and it has helped me have less pain in general.

Type 4 ~ Strengthening: this part of my movement diet is one that is one that I feel the least comfortable with in my own life. In my years of exclusive yoga practice, while some people taught drills to improve strength, it wasn’t an integral part of the practice in a systematic way. It was more like do yoga to get stronger, rather than train your strength to get better at yoga. When I was dance training, the emphasis was on stretching, rather than strengthening. I feel this was a really problem in my training, as I have seen how much my capacities improve with some dedicated strength training.

So this part of my movement practice is, right now a discovery process. Here are some of the concepts that are guiding my investigation:

Progressive overload: This refers to increasing the challenge on your body over time. Because we stress the body, it adapts to that load, building more strength over time. This can be done by adding repetitions or sets, adding resistance (weight or load), or changing the dynamics - like lifting slower, or faster!
Know your goal : If your goal is hypertrophy aka building bigger muscles, then you will prioritise that. But if your goal is endurance, smoothness, strength and range of movement, you might not go for just repeating and building with a few exercises.
Linearity and specificity vs. Full body movements: Some programs emphasis the individual muscles exercised in any given movement. This has benefits for both embodiment and for training in specific ways. But it can also be interested to train more globally, to move weight around in less linear ways, challenging the body to be responsive and strong at many different angles.

Type 5 ~ Rhythmic movement training, aka cardio. Running, swimming, walking, biking, climbing… getting somewhere with your body. We all have heard about daily 10,000 steps, which is one way of getting this movement into your life. The 10,000 steps is a good measure, although there is nothing magical about that exact number. What is good is that walking activates your brain through contralateral movements, and walking at a good pace can create a coherence of movement and breath that can be healthy. But other rhythmic movements are good too. Riding a bike activates the heart and legs in a powerful way. Swimming changes your rlatioship to gravity and resistance.

What is interesting to me about biking and running is that I use to think I needed a lot of high intensity cardio movement. But at times when this was woven into my life - when I was riding my bike around London many miles a day, I noticed a few things. I seemed to keep weight on in a strange and uncomfortable way. Maybe it was because I was tired out, so I didn’t do as much NEPA. I would get off of my bike feeling pumped up, and it took a long time to down-regulate my system. I would overshoot movements, pulling doors too hard and tripping over things. I felt very adrenalised, which sometimes felt good, but over a long period felt stressful and fatiguing. So what is important to query here is how much intense cardio feels good to your body and your system, and how much is too much. What is the right balance for you?

Type 6 ~ Goal Related Training. Having a goal can be a great motivator of our movement training. Goals allow you to see progress in a way that feels meaningful for you. Maybe you don’t care about having bigger muscles, but you would love to be able to pick up a 3 year old more easily. Maybe you aren’t fussed about splits but doing a handstand seems like it would be so fun. Or getting back on your skis, surfboard or roller skates. Having a personal goal means you target your training to that goal, and then you have a measure to see if it is working. Plus that goal can be about growing and having FUN!

When was the last time you had a movement goal? It could have been a race or fundraiser or something external to you. It could be something internal to you, regaining strength after an injury or birth. The most important piece is that it means something and motivates you to shape your practices and direct yourself back to your movement practices.

Type 7 ~ Rest. I was listening to Jessica Ennis-Hill on the How to Fail podcast and one of the “failures” she talked about was the failure to rest. In my own movement training, and in practices like ashtanga yoga, there is minimal rest. Practice is either 5 or 6 days per week, alternating, and based on the full and new moon days. At one point when I was dedicated to that practice it struck me that there might not be anything particularly special about moon days, except that the practitioners needed an extra day of rest. But in that case, a week off is seen as a failure, not as a “rest week”. While that kind of consistency is important for some, for other people days of deep rest are necessary to repair, rejuvenate and processor experiences.

Listening to Michael Johnson commentating on the Olympics, he often references when the athletes need to peak. They train for the season, they peak at a certain point, and then their bodies, like all bodies, need some rest.

So rest needs to feature in your daily practices, your weekly movement diet, and in your overall programme through life. Rest is not stopping your training, but allowing the body to integrate and digest what it has been working with. While I had teachers admonish me for having one day off per week, wouldn’t it have been better if I trained smarter, and didn’t get burned out 3/4 of the way through each year.

PLEASE NOTE: movement activities can fall into multiple categories, much like a soup can have many ingredients. This is just to help you organise yourthinking, not to get you confused over whether an activity is strictly “type 2” or “type 4”. There will be lots of overlap, especially with Type 6.

When you start to think about your movement diet, it can allow your to reflect on where you are at a given time, and to plan and adapt in the future. At peak times in other aspects of your life, maybe your movement practice has to shift. After injury or illness, you might have to tweak your programmes.

So here are some questions to ask about your own movement diet:

Do you have restorative and remedial practices in your movement diet, either daily or weekly? Do you have ways to clean the slate, balance your body, and help correct any niggles and imbalances before they get worse?
What is your daily movement like? Do you get enough NEPA? How can you increase these moments of movement in your life?
What kind of movements make your body feel really great? How can you move expansively in your life?
In what ways do you feel restricted in your movement? Are there aspects of daily movement that your struggle with (getting up from a chair, or the floor? Picking up your kids or carrying shopping? ) How could you add some strengthening that would help you achieve those movements? Could you build up to them again?
How much rhythmic movement is good for your body? What kind of cardio feels good in your joints and in your spirit? Do you love the water, or moving through the world on bike speed? Do you love running or walking, or hiking? Which of these can fit into your life in a way that uplifts you?
What are your movement goals? What would you like to be able to do in 3 months that you can’t know? What would you like to be able to do when you are 70, 80 or 90? How can you keep doing those movements so you don’t lose them?
Do you get enough rest? Do you feel you have enough recovery from your practices? What would be a sign that you are not resting enough? What would be a sign that you are?

I encourage you to reflect on these questions and to write down your movement, much like you might keep a food diary. Technology can be helpful, but put a pen to paper too. And then pay attention to when you feel your best, and when you don’t!