Misinformation and Movement Myths

There is a lot of science behind the benefits of movement, but using that to create a bunch of rules on how we 'should' or 'shouldn't' exercise is ignoring the fact that everyone's goals are different, that people's needs and what's available to them are different, and that what we enjoy or dislike is very subjective. The science is helpful, but not the full picture!

There is no moral value in movement, and you don't owe it to anyone to move. AND: moving can be beneficial to your physical and mental wellbeing. It just doesn't serve us if we get fixated on someone else's idea of what that should look like. Flexibility and giving yourself permission to move, and to not move, is key to making it a sustainable aspect in your life. We don't have to strive for whatever the 'optimum' is supposed to be for strength or fitness, we don't have to do it perfectly.

If you want to listen to some of our guests talk about this topic, check out these episodes - Dr Lisa and Hannah had some incredibly valuable suggestions on how to move for wellbeing.

https://www.buzzsprout.com/1623166/episodes/16254033

https://www.buzzsprout.com/1623166/episodes/15831507

Please reach out if you would like some support with your relationship to food OR movement. Ela currently has limited spaces for Intuitive Eating coaching and if you'd like to reconnect with movement, contact Christine.

AND if you enjoyed this episode, please share and follow the 'Find Your Strong podcast' and if you have time, write us a short review. It would honestly mean the world. Love to you all, Ela & Christine x

Transcript

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Christine Chessman: Hello, welcome to another episode of the find, your strong podcast. With me and Ella. We just thought we we had something burning. And then we forgot what it was, but we.

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Ela Law: It's perimenopause for you that.

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Christine Chessman: Perimenopause. It's wonderful. I have the Adhd as we now know who fucking ray.

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Christine Chessman: Yeah. So let's talk about movement today. So there's a lot of misinformation out there for women of a certain age, but really for women of all ages, in terms of how they should move, what they should be doing what they should be wearing while they're doing it.

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Christine Chessman: Just a lot of shoots out there, and we kind of just wanted to unpack a little bit.

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Christine Chessman: And just talk about that, really, because I think it's we're saturated with the every. So I did a post about the fact that I did not like the current rhetoric around strength training. And it got huge response. So I have so many people commenting and going.

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Christine Chessman: I feel exactly the same. I feel like. Everything I'm doing is wrong. If I'm not lifting heavy weights.

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Christine Chessman: Nothing I do is right, and I think we talked to Dr. Lisa about this.

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Christine Chessman: At healthy fit, so we'll pop her in the show notes as well. So go back to that episode because she's really.

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Ela Law: That was.

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Christine Chessman: Great Information.

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Ela Law: Good eye opening conversation for me in particular, because what she shared with us was just like, oh, right!

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Ela Law: Yes.

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Christine Chessman: The power of body, weight, strength, and the power of impact and different movement. Type.

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Ela Law: Yes.

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Christine Chessman: No, it's.

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Ela Law: So what was your post?

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Christine Chessman: I don't know. I don't know what it was. In fact.

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Ela Law: About strengths.

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Christine Chessman: I think it was about strength training, but mainly

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Christine Chessman: so I have. I. We've talked about this before. I teach boot camps, and I think there is still that

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Christine Chessman: idea amongst women of a certain age, that they should be doing lots and lots and lots of cardio.

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Ela Law: Hmm.

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Christine Chessman: Because that will help them lose wit.

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Christine Chessman: and their bodies may be changing as we hit perimenopause, because that's kind of what's supposed to happen. And that's that is, you know, Jen Huber, from menopause nutritionist calls that the redistribution of assets. And it is biology.

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Christine Chessman: It is hard to accept because of the culture we're living in. It's hard to accept a changing body. But there is nothing wrong with a changing body, and I think there's still a belief that the more cardio you do

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Christine Chessman: the more weight you will lose.

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Christine Chessman: So do you know, I mean so there's that belief. And then there's the camp that are going by the Strength training post, which is lift heavy shit, really, really heavyweight. Do some hiit training really sort of plyometric high intensity hit training with long rest intervals, and only running very slowly, maybe once a week. So if you're doing a longer run, you've got to go really slowly, not even moderate pace.

