Why you should focus on "movement" instead of "exercises"
Welcome to the weekly warble here at Ideanthro Movement where this week we're talking about...
WHY YOU SHOULD FOCUS ON “MOVEMENT” INSTEAD OF “EXERCISES”
The reason that you should focus on 'movement' rather than 'exercise' is that movement delivers much more than exercise does.
Exercise is good (and if that’s what you currently do, nice work!).
Movement is even better.
When we 'exercise', the focus is on developing isolated components of fitness such as strength and flexibility with the assumption that if we build the individual components, it will make us more capable overall. Unfortunately, exercise is often so divorced from the things that we want to be good at (the things that really matter, like being pain free and fit for our children) that it does little to improve them.
If you've ever trained at a gym and seen improvements in your abilities in the gym, but noticed little change in your daily life then you've experienced what I'm talking about.
'Movement' on the other hand focuses on practicing practical and creative skills that are meaningful in their own right, while also developing all the same underlying physical attributes.
It might help if I give an example.
A bicep curl is a bodybuilding exercise that you might be familiar with. Its purpose, in bodybuilding, is to increase the size and strength of the biceps. In that respect it has a purpose in the gym, but it's incredibly rare to see this movement used in any other part of life. It has no practical purpose outside the gym. Thus it is an exercise.
Climbing on the other hand is a movement. Like the bicep curl it will also increase the size and strength of your biceps, but it also has a practical application. You may personally not have much desire to climb on things, but nonetheless the skill of climbing onto and over an object is useful.
In a nutshell, bicep curls do little to make you better at climbing, but climbing will give you stronger biceps while also making you much better at climbing. And if you don't believe me, then go to any climbing gym and watch lean men, women and even children of all ages easily outclimb much stronger and more muscular young men who gained their size and strength doing curls and other such exercises.
None of this means that exercises don't have any value. They do. In fact all of our classes include things that are best described as 'exercises' but they're always done hand in hand with a broader suite of movements. The exercises are connected to and enhance the broader goal of movement, because movement is where most value is found.
And if what you've been doing to date is mainly 'exercising', then that's great. Just know that if you've ever thought that there was something missing, then a movement based approach might be what you're after.
If you're curious to find out more then get in touch at jack.mullaly@ideanthro.com