BUILDING MOVEMENT & RECOVERY SKILLS

BUILDING MOVEMENT AND RECOVERY SKILLS

The basics apply to everyone when it comes to exercise and movement... and aging offers unique opportunities and challenges.

Outside of any time in the gym, all women benefit from regular movement and recovery in various forms. But the realities of menopause and aging can mean movement and recovery needs shift slightly.

For example, a woman in midlife may benefit from:

• More regular, low-impact movement.

• More rest and recovery-oriented activities.

• More program modifications or adjustments.

At the same time, you might do less of certain activities that put added strain and stress on your body, that exacerbate injuries or menopause, or that you just don't particularly like.

Following a progressive training program that takes your unique needs into account (which is what I do for my clients) has huge benefits. But you can also have a trememdous impact on your life by learning the skills you need to make regular movement and recovery part of your everyday routine in a way that works for you in the long term, whether you are in a session with me or not.

So, over the next several posts, we'll focus on movement and recovery as a set of skills that you can practice, improve upon, and benefit from for the rest of your life.

As with nutrition, the foundational skills that help most people move and recover well are the same skills that can potentially help YOU have a better menopause experience.

These basic skills can also help you achieve common goals - like having more energy, staying active, maintaining healthy body composition, and generally feeling and functioning well - as well as help you adapt to your body's needs as you age.

THE 4 MOVEMENT AND RECOVERY SKILL GROUPS

We've grouped movement and recovery skills together into four clusters of related practices.

Here's a quick introduction. We'll explore each in more depth on our Moxie Members Only site (subscription required).

• Skill Group #1: Learning and honoring physiological cues. This skill relates to your ability to understand and respond to your body's changing needs on a regular basis. It's one thing to say, "Listen to your body." It's another to be able to actually tune in to the messages your body is giving you and adapt your movement and recovery behaviors accordingly.

• Skill Group #2: Staying consistent with structured exercise. A well-rounded midlife training program will help keep you healthy during your menopause transition - and into later life. Here you'll learn how to stay consistent, even when life throws you curveballs.

• Skill Group #3: Incorporating regular, daily movement. Following a structured training program is great. But as you've learned, movement happens outside the gym too. In this skill group, you'll discover skills like getting in more regular movement throughout the course of a day.

• Skill Group #4: Prioritizing recovery. While there's technically only on skill iin thie "group", the ability to implement active and passive recovery iinto "off" days can help you recover from exercise and life's daily demands.

As we go through the skill, keep this guiding tip in mind...

Start small and simple.

Remember to think about building skills as you would think about learning a complex exercise. Start slowly and gradually, and focus on having small successes that build on one another over time and help you gian positive momentum.

Once again, you can view these skills like a menu to choose from and build on.

Even nice-sounding things like "practice self-care" or "go for a walk" can feel stressful and overwhelming if you already feel like you're juggling a million things.

Start with one or two actions that:

• Feel like an immediate easy win for you (e.g., "I'm already doing that!" or "Oh, that's easy, I can totally do that!")

• Remove a key obstacle (e.g., "Reducing my workout sessions from four to three times a week would make my life so much easier!" or "Being able to do two of my weekly workouts at home would be much more doable.").

• Are big rocks (e.g., "When I get out for my morning walk, I feel so much better the rest of the day.")

Once you're consistently practicing your first set of skills, you can work to see what other small tasks you'ld like to practice.

As you go, be sure to celebrate small successes along the way.

Remember, a "win" might not be overt achievements like hitting personal record or being 100 percent consistent with your workouts. They might be more subtle than that, such as:

• "I've started walking more during my workday. I even do walking meetings now!"

• "I've committed to five minutes of something every day, even if that's just stretching. So far I have a 35-day streak of 'always something' - and I often end up doing more!"

• "I think I need to go a little lighter in my workout today because I haven't slept well. Normally I would've pushed through, but today I'm going to listen to what my body is telling me."

Tiny changes add up!