🔼: [[⭐️ Body]] ##### 🕯️ Movement and Exercise - [[🔑 Muscle is built during rest]] ###### Types of Exercise - [[👟 Aerobic Exercise]] - [[👟 Strength Training]] - [[👟 Stretching]] - [[👟 Balance Exercise]] ###### Exercise Equipment - Yoga Mat - Kettlebell - Resistance Bands ###### The Utility of Exercise Exercise benefits the bodymind on multiple levels, so it's often used [[Instrumentation|instrumentally]], even as a kind of prescription. It helps manage [[💡 ADHD|ADHD]], [[💡 Anxiety|anxiety]], [[💡 Depression|depression]] and *loads* of other things. It even boosts our capacity for [[⭐️ Learning|learning]]. In the short-term, exercise releases [[neurotransmitters]] and endorphins that boost our mood and help us [[💡 Focus & Concentration|Focus]]. In the long-term, exercise can reverse the affects of chronic stress, and rigorous exercise can help decrease the fear of physical [[💡 Anxiety|Anxiety]] symptoms. This makes it viable as a non-[[💡 Polarization|polarizating]] [[Protector Strategies 🛡️|Protector Strategy 🛡️]], but it can precipitate new problems when taken to extremes. [[💡 Protector Parts|Protector Parts]] can use exercise and movement to keep difficult [[⭐️ Emotions]] and the [[💡 Parts|Parts]] who carry them at bay, or to "get out of your head and into your body," which only contributes to the bodymind's fragmentation because we actually want to inhabit both. It could also be used to compensate for [[💡 Parts|Parts’]] anxieties around [[💡 Burdens 🪨|Burdens]] of body image (see: [[Fixing Problems vs Overcoming Insecurities]]), it can even become a form of punishment and false [[Discipline]] (ie "Pain is just weakness leaving the body") that leads to injury. Exercise does not have to be a grueling form of self-punishment and pushing through – it can instead become a process or practice, a kind of ritual for getting to know and enjoying our [[⭐️ Body]] as an end in itself. ###### Fitness as a Goal If we have goals around fitness of physique, it's important to take a moment and [[🛠️ Goals and Intentions#Contemplation|contemplate why]] we want it or why we're not succeeding in our pursuit. %% To carry To hold To support To build and repair To relieve To uplift To bring To move %% ###### Movement as Practice Instead of asking for the perfect exercise regimen to get the physique we want and trying to adhere to it like some kind of holy text, we could use movement as an exploration. [[🔑 We are what we practice]]. Outside of [[Medical Conditions and Diagnoses]] our [[⭐️ Body]] is already a reflection of our lifestyle, changing the body doesn't have to be a goal – it can be a byproduct of our explorations. It's just a matter of finding a [[💡 Process Mindset|Process]] we enjoy, it’s why you never see a lion do a push-up. [[💡 Process Mindset|Process Mindset]]: The best reason to move is for its own sake, for its own enjoyment and in-the-moment benefits. Many people stop exercising regularly shortly after deciding to start. It's not how we feel when we exercise, it's the reasons we tell ourselves why we're doing it in the first place that determines whether we enjoy and continue doing it. Imagine trying to work up the nerve to jump over (or into) a puddle by telling yourself you're making your legs stronger and releasing endorphins. What about, "That's a neat puddle and it'd be fun to jump over it?" Drop the idea of exercise, [[🔑 listen to your body]] and just ask, “How does this [[⭐️ Body]] want to move right now?” Do whatever is fun that happens to involve movement. - [[👟 Yoga]], [[🕯️ Tai Chi]], [[Pilates]], [[🕯️ Qigong]], classes - [[🛠 Dance]] to loud music, [[👟 Walking]], bike-riding, [[👟 Hiking]], swimming, surfing, Rock Climbing, skiing, basketball, bowling, handball, mini golf, billiards, tennis ball against the wall. %% [[🔑 Do the next right thing]]. [[🔑 Everyone everywhere is doing their best all the time]], making the best choices for them in the present moment. Sometimes the best choice in the present in something for the future, but it's never the other way around. [[🔑 The right thing, at the wrong time, is the wrong thing]]. %% ###### Supports - [[🛠 Emotional Support Animals]] [^1]: https://www.health.harvard.edu/exercise-and-fitness/the-4-most-important-types-of-exercise