IS GENTLE EXERCISE GOOD FOR YOUR BODY?

30/4/2017

In our conversation page this month we would like our readers to explore the question 'Is gentle exercise good for your body?' We invite you to share with us your experiences over the years of gym memberships and exercise programs that have, or have not worked, for you both physically and emotionally.

The latest article posted to our Exercise Pages, My Commitment to Exercising – Quality not Quantity stimulated much conversation between members of our team. How often have we been told that we need to exercise harder and longer for it to be beneficial to our body and well-being? Perhaps the tide is turning and there is now more evidence that this need not be the true way of exercising to promote a fit and healthy body in our elder years.

Is it worth considering:
  Is it really necessary to go through the pain and stress that exercise programs are
   mostly founded on OR is it possible to enjoy an exercise program, one that has
     all the benefits and results of a hard and fast routine but in a gentler, calmer way?

This is a very important topic for everyone, especially for us in our elder years. You may like to visit the exercise page to read more articles from our writers on their experiences with exercise.

Let the conversation begin. . .

7 Comments

Anne McRitchie

4/5/2017 01:52:54 am

Up to age 65, I tried many exercise programs over the years. Most if not all involved doing the same routine every day but increasing either the intensity of the exercise or the number of repetitions. No program really lasted so my exercise regime was very intermittent. Come the start of the ski season and I would exercise for all I was worth but once the snow had gone I fell back into ignoring exercise for the most part. Then about 9 years ago I found a new way to exercise where I was encouraged to connect with my body before I moved and then to listen to what my body felt to do that day. It was about the quality of the movements and not the intensity or the quantity. I found that I was getting fitter without the 'huff and puff' which had been the measure of exercise in the past. This way of exercise has stayed with me. I would certainly recommend that everyone give it a go and make up their own mind!

Joan Calder

24/5/2017 07:52:27 pm

This Is wisdom, Anne, and the body has wisely given you the feedback about the way it likes to be respected and used. I have also driven my body into "doing for me" so that I can "get through life and do what I want to do", and then becoming frustrated because it does not and cannot obey. Despite my training and practice as an Alexander Technique Teacher which does come from a gentle and listening to the body perspective, I still ended up with arthritic hips and two hip replