Moving through Midlife | Helping Midlife Women Move Better and Feel Better

162 | Midlife Movement Made Easy

• Courtney McManus

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Ever felt that exercise is more of a chore than a celebration of movement? Join me, Courtney, as I promise to reshape the way you think about staying active, especially during midlife. Let's transform exercise from a grueling duty into joyful moments that nourish both your body and spirit. We'll explore nurturing movements that seamlessly integrate into your life, enhancing your health, longevity, and overall well-being through techniques like habit stacking and movement snacks. 

Discover the extraordinary power of quick, five-minute workouts that fit into even the busiest of schedules. These short exercises are more than just a time-saver; they’re a game-changer for your heart health, joint mobility, and strength. By focusing on longevity rather than aesthetics, we’ll tackle the effects of prolonged sitting with simple solutions like walking and stretching. These brief bursts of activity aren't just a wacky idea—they’re a vital investment in your energy levels, mood, and mental clarity.

As we navigate midlife, maintaining mobility and strength is paramount. Embracing joyful movement now sets a solid foundation for vibrant health in the years to come. I celebrate the strength and agility of women in their 70s and 80s, proving age is no barrier. Want to take the next step? My "Move Better, Feel Better" program offers a comprehensive 16-week journey to improve your movement and nutrition habits. Whether through our free community or personalized guidance, it’s time to embrace a healthier lifestyle with grace and ease.

Head to www.movingthroughmidlife. com to learn more

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Speaker 1:

Today I want to talk to you about something I mentioned last week, and it has to do with embracing movement for a healthier and happier life. If you listened to my podcast last week, I mentioned how there was a recent episode I did on exercising and the amount of downloads that were received for that one episode was very different than the ones where I'm talking about nutrition or interviewing someone, and I just had to kind of giggle to myself because that is true. That is where we are is either you love to exercise or you're going to look at every other way out there to meet your goals without having to exercise. And that is basically what I want to talk to you about today. And don't worry, it's not about exercise. It is more about movement and finding movements that we can love and enjoy and do all of this without having to feel like we're exercising. So let's get started.

Speaker 1:

Welcome to Moving Through Midlife. I am your host, courtney, a personal trainer and movement specialist who wants to help you move through midlife with more grace. Each week we will discuss ways we can show up better for ourselves and our children without the burnout. We will focus on overall health through habit stacking to help increase energy. Provide movement snacks to help you move more throughout the day, while also moving your body more, and learn from professionals on moving through midlife with ease so that you can feel confident with aging. Gracefully, grab your earbuds and join me on a leisurely walk while we discuss moving through midlife.

Speaker 1:

This week, I want to change the way you think about exercise. If you've ever dreaded working out and you feel like you know you need to stay active but you don't like to exercise, this is for you. I'm going to be honest with you all I love movement. I do not love exercising, and over the summer, I did very little exercise, very little exercise. I had just come off of working with clients for the past ultimately 18 years of teaching group fitness classes. I taught at the most, I was teaching five mornings a week at 6am. Plus, I was teaching some other fitness classes as well, and I got burnt out, very burnt out, and this summer, when I closed down my online studio, I made the decision that I was going to take a break from all of it, because what had happened for me was it was work and I just, you know, was tired of it. So now that I've had some space, I have started bringing in workouts again, but in a different way, and that's what I wanted to talk to you about today is looking at exercise as movement.

Speaker 1:

So the fitness industry has always been one where we think of intense workouts focusing on weight loss and that go hard or go home mentality, and I think that is what has steered us wrong when we think of it that way. So you think the only reason I would exercise would be to lose weight. But what happens for those people who don't need to, don't want to lose weight? Don't you know this whole body positivity, where all shapes and sizes matter, which is amazing. But we're missing something when we do that, because our bodies are designed to move. They do not work effectively if we are not moving, and this goes down to even the smallest thing.

Speaker 1:

I was listening to a podcast episode of someone I really enjoy and she was talking about coughing and she said you know, if you want to keep yourself healthy through something like pneumonia, the goal is to get the bacteria out, to get that stuff out of you. Coughing is important, but if you don't have a strong enough core muscles, then you're not going to be able to cough effectively to get things out. So it made me think about you know, like, as you get older, what do you hear? A lot of people, you know they end up passing away from things like pneumonia and it's because they are limited in mobility and it's more involved than that. But I'm just that is one aspect of it is that limited mobility to where they're not able to push that out and you need to be able to use your core and your rib cage needs to be strong to be able to get that out.

