You Are Not Broken
One thing that the fitness industry generally fails at is making people feel as if they are a glass half empty. That theme intertwined with fitness makes you think about what you can’t do, can’t do well, can’t do what you used to do, or can’t do at all. Of course, I am not the only person in the world that wants you to recognize what you can do right now and build on that. There are countless individuals not just in the fitness industry that spread this idea. It is just that more often than not on the broad scale fitness is an intimidating and social-media driven idea.
Feeling broken in a physical way can come in many definitions. I would assert that they all connect at the idea that you are unable to physically do something that you used to be able to do or do with ease. The effect of this feeling can include things like: (1) Starting to edit your movements in life to strategically avoid those movements that lie at the heart of that feeling of broken (2) associating a negative feeling to a side/limb etc. i.e. “that is my bad side” or (3) feeling as if there is no hope for any kind of movement that moves in that direction.
There is no way to sugarcoat how defeating and depressing that feeling can be. I have seen it in the body language of clients without them having to talk about it. Asking to help to move better in a way that you have had difficulty with is not easy. There is a fear of making the pain worse. There is also the fear of doing something “wrong.” Some people have told me that they literally can’t do something like a squat. They have that shiny fitness video portrait of a perfect deep squat probably with heavy weights. These same people do a variation of squats every day in everyday life…they just fear that expectation of a cookie-cutter or “perfect” squat. Once they let go of meeting that a picture-perfect standard, they can practice better movement and build on that to move better. And guess what? They can move better than they thought they could.
Your body is made to move. I could care less how old you are. You are supposed to explore and enjoy your body through movement. There are many things we all do every day of our lives that we easily take for granted. You rolled out of bed and got up. You have the eye-hand coordination to pick things up and put them somewhere else. You have the ability to look over your shoulder. You can walk without any gait issues. The list can go on and on. In perspective, you or someone you know has a difficult time doing one of these or other movements. That can really put movements that can be nothing but an afterthought in perspective.
Start with now. Start with how you move now. Accept ownership of how you have arrived at this point in your state of fitness. Take credit for the good things. Also take the blame for inactivity, bad diets or other things that crept up over time. Now it is time to put that aside and practice. Find ways to practice better movement. Especially if you have the dedication to adopting good habits, move in ways that strengthen your movement foundation or work with someone that is good at both…you can reap great benefits.
Originally published at http://incrementalfit.com on October 7, 2019.