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Christine Chessman: Otherwise you're not going to get the right balance

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Christine Chessman: for what you need, and of course.

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Christine Chessman: eating 3 times your body weight and protein. So that's the other school.

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Christine Chessman: and you've got to eat the protein at certain times, which we.

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Ela Law: Of course, bye.

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Christine Chessman: Yeah, it has to be, you know, within half an hour after, if you're a woman within half an hour

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Christine Chessman: of doing the exercise, and it has to be, you know it's.

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Ela Law: Oh!

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Christine Chessman: And I think we're getting away from. Certainly there's science

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Christine Chessman: around this. Certainly there's the most efficient way to promote

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Christine Chessman: bone growth. I mean, you can. There is, I mean, maintenance. We're talking probably maintenance at this age, and

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Christine Chessman: but muscle mass. There are ways to build muscle mass, even though our muscle mass naturally declines. Post 30. There are ways. If you lift very heavy weights and you're given it. You know you have. You have enough stimulus to cause muscle adaptation. Absolutely. There is science behind that you cannot deny. The most efficient way to build muscle is lifting heavy weights and eating protein. You can talk to that, Ella.

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Christine Chessman: But, what is more important, lifting heavy weights once every 6 months, or doing something sustainable that is still bringing benefits.

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Ela Law: It is still helping to maintain muscle, mass and promoting bone, health.

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Christine Chessman: That you will do regularly, and that you enjoy. So I think that's the. There is certainly a lot of science around the most efficient way, especially as we lose oestrogen, and our estrogen levels fluctuate. What's the most efficient way

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Christine Chessman: to maintain that muscle mass? Absolutely. But we've got a question, sustainability, enjoyment.

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Ela Law: You know, other things such as balance, which we were talking with Dr. Lisa about ability, movement patterns, all of that coordination brain health. We've got it. There's so much more than just maintaining muscle. Mass.

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Christine Chessman: Sorry, and that was.

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Ela Law: No, this is really interesting, because, do you know what? I'm just drawing parallels to diet diet culture? It sounds very much the same, but just wrapped up in in movement instead of food. Is that someone tells you this is how you should do it, and if you don't do it that way. You might as well not bother, because you're not doing it properly, and you're not doing it to the extent. But what I'm asking is.

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Ela Law: well, what is your what is the goal? Do you want to be a lean piece of muscle and sacrifice your life.

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Ela Law: your joy, your whatever.

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Ela Law: to train in a way that gives you that which it sounds to me like. Given that we're sort of on a decline. At our age. It sounds like you have to put extra time and effort into it. To actually get to that place. Is that what you want? If you want to be a bodybuilder fine, you know. Knock yourself out if you just want to maintain muscle and bone health.

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Ela Law: Is that all really necessary? Or are we conflating those kind of goals with something that we feel we should be doing. Do you see what I mean? It sounds very much like diet culture where someone tells you. Well, this is the best way to eat, and literally every diet, or probably most diet, has got a little bit of science behind it. That kind of makes logical sense, but it's not the full picture, is it? And it sounds

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Ela Law: very much like what you described. Sounds very much like that, would you? Would you agree? It's very much like somebody else telling you what to do.

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Ela Law: and if you.

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Christine Chessman: I'm doing.

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Ela Law: That you're doing it wrong.

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Christine Chessman: And I think I kind of fell for it. It's not about falling for it, because.

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Ela Law: Hmm.

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Christine Chessman: There are people. So there's there's somebody called Dr. Stacey Sims, who you've probably seen interviewed, and she makes the point that a lot of the research that is done is done on men. It's never done on women, never done on sportswomen, etc. So she's done a lot of research and pioneered that research, and I think she's fantastic, but she has

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Christine Chessman: very specific windows of time where you can be eating your protein, and what you should eat, and how heavy you should lift, and what so there is shoots all around her rhetoric, even though I love her, and I think she has really

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Christine Chessman: progressed the game in terms of women lifting weights and feeling strong in their bodies. I think so. There's so much that I respect her for.

