How to Know If You’re Exercising Enough…

You might have heard or said, “That’s just the way my body is.”

I once took a class where I heard something very opposite, “The body you have is the body you’ve earned by the way that you move.”

So which is it? Or is it both? And how do you know if that’s the way things are or if you’re not doing “enough”?

The more I learn about the body the less I know. I’ve also realized that even the “experts” aren’t all-knowing. There is so much more to our bodies than we realize and could ever realize.

At one point when people said, “That’s just the way my body is” I thought they were giving up on themselves. I wanted to be the one to tell them, you can do it, you can change if you want to, if you would just try!

During a movement certification class I heard, “The body you have is the body you’ve earned by the way that you move.” I thought yes, that’s it! I had heard so many stories about people who didn’t accept “that’s just the way my body is” and were able to make huge changes in their lives through movement and exercise.

But, it’s not so simple.

Many people have tried and tried and tried and tried and done everything that the experts told them to. They’ve spent days, weeks, months, even years working on themselves and the thing that they wanted to be different never really changed.

One of the biggest and seemingly counterintuitive things I’ve learned about changing (especially body stuff) is that acceptance is key. Acceptance isn’t saying “That’s just the way my body is” and leaving it at that though. It’s sitting with the uncomfortable things that come up about this acceptance and, well, accepting those things also. Maybe you’re angry about it. Of course you’re angry, why wouldn’t you be?

Acceptance allows more space and with that space comes more capacity and clarity. “The body you have is the body you’ve earned by the way that you move” is a BIG BOLD statement. It takes up a lot of space and might seem like someone is shaming you into accountability. At one point if someone told me this, I might have wanted to punch them in the face (hi anger I was shoving down into the depths of my soul!)

As a movement professional, I get that the point of this statement is to express the importance of exercise and movement and the effect it has on your body. And, the hope that things can change. However, if your sense of self worth is tied up in how your body looks or moves or what it can do you might need to be reminded that you cannot earn yourself into self worth.

So, instead of using your energy up with the mental gymnastics of wondering if you’re doing “enough” exercise, what if you reminded yourself that you are enough? Right now. You’re enough even if you only have the capacity to lie on the floor and do some stretches.

Maybe “That’s just the way your body is” or maybe it’s not. Maybe “The body you have is the body you’ve earned by the way that you move” or maybe a bunch of other stuff happened and that’s why your body is the way it is. Either way, your worth is not dependent on any of it.

I invite you to challenge your way of thinking if you are interested in consistently exercising..

• Are the steps you’re taking (or want to take) to prove your worth or are they coming from a place of worthiness?

• What could be different about how you approached exercise if you already felt worthy in your body?

Remember- the only person who gets final say over how YOU feel about YOUR BODY- is YOU!