Speaker 1:

So exercising is more than just losing weight. Intense workouts and that go hard or go home, and if you're looking at exercise that way, it can be a situation where you get yourself burnt out. So for those people, for most of us in midlife, we're dealing with a lot of stress. If you add those intense workouts into it, you're more likely to suffer with things like adrenal fatigue, burnout, brain fog, injuries, because your body is already doing a lot and then you're going to add something really intense onto it. So I do not practice the go hard or go home method. I think that is very dangerous for our overall health and for our longevity.

Speaker 1:

We want to nourish our body through movements. That does not mean that you can't put yourselves in the gym. For those people who like to exercise, that does not mean that it's more about you know creating movement and just nurturing yourselves through those movements. So I'd like you to really focus on finding joy in movement. What do you do in your day that you enjoy?

Speaker 1:

You have to agree with me that if you sit for long periods of time, you don't feel well. It is not fun. Yes, I understand you might be tired, but it is not fun to just sit and do nothing. Your body starts to ache, you start to deal with other issues when you sit for long periods of time, and that is because our body is not designed to do that. Our body is not designed for the culture we live in today. Things have not caught up genetically for us to just sit for extended periods of day of day. We are designed to move. So look at your day on the whole and see what do you do in a day and I've spoken about this a lot throughout my podcast.

Speaker 1:

But if you sit a lot through the day, think about the position that your body is in and how can we counteract that position. So for those of you who sit in a rounded forward position a lot throughout the day. How can you change your movement patterns to make it to where you do some more extension to go in the opposite direction? So that might be some yoga classes. That would probably be the most beneficial thing for that type of thing where you're creating some extension. It would not probably be going into like a Pilates class or a cycling class, because if you think about and I love both of those things the goal is not to make you realize that those things are bad, it's just looking at the position your body's in. Those are movements that you're just continuing to strengthen to where you're going to start dealing with some back issues, some tension in the abdominal wall, things like that. So we need to look at finding ways to move our body differently and, again, finding things that you enjoy. So, yes, if you enjoy doing Pilates and you enjoy cycling but you also work in a desk job, then you're going to continue to do those but find ways to create some extension in your life as well. So you know, maybe on the weekends you would, on the weekends you would, I'm trying to think, go paddleboarding or something where you're standing up really nice and tall, or going for a walk, you know, like, look at some fun things that you could do Climbing. Well, I say climbing trees, but who's out there climbing trees? I mean, how much fun would that be? But maybe even going to like a rock climbing place and having fun with that, where you're trying to get your body more into this extension, arms up overhead, body lifted and lengthened, those kind of things is what I'm thinking of.

Speaker 1:

The key is is find things that you enjoy doing and do more of them. Maybe you enjoy dancing, maybe you enjoy swimming. All of these things are things that you can incorporate and that is considered your exercise. I would even say, for those of you who like to go well, who maybe we don't like it, but chores things that we're doing cleaning, washing down the windows, all of those things. If you look at the movement patterns of them, they are a way to exercise and move the body through different positions. So make sure that you're finding things that you enjoy doing. So make sure that you're finding things that you enjoy doing and then just also pay attention to how your body's moving throughout the day and how can you challenge it and move a little bit differently. You will notice that with fitness programs. There are definitely some common grounds. You're going to be looking at different ranges of motion that are occurring, the speed with which you are moving and changing the resistance. So, thinking about that, how can you incorporate that if you don't want to go to a gym or you don't want to go to a fitness class, how can you do those things in your everyday life to change positions, change your range of motion?

Speaker 1:

Like I mentioned, washing the windows. A lot of times I talk about not being able to get, not getting your arms up over your head for extended periods of time. Well, washing your windows is going to require you to get those arms up and moving over your head, even pushing things, pushing your couch around, maybe having to lift things up. I'll tell you what for those of you that went through the hurricane that was a huge thing for me was that I challenged my body in so many different ways because I was pulling all the furniture into the house from the back porch and I did have help, but you know that was moving the body differently and having to do things like that challenged me to where I didn't need to go to the gym that week because I was busy pulling things, pushing things, grabbing things, carrying pots, big pots of plants into my garage, walking lots of core work that I was doing, naturally, in that day where I was moving things. And then when I brought everything back out well before, because I live in Southwest Florida where it rains all the time, we tend to get mold and mildew on our pavers, so I was back in the back pressure washing. My back hurt so bad the next day from pressure washing because I was like why was my back hurting? I didn't work out what did I do and I was like, oh, I was pressure washing. So even those types of movements are going to be working your body out.