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Christine Chessman: But the rhetoric around, and I started following it. So I started doing plyometrics and lifting heavy shit barbells at the gym, and not running as much or just running very occasionally, very slowly. All of that.

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Christine Chessman: I didn't find my joy. I didn't, really.

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Christine Chessman: Why, I do not like putting a heavy barbell on my back. It doesn't bring me joy. I'd much rather do a single leg deadlift with a Kettlebell, or do a Kettlebell swing, or a snatch, or a.

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Ela Law: Which still builds your muscles right.

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Christine Chessman: A 100%. Yes.

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Christine Chessman: so and it's, you know, if you're challenging yourself. So if I'm doing 8 reps of a single arm press, and the last 3 reps are like, Oh, challenge, then you that you're providing stimulus to the muscles. That's hypertrophy training.

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Christine Chessman: And you absolutely maybe the most efficient way overall is the, and then the best strength overall bodily strength. Output is lifting very heavy weights, kind of your body mass, and above deadlifting all of that absolutely.

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Ela Law: Hmm.

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Christine Chessman: But

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Christine Chessman: you are still. You are still building muscle. You are still maintaining muscle mass. If you were lifting Kettlebells, if you are challenging yourself, and you know, even if you've only got a certain number of Kettlebells.

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Christine Chessman: You can then vary the exercise to make it more challenging for yourself.

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Christine Chessman: so you can do it on one leg. You can do it with one. So there's so many different combinations that you can do.

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Christine Chessman: That mean you don't have to be in a gym with barbells on your back.

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Ela Law: That always strikes me as quite dangerous.

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Ela Law: Who bought it?

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Ela Law: Thing.

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Christine Chessman: So that's I don't think so, because I think to be in there absolutely, and if it floats your boat, and if you feel empowered, and you love it. Go for it. I think women belong in the gym, and they.

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Ela Law: Oh, yeah.

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Christine Chessman: 100%, and it's not dangerous. If you get a coach and you.

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Ela Law: Right.

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Christine Chessman: Do the right stuff. It's absolutely not dangerous, but

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Christine Chessman: you know it's more it doesn't float my boat. I and I love running, and, to be honest, I don't want to be dictated to in terms of how much I should run.

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Ela Law: Yeah.

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Christine Chessman: I don't want to be told. Oh, you're this age, so you can only run a little bit.

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Ela Law: Yeah.

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Christine Chessman: And you know, I think Dr. Lisa actually mentioned that. And I think she said something about ages. You if you run lots, and that's absolutely. I understand that.

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Ela Law: narrative. But it's not mine. In terms of, I get joy from I, you know that's, how I meet my friends talk to my friends work out stuff in my head.

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Christine Chessman: And it's it's about so for me. Movement is all about. I do the stuff I need to do to keep doing the stuff that I love.

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Ela Law: Yeah.

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Christine Chessman: So what about you? Let's hand over to you, Ella. How do you see movement.

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Ela Law: How do I see movie? I've I've

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Ela Law: I've always been. I've I've never been a natural kind of

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Ela Law: sporty person. I've never really found. When I was younger I never really had any particular sport that I was like a member of a club, for that I did regularly. I've always dabbled with lots of different things. I have noticed over the years that there are certain things that I enjoy, and most of those things have to do with being outside and moving outside, but that could be as simple as taking the dog for a walk.

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Christine Chessman: I do a boot camp class which is obviously outside in all weathers. I enjoy that actually, which I never thought I would.

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Ela Law: But I've doubled with going to the gym, and obviously you then get an induction, and they tell you what to do.

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Ela Law: Gee, that is the worst thing you can do for me to tell me. You've got to go on the step of foot 15 min, and you've got to run for half an hour, and then you've got to lift those weights. I'm over it before I even started.

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Ela Law: Yet I've sort of slogged through it because I thought. That's what I should be doing, and then you get told. Well, ideally, you'd come 3 times a week for an hour and a half. I haven't got that. I'm sorry that's not going to work out for me, and then you feel like a failure straight away, because you can't even stick to that very simple plan, and that's what I mean by it sounds very much like a diet to me. It's somebody else dictating what you should and shouldn't be doing, and I've found a way of

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Ela Law: not feeling guilty when I don't move, and also not.

