The importance of moving everyday
Keep Moving
Let’s be honest, none of us are always fully motivated to exercise. I live in the UK, and a lot of the time the weather is pretty uninspiring so sitting on the sofa with a cup of tea is a lot more appealing than exercising when it’s cold, dark, raining. But have you ever felt worse for exercise? No, of course not. I’m a Pilates teacher and never in all my years teaching have I heard someone say ‘I feel awful after that class’, because movement simply makes us feel better.
Moving Boosts your mood
Movement stimulates various brain chemicals and hormones which make you feel happier and even more relaxed. Exercise can help shift any anxious tension you may have, it can really clear your mind to shift your focus away from your everyday stresses and problems and just focus on your body. The endorphins released during exercise don’t just trigger a positive feeling, they can even help change your perception of pain within the body due to the way endorphins react with the pain receptors in your brain. This is what I like to think of as an example of the mind-body connection.
Are you getting enough sleep?
Sufficient movement during the day also contributes to healthy sleeping patterns, something I’m particularly passionate about. I sleep roughly 8 hours every night so long as I’ve done enough exercise during the day. And I’m no gym bunny, in fact I only like doing Pilates because it doesn’t make you sweat and I can wear leggings permanently with a valid excuse. But I now know that I have to do enough during the day to get my much loved 8 hours sleep per night. And when I say exercise I don’t want to conjure up ideas of hot and sweaty torture, it doesn’t have to be cardiovascular. Exercise should be a celebration of what our bodies can do and a process to make us feel better. So if you do dread exercise, try finding another form of it because we simply must enjoy it to encourage ourselves to do it regularly.
Movement Matters
And with regards to mobility, it really is use it or loose it. I’m big on mobility, not just flexibility because age is simply not very kind to our bodies and we loose the range of movement that we once had in our joints. The best way to combat this is to keep the muscles strong and joints mobile with exercises like pilates or yoga, or your own brand of mobility moves. We get to a certain point in our lives where if we aren’t doing some sort of muscle building and activating movement, we are just loosing muscle mass. And scarily, that point is your thirties onwards.
I choose Pilates for many reasons, but one that comes to mind here is that Pilates teaches you to be in control of your body, not at its mercy. Regular movement will help you stay able and well, it’s the secret to aging well, you just keep moving everyday.
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