Speaker 1:

So, finding ways to change up the range of motion, adjust the speed when you go for walks, try to walk a little bit faster. Or don't get discouraged if you're out walking your dog and he's constantly sniffing all over the place, because it's just changing that range, not the range of motion. It's just changing the speed with which you're moving and that is perfectly fine, and then changing resistance. You can do this also with you know, like I mentioned, pulling the couch in the house, carrying different pots, potted plants, and I'm not saying you're doing that. If you know, like I hope to goodness I'm not going to have to pull all the furniture in my house again over this next week. But the goal is to get you to look at things differently and assessing how you're moving or even just looking at how can I get a little bit more movement into my day, how can I get a little bit more exercise into my day without actually exercising.

Speaker 1:

Also, understanding that even if you do want to exercise, maybe play with things a little bit differently. So maybe you're always using dumbbells, maybe grab a sandbag or I mean goodness knows that cat litter, those cat litter boxes. I have a 30, it's what 29 pounds. That sucker is heavy. So even just kind of playing around with that, like we have to bring it in, you could do a suitcase carries one side of the other side. I think I've talked about this last week with the core, um, with bringing in all your Amazon boxes, holding them away from your body a little bit more to activate that core. But all of these things, these are helping you to get more movement, get strengthening all of these things.

Speaker 1:

And then try to, if you can, look at doing quick workouts, try a five-minute workout. I have a ton of them If you go to my YouTube channel ton of them. If you go to my YouTube channel I don't know if I think if you look it up like FormFit or Moving Through Midlife, you'll be able to find it, hopefully, but on my YouTube channel I have a ton of Fit in 5. There are five-minute workouts that you can do. There are five minute workouts that you can do and those are so beneficial and I don't think people trust enough that five minutes can make a huge difference in your day. I promise you it does, and especially it does for the fact of longevity right, longevity, if that's your focus, not aesthetics. If you're not worried about the aesthetics and you're worried more about the longevity and being able to do certain things as you get older, those five-minute workouts are the best, and I don't mean just mine, but any five-minute workout, and you can always add on to these throughout the day. So maybe you have five minutes, like when you're helping your kids get ready for school. Maybe you've got just five minutes and you can do a few arm exercises.

Speaker 1:

What I do, I'll tell you what I do, so I'll maybe look at a video. This is something I did early on. Now I kind of know what I should do for my exercise routine, but early on I used to look at people's videos and I would write down like three to five of the exercises I liked that they did, and then I would just have them on like a little sticky note and then I would try to do one or two of them. So that would be an option. You can watch one of my five minute videos, write down. I usually do three to five different exercises for those five minutes. So write down the three exercises and be like okay, I can do one while the kids are getting ready, like while they're, you know, I'm watching them make lunches, whatever. So I'm watching them make lunches, whatever. So I'm going to do these three exercises. And then as soon as you get home usually you might like right before you start dinner maybe you can do the exercises again.

Speaker 1:

Maybe you can find a way during your lunch break to do those three exercises in a different way, using different resistance, those three exercises in a different way, using different resistance. Maybe you don't have weights or you're unable to take weights to your place of work, but maybe you have a band or maybe you can do the body weight exercise to kind of change it up, which is going to change the resistance which is part of a fitness program. Changing your resistance it doesn't always have to be the heaviest strength, heaviest weights. You can work with whatever you have on hand. And by doing these things, it may not change your aesthetics, it may not change how you look, but at the end of the day, how you look, but at the end of the day, the goal is longevity and health, right? So if it makes your heart healthier, if it makes your joints more pliable and mobile to where you're not dealing with aches and pains and it makes you slightly stronger, isn't that the ultimate goal? I mean, that's what it is for me, right? So let's reframe our exercise as an investment in our long-term health rather than the means to lose weight. Let's find those joyful movements to help improve our energy levels, our mood and our overall well-being levels our mood and our overall well-being. You'll notice some clarity within your mind when you start to work out.