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Ela Law: I'm saying this with a lot of kindness, not finding excuses not to move either, if that makes sense, because for me, because it's not something that I sort of habitually have done throughout my life, it's very easy to excuse myself from movement.

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Christine Chessman: Interesting.

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Ela Law: But when I do it I really enjoy it so.

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Christine Chessman: This is what Bree said. You know we had some bree campos, amazing bree campos on, and she you don't owe anybody health in the in the same way you don't owe anybody fitness. You don't owe anybody strength.

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Christine Chessman: It's not a moral value to have strength or to have certain amount of muscle, mass, or bone density, so.

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Ela Law: Yep.

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Christine Chessman: It is a it's a choice. Do you know what I mean? Well, not. It's not a choice for everybody. It's a privileged choice.

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Ela Law: Yeah.

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Christine Chessman: But it is.

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Christine Chessman: I think it's stepping away from that is, it's okay. If you choose not to.

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Ela Law: Hmm.

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Christine Chessman: Strength training. And if you just go, I don't want to. That's okay.

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Ela Law: Yes.

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Christine Chessman: Valid, I should not be made to feel guilty about that.

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Ela Law: Thing exactly.

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Christine Chessman: You know, I often say to clients, minimum effective dose. If you want to go roller skating all your life.

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Ela Law: Hello!

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Christine Chessman: You know. Let's work on some single leg strengthening exercises. Let's work on that. Let's work on kind of calf raises. Let's train those ankles. Let's build up strength so that you feel more confident when you're out there, so that you fall. If you're going to fall, you fall more easily, and you know, you're really aware of your core and kind of there's definitely

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Christine Chessman: things I talk to clients about. But it's all the more about that functional thing. What do you want to do? How do we get.

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Ela Law: I feel like.

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Christine Chessman: There.

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Christine Chessman: it's not well you should. You're over 50. So you should be doing this, this, this and this. That's not how I like to work with clients, because that nobody's going to stick at that.

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Ela Law: No, you know, and

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Ela Law: we're getting back to the sustainability part, where, you know, if there's no joy in it, you're not going to keep doing it.

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Christine Chessman: Oh!

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Ela Law: Why am I bothering? And, as I said earlier, I think it's all about, what do you want?

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Ela Law: What do you want to get out of movement. Do you just want to be able to run around in the garden with your kids or grandkids? Do you want to be at a bodybuilder convention and win 1st prize? Do you want to improve your core strength because you've got back issues? Do you want to just not get out of puff. If you walk up the stairs, do you want to feel stronger? I think those are the things we should be focusing on. What do we want? And then we choose what we want to do to get there.

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Christine Chessman: Yeah.

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Ela Law: And there's no right or wrong answer. So if someone tells me, well, you have to do strength training because of XY, and ZI think that doesn't. It doesn't look at the full picture. There may be some science behind it that you know. If you train in a certain way you get to the optimum

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Ela Law: sort of a proportion of muscle, mass or whatever. But why do we always need to strive for the optimum.

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Christine Chessman: Yeah.

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Ela Law: And does it actually, is it actually the optimum for each individual? Or is it again just a generic thing that doesn't actually work for everybody?

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Christine Chessman: I mean, you know that that all of that to say

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Christine Chessman: I I do see huge amount of value in in lifting weights. And this so? But this is

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Christine Chessman: something that if somebody comes to me and they have fallen over and broken a bone, or they do have osteopenia, or they have osteoporosis in their family or not that it's genetic link, I don't think. But if they have, for example, had eating disorder as a child or young person. The risk of osteoporosis is much, much higher.

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Christine Chessman: So to give yourself the best possible chance of not breaking bones, and you know, and really

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Christine Chessman: I don't know.

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Christine Chessman: helping yourself in terms of bone health and start lift weights. Yes, but there's different ways to lift weights.

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Ela Law: Yeah.

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Christine Chessman: And I think you can. Body weight. Strength is fantastic. There's just a little bit more there, there's a little bit more stimulus there, and as our estrogen kind of goes down is that estrogen positively impacts muscle, contraction and muscle, strength and mass. So if it goes down, it's slightly harder then, and if you have that heavier weight, then the muscles have to work harder. So it kind of.

