Intuitive Movement - PART 1
What is Intuitive Movement?
One of the principles of intuitive eating is movement for pleasure (also referred to as joyful movement) (1). This involves applying the principles of intuitive eating to movement including ditching it as a diet tool, including pleasure and play in the way that we approach physical activity and tuning in to what feels good for you and what you’re in the mood for (1).
When we learn how to connect with our body and it’s internal cues, we can use that to determine what type of movement we fancy doing, how long we would like to do it for and how intense we would like to move our body. It does not value one type of movement over another by putting a certain exercise on a pedestal but rather, acknowledges the benefits of all types of movement - including dancing around the living room to your favourite music!
Intuitive movement emphasises mindfulness (by being present in our chosen movement) and embodiment (being in our body and being connected to our body) so that we can nurture a healthier relationship with movement and our body (1). Intuitive movement should never feel punishing but instead rejuvenate, enhance the mind body connection, alleviate stress and provide genuine enjoyment.
Intuitive movement should not be seen as a moral obligation, it is not something that we ‘have’ to do or should feel guilty for not doing. It isn’t related to a ‘recommended amount’ and it is not for the purpose of weight loss. Instead, Intuitive movement promotes physical and mental health. This will also mean that as well as the movement itself, we take care of our overall wellbeing by adequately fuelling for movement, making sure we have enough rest and not exercising when ill, injured or exhausted.
Without the “pressure” to workout, we can notice cravings for movement, and honour those cravings. If you’re thinking, umm what a craving for movement?? That’s ok. That is what diet culture has done by turning exercise into a chore or something we have to do. If the idea of craving movement still feels a little far off, imagine how good a stretch feels when you’ve been sitting at your desk all day, or first thing in the morning in bed. Yes, movement can feel awesome!
When we let go of the expectations of what we “should” be doing, we allow ourselves to feel what we want to do and move our body in a way that makes us feel good.
Intuitive Movement vs Exercise
But what is the difference between intuitive movement and exercise? Aren’t they the same thing? Well kind of, but it seems diet culture has made exercise a pretty loaded term.
For example, in the era of diet culture exercise usually implies formal movement, something that has been planned and usually performed in a gym or studio setting (think a Body pump class whilst sporting the newest Sweaty Betty leggings). It’s not that this is in anyways wrong, but it reduces movement to certain spaces, levels of intensity, clothes etc.
Exercise is most often promoted or done with the goal of burning calories, toning muscles or used to “compensate” for the cheat weekend. It is so often used as a form of getting “back in shape” or “making up” for overeating, or “earning” a certain food. The likelihood is, if this is how you’ve been viewing movement, it probably hasn’t been very pleasurable for you. It’s not that this is what exercise was originally intended for, but sadly how diet and toxic fitness culture has co-opted it. Therefore, it can be helpful to give intuitive / joyful movement a distinct name to help us really get back to the joys of moving our body’s without the excess baggage.
Intuitive movement compared to “exercise” refers to any way you move your body, not just movement done as part of a formal exercise or in a gym. Whilst intuitive movement can include movement done in a gym setting, it also acknowledges that all types of movement are valid. So often the focus with exercise is on calorie-burning, meaning movement that isn’t “intense enough” may feel as though it “doesn’t count”, but the reality is that all movement offers a host of benefits to our body and mind, and most certainly “counts”.
Intuitive movement is inclusive and recognises that all types of movement are morally equal. It focuses more on the joys of movement and plethora of benefits, rather than the intensity.
When we shift our mindset from toxic fitness culture to joyful movement, we create space for so many more ways to physically move our body and in ways that we actually enjoy. For some that could look like a sweaty gym session lifting weights, for another, it could be dancing in the living room to your favourite music, and to another, it could be planting new flowers for your back garden. It could be a 10/20/30 minute walk or run in the morning before you start work, a yoga session in the evening, a bike ride to see your best friend, walking your dog, hiking, or even a few stretches between work meetings/ uni lectures. The point is that all movement matters - not only do we each have different preferences when it comes to movement, but we each have different abilities too.
Intuitive movement frees us from guilt
We can still challenge ourselves whilst moving intuitively. It means that we anticipate that moving our body physically can cause us to feel some discomfort and make us feel sore. Intuitive eating emphasises the importance of evaluating how we feel whilst we are moving. If you’re in the middle of a gym class and feel absolutely miserable, exhausted and are really not enjoying it, then you know that maybe that isn’t the right class for you. But you don’t feel like a moral failure because you didn’t enjoy or complete the class. Too often people do exercises that they don’t enjoy because they think moving their body so intensely or pushing themselves to their absolute limit will help them to lose weight.
With intuitive movement, you have permission to not feel guilty for snoozing your 6 am alarm and opting out of your exercise class because you need to rest more. In fact, there is no space for guilt in intuitive movement whatsoever. Intuitive movement recognises the importance of rest and equally the need for self-care around movement including fuel, hydration, sleep, comfy clothes to move in and being in an an inclusive space.
Too often exercise feels compulsory but the reality is, it’s ok to take a break. It’s ok if you don’t do ‘X’ amount of steps. It’s ok if you modified the work out class to suit you better or even took extra breaks. It’s ok if you find that you’re a bit overwhelmed with work and decide you’d rather spend an evening watching tv, it’s ok to decide that actually you’d rather go to the pub than a class that you planned. It’s also normal if movement isn’t always the ‘joyful joyful’ in the moment, sometimes we move our bodies as an act of self-care because we feel great afterwards. What’s important is to understand the big difference between movement as self-care and punishing movement. The awesome thing about intuitive movement is because everything counts, when something gets boring, there’s so many other fun options to try!
When we adjust our mindset from using exercise as a form to change our body or compensate for what we have eaten, we can start to recognise how joyful movement can be. When we tap into our internal cues and learn what we actually enjoy, we can improve our relationship with our body. You’ll be amazed at how good this feels and what your body is capable of!
Disclaimer: In Eating disorder recovery it may be essential to take a prolonger rest period from movement. This can be a crucially important time to restore physical health as the benefits of movement are negated when the body is malnourished. In addition, this time off can facilitate time for healing our relationship to movement and psychological wellbeing. In the long run, this means movement can be done in a fun, life enhancing and sustainable way for the long term. Please do follow the advice of your health care professional and know that sometimes a proper break from movement is the “healthiest” choice.
For more read part 2 here.
References