Speaker 1:

Or, you know, do these types of movements for workouts and then look at ways for you to like, pay attention to how your body is moving right now and if there are tension spots within your body. Think about how can I move into this, not where I'm going to get hurt, but if you're noticing that your hips are really tight. Noticing that your hips are really tight. Think about how you sit most of the day and the way the thigh and the hips into the stomach. So if you're thinking of sitting in a 90 degree position right, you're sitting in a chair how that is tightening up the hip flexor, those muscles within the hips. So where can you work on lengthening those hips? Well, walking, walking requires leg extension. It requires that leg to move behind you and you push off. So, looking at where am I tight, can I move into this tightness to create more movement through that? And is there something I can do to counteract that? Remember that sitting. If I'm sitting in my chair during the day, how can I counteract that? I can work on extension lengthening, opening up some of those yoga positions where you're going through an extension, bringing the arms up overhead, hanging I talk about that a lot in some of my past videos, past podcasts.

Speaker 1:

They were from a long time ago, but even just hanging or, like I mentioned, rock climbing, all of these things are going to help with that, the key I want you to get from this episode is exercise doesn't have to be the hard, intense workouts. It can be what you're doing in your everyday life. Look at how you're moving. Can the things that bring you joy? Move into those things that bring you joy? Listen to your body and what it's saying through different positions that you're in, and sometimes not most of the time.

Speaker 1:

If your body is, if you're feeling that niggle of something's not right in the body, that means that you're neglecting an area. There's an area that's being neglected and you need to focus in on that area. It doesn't mean to wrench it and move it to where it hurts. It means notice it, pay attention, move that area a little bit more. You're probably getting tight in that area and it needs some movement. Find those things that bring you joy with your movement and know that this is something you get to do. It is definitely not something you need to move now. Right that I'm going to say it till I'm blue in the face. A body in motion stays in motion.

Speaker 1:

You cannot expect to be an 80-year-old walking around moving if you sit all the time at 40. That is the truth. You'll be able to get around, but you will not be getting around effectively, y'all. I just want to say that I have started at a new studio. I'm teaching some classes there. I'm teaching some classes there.

Speaker 1:

And these women, oh my goodness, 70s, 80s, they're doing things that I, you know, you would look and you'd say maybe they wouldn't be able to do this. These women are strong, they are moving. They are doing bird dogs. They are not struggling with bird dogs, they are doing pushups. They are doing all kinds of amazing things. So if you want to be that woman, you've got to get moving now. You've got to move. Don't stress yourself out, don't think I have to go exercise and do all these dreadful things. Find ways to move. Find joyful ways to move. Have't stress yourself out. Don't think I have to go exercise and do all these dreadful things. Find ways to move. Find ways, joyful ways to move. Have fun with it. And then, if you're struggling with this, reach out to me. Head to movingthroughmidlifecom.

Speaker 1:

I have my move better, feel better program. It is a bundle. It holds all the things that I offer. You can get everything included within it. There are exercises, there are movement patterns, there are things that, if you're noticing that you're tight in your hips. I've got you moving through different foam rolling exercises and things like that. I'm also getting ready to. I'm working on this right now. It's a six week introduction to the program because one thing I kept getting people like oh, I'm so confused, what do I need to focus on? So I'm creating it right now.

Speaker 1:

If you signed up now you're going to start to get pushed out the information and it's going to be 16 weeks of movements. So you're going to do move better, feel better, you're. It's all incorporated. So each week you're going to be focusing on a habit or a movement to kind of help guide you through my process of how you should be moving. We start start at the feet. We move up to the hips. We look at the core and the breathing. We look at your ribs and how your ribs are moving. We're going up the line at the same time as helping you with your nutrition what things to focus on with your nutrition. All of it 16 weeks to help guide you through the program and then you get moved into the, the monthly focus. You know what we focus on.

Speaker 1:

So if you're interested in that, click on going move moving through midlifecom. You can click there for the uh move better program. Or you can go up to the top where there's like the three bars and you say, work with me. You can work with me there. Or if you have a specific thing that you struggle with, click on the courses and you're going to be able to access all of my courses individually. I hope you all have a wonderful day. Make sure to keep moving. I hope you enjoyed this episode and found something to take away to help you practice healthier habits, move more or handle the midlife and aging with grace. If you enjoyed this episode, please share it with a friend or leave us a review to help us reach more moms just like you. Head to movingthroughmidlifecom to join the free community or learn how you can move more and feel better in your daily life.