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Christine Chessman: Balances out, so there is merit in it. There's absolute merit in it, and it's not a felt. It's not a kind of made up.

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Christine Chessman: But but let's go back to the whole diet thing.

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Christine Chessman: If I'm not going to do it doesn't matter.

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Christine Chessman: You would be better served occasionally walking fast for 10 min, going up hills occasionally. You're still getting that impact, that foot, you're still, you know, walking on uneven surfaces, going up a hill, getting that heart, if that, if you like that and you hate wits.

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Christine Chessman: do that.

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Ela Law: Yeah, absolutely. And also, if you love weights and it makes you feel strong and powerful, you know. Let's look at those effects as well, it's not just about the physiological impact of lifting heavy stuff.

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Christine Chessman: Yeah.

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Ela Law: Also, you know, it might be really empowering for you to do that, and I'm by no means against it. I actually find it quite. I find it quite fun to carry heavy stuff around or lift some stuff, whereas I'm never sort of doing the Barbell thing in the gym. You know I do love a Kettlebell, and I do love a dumbbell and messing around with that is great. But I think this is the thing. If that is something that you want to do, and you have fun with it, and you enjoy it.

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Ela Law: Fabulous. That's what we want. Really. We want people to enjoy what they're doing. So it's a sustainable thing rather than someone telling you and you getting.

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Ela Law: No, I don't with it.

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Christine Chessman: We spoke about it this morning when I taught a strength class this morning, and it was we. We did an angry session, so it was like one of the one of the my clients was saying. Oh, she did angry squats the other day, and I love that, because if you're angry, just like pushing that way up in the air can just feel amazing.

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Ela Law: Oh no!

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Christine Chessman: So there's you know I do love

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Christine Chessman: Kettlebells. I do not love barbells

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Christine Chessman: and I don't care if somebody comes back to me and says, Well, that's not actually going to give you the proper strength. Output blah blah, because it works for me.

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Christine Chessman: and it's something that I will sustain. And I see my clients having massive, their confidence increasing by increasing those wits that they're lifting and feeling better, and lots of different movements. So.

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Ela Law: Hmm.

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Christine Chessman: But that all aside, I want to go back to kind of what Bree said is that

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Christine Chessman: you know we this is all

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Christine Chessman: you don't need to do any exercise to be a valid human and to be a worthy human. You do not need to do any. So it is.

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Christine Chessman: you know. Do you want to move? And it's

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Christine Chessman: you know. And if you don't want to move, I mean, I'm always gonna encourage people to move because it.

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Ela Law: Oh!

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Christine Chessman: Move better, feeling better. That's how I believe, you know, and the less you move the less you can move. And

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Christine Chessman: but maybe you don't want to move, and maybe it's not something that's important to you, and there should be no judgment about that.

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Christine Chessman: How do you feel when I say that? What does that bring up for you when I say that.

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Ela Law: It's a this is a really interesting one, because I feel

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Ela Law: completely agree with you that there is. There shouldn't be any moral judgment on your choice whether to move or not. I think

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Ela Law: it's a tricky one, because if you look at it from a I'm always going back to the food. Sorry if you look at it from a food point of view. I

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Ela Law: I would say, anybody has got full autonomy to eat whatever they want. Okay, if someone chooses to just eat chips and nothing else, then I think well, that's your choice. You choose to do that. However, I know nutritionally. That's not going to be a very nourishing way of

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Ela Law: feeding your body. Okay? And I would say, it's a similar kind of thing with movement where you say, Well, if you choose not to move. That's fine. That's your choice. You've got full bodily autonomy. You choose not to move, however, knowing that it will probably benefit you, not just physically, but also mentally

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Ela Law: and and just keep your body supple and out of pain, hopefully and just, flexible, and sort of ensure that you're not

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Ela Law: not struggling as you get older.

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Christine Chessman: Yeah.

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Ela Law: You know, I think we should not ignore the benefits of

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Ela Law: eating nourishing foods and of moving.

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Ela Law: However.

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Ela Law: it's not. It's not our job to tell people what they should and shouldn't be doing. Does that make sense.

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Christine Chessman: Absolutely, absolutely. And it's I think we can say, you know, if you want this, here's a really good way to go about it. I think that's okay without being prescriptive and caveats. And you know.

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Ela Law: Yeah.

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Christine Chessman: But there's I mean in terms for me in terms of brain health.

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Christine Chessman: I'm very much I talk to clients a lot about brain health, because I think you know my mum's got Alzheimer's, and.

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Ela Law: Yeah.

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Christine Chessman: I've my granny had Alzheimer's, and you know my dad's mom. So we had both grannies with Alzheimer's my mom. Yeah. So there's a lot. Yeah, and

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Christine Chessman: I'm doing everything I can for my brain health. So I'm eating all the Omega threes. And I'm doing all the good stuff from my brain.

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Christine Chessman: And

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Christine Chessman: in terms of movement, there's a lot of science around movement, especially walking and running that forward motion things around the hippocampus and things like coordination dance classes. If you can follow dance classes.

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Christine Chessman: And so there's, I think, Dr. Wendy Suzuki did a whole Ted talk about the benefits of exercise and brain health.

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Christine Chessman: And there's a lot of science behind it. So that is something that I gently encourage my clients to think about.

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Ela Law: Yeah.

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Christine Chessman: Because

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Christine Chessman: but again I there is that fine line it's like, but you're allowed to do whatever you want to do, and if

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Christine Chessman: movement shouldn't be something that is forced upon you.

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Ela Law: Hmm.

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Christine Chessman: But you know, and where's the line between the shoots and the I struggle with this because I think I think Bree really challenged me when she spoke about movement and her relationship to movement, and why she had to kind of step away from it completely.

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Christine Chessman: And sort of sacrifice her mobility for that.

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Christine Chessman: To, you know, to benefit her relationship to movement and her body, and that really I was like, oh.

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Christine Chessman: because I'm just such a natural mover.

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Ela Law: Yeah, that must feel very alien to you for someone to say that, and to kind of

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Ela Law: to sort of process that choice that someone makes. But, as you said, it's not.

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Christine Chessman: It's good.

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Ela Law: Grunting, but it's also by the sounds of it. It you do. You do make a sacrifice on some level.

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Christine Chessman: Yes, yes.

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Ela Law: By making that choice, and I think the choice is completely up to you and you. I think you need to be aware of any potential sacrifice you're making. And I think when you talk to your clients about no, I'm trying to gently nudge them to do XY. And Z. Whatever exercise movement would be helpful, I think, as long as you say. Look, you don't have to do any of this. However.

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Ela Law: there is some benefit to it you choose. Here you go. I'm giving you all of the information

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Ela Law: now you choose, and that's what I tend to do with food. If someone asked me, I said. There is some evidence for certain things to be beneficial.

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Ela Law: I'm not going to feed you. It

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Ela Law: here's the information you choose, what you want to take on from that.

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Christine Chessman: And you know, let's bring it all back to that interoception and that tuning in. How do you want to feel in your body? How do you want to feel.

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Ela Law: Yeah.

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Christine Chessman: You want to feel mobile, you want to feel flexible. You want to feel like you've got energy.

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Christine Chessman: you know, agile, able to move and.

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Christine Chessman: You know it's bringing it back to that, isn't it, Ella? Because then that's going to inform your decisions around movement and going to help you stay

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Christine Chessman: motivated in a very common.

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Ela Law: Yeah, yeah, exactly. So I think that's when you bring in some motivational interviewing into the conversation where you're looking for any inclination to change any sort of readiness for change.

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Ela Law: and you get the person to say, Well, what does the change look like for you? And how can I support you with that. And you know, as I said earlier, they might want to become a professional bodybuilder, or they may just want to feel less stiff when they walk.

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Ela Law: you know, and I think it's very. It's very individual. It's also very subjective. But the interception that you just mentioned, I think, is really important. And it's it's it can be quite alien for people to know what they feel in their bodies if they have

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Ela Law: not listen to their bodies for a while. So I think working with someone to reawaken that interreceptive awareness is really important, because some people only know how they feel when they've done a hiit workout or lifted 150 kilos, and some people only know that they're hungry when they're literally starving and wanting to eat a shoe. So

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Ela Law: it's that sort of, you know the very extreme. So it's about.

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Christine Chessman: There is. There's some evidence around Adhd and interoception that it's a lot harder.

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Ela Law: Yeah.

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Christine Chessman: For somebody with Adhd to to have that interoceptive awareness.

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Ela Law: Okay.

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Christine Chessman: So it's. And so, you know, in terms of Adhd, I've recently had a diagnosis, so I feel I can speak to that now. But I you know you might struggle with staying par at any particular movement. So I go up and down with movement. I am going to do 3 days a week at the gym, doing push, pull, squat, or, you know, doing. I'm never going to be doing the same thing every week.

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Christine Chessman: That's just not gonna happen.

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Christine Chessman: Because I need that variability. Some weeks I want to do handstands all week, some weeks. I just want to lift weights. Other weeks. I just want to do body weight other weeks. Just yoga other weeks. Oh, Pilates, I am so into Pilates now, and it is that it's peaks and troughs. So I try and stick to. I book a dance class which I pay in advance

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Christine Chessman: from my brain, and I go because I've paid for it, and it's expensive.

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Christine Chessman: and I do enjoy it afterwards, not usually during, but.

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Christine Chessman: I feel great, and then I do minimum effective dose with strength training, because I know that will support what I want to do.

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Ela Law: Okay.

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Christine Chessman: You know, a range.

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Ela Law: Which is not.

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Christine Chessman: Stuff.

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Christine Chessman: So it's

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Christine Chessman: yeah. And I think it's that's how I talk to clients. It's like, you know. Think about as you're saying, that. What do you really want to do? What kind of movement do you want to be able to play with your kids on the floor? You want to run a 5 k, do you want to just be able to feel less stiff? As you're saying, here's your minimum.

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Christine Chessman: effective dose. Let's see what the minimum is, and then you can add to it as and when.

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Ela Law: Yeah.

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Christine Chessman: You feel able to.

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Christine Chessman: I love that minimum effective dose. Yeah.

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Ela Law: That. And also what you've just sort of highlighted is that, in particular with somebody who who gets bored with the same thing that there is. No.

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Ela Law: there's, there's no need for you to do the weightlifting every week.

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Ela Law: There is no need for you to do, Pilates.

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Ela Law: Every week you can mix and match you can do. However, you you know you can do whatever feels good to you, and you know, if you're someone with a cycle you might want to choose to do certain activities at a certain time in your cycle, because the other activities just don't feel great. So I think it's about being flexible. And I think again, this is, this is all about being flexible, and I don't mean in terms of how far you can bend your leg up okay, or whether you can do the splits, which I can't

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Ela Law: don't think I'll ever will. But anyway, so it's about being flexible around the concept of movement just like it is the flexibility around the concept of eating, isn't it?

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Christine Chessman: And maybe we go right back to it. We can end this the whole shop by going right back to intuitive eating.

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Christine Chessman: Let's talk about what? What is the 1st principle? It is giving yourself unconditional permission to eat food.

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Christine Chessman: whatever food you want. Maybe in movement. To me it's giving yourself complete permission to do what you want to do with movement and take a break from it, do whatever but but

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Christine Chessman: the final principle, even though Evelyn says, do it in any which way you want. It's that gentle nutrition.

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Ela Law: I believe.

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Christine Chessman: Same with exercise, that gentle structure can be very beneficial. So if you do that kind of bit of strength training consistently.

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Christine Chessman: It's very beneficial if you do a little bit of Pilates or quarter, you know, if

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Christine Chessman: that tiny bit of consistency with flexibility, that gentle structure.

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Ela Law: Yeah, yeah.

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Christine Chessman: Is. Once you've kind of, you've come to a better place in terms of your relationship with your body and movement. It's nice to add that in if you can.

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Ela Law: But then you would be doing it from

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Ela Law: a flexible mindset rather than this is what I have to do right.

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Christine Chessman: And it's I use what Dan Harris said about goals.

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Christine Chessman: We hold them lightly. So I have goals, but I hold them lightly, because life often gets in the way.

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Ela Law: Yeah, yeah.

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Christine Chessman: So it's.

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Ela Law: There is flexibility. Always build in flexibility to your routine. But routine is not a bad thing.

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Ela Law: No, absolutely, I think sometimes having a bit of scaffolding is really important to find your own way with movement, but having that flexibility, and giving yourself permission

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Ela Law: to eat and to not eat the same with exercise. Giving yourself permission to move, but also to not move.

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Ela Law: is is really important. But having having something, a structure is really, I think it's really helpful. That's why you know, in terms of food. I tell people try and eat regularly during the day, because what you will notice then is.

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Ela Law: you will notice your hunger signals. You will notice your fullness signals. You will notice how your energy and your mood kind of adapts and balances out, and I think it's the same with movement. If you move regularly you will notice the difference. You will notice how it feels if you do one strength class you do you lift too many weights too high? Whatever you'll be sore you'll be like. I'm not doing that again.

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Christine Chessman: Yeah, exactly.

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Ela Law: Very much.

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Ela Law: So it's about having that regular.

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Christine Chessman: It comes back to I you know. How do you feel before you move? How do you feel during how do you feel after I. It's really helpful when you're getting back into movement. Maybe you've taken a break so right time. So no even mental note of how you feel before you move? How do you feel after you move? How do you feel during.

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Ela Law: Yeah.

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Christine Chessman: And it's just to get more in tune with how the movement makes you feel, and how you'd like to feel.

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Ela Law: Yeah, so important.

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Ela Law: Good note to end on, I think. Do you think we've explained the with misinformation? I think so.

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Ela Law: I think I think I've talked around lots of tangents and on the tangent.

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Ela Law: I think it all makes sense.

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Ela Law: All makes sense to me.

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Christine Chessman: I'm like, did I say anything that people can actually make sense of? I'm not sure I think you did.

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Ela Law: I'm not sure but you certainly did to me. I think it's always really interesting if you're not from that particular arena, so I'm not a fitness professional. And, as I said, I'm not the sportiest of people, so I find it absolutely fascinating. I find it really really interesting, but I also always find it very interesting to see the parallels with food and intuitive eating.

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Christine Chessman: And I find it interesting. You say you're not the sportiest of people. Maybe that's the story you're telling yourself, or that you've been told in PE or something.

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Ela Law: No, no, I haven't. No.

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Christine Chessman: So you're telling yourself that story.

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Ela Law: I've never really. I think the problem is that I come from a family of non-movers.

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Ela Law: Okay, that's probably that's probably part of the story, but I've never really gotten a kick out of

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Ela Law: out of exercise. I really don't like team sports, but that's a different issue that probably needs a therapist. But it's it's yeah. It's it's taken me until now. I'm 48 to find ways of moving that I actually enjoy.

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Christine Chessman: Yeah.

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Ela Law: And that is certainly not. The things that I've been told would be beneficial. But I'm good with that.

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Christine Chessman: Because you enjoy them, and that's very good for your health. Very good.

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Ela Law: There you go!

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Christine Chessman: Say something that's very good for you. So.

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Ela Law: It's a stress, Buster, isn't it?

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Christine Chessman: A 100%. But yeah, just we'll end it there. And just, I think, go with

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Christine Chessman: how you feel, really check in with yourself. I always say this on any given day, show up to a class. But check in, do I have energy today? Do I want to take it easy today lead with self-compassion

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Christine Chessman: every day in terms of movement, because it's your energy will flux. And you know your energy levels will not always be the same. So just lead with as much self-compassion as you can.

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Ela Law: Love that absolutely.

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Ela Law: and let us know if you want to share any of your stories, let us know. Send us a message and tell us how

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Ela Law: how you doing with the movement.

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Christine Chessman: That would be great.

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Ela Law: I'd love to hear from you.

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Christine Chessman: Yeah, but thank you for joining us this week. We will be back next week with another juicy topic

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Christine Chessman: and look forward to yeah, welcoming you to our podcast next week.

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Ela Law: Bye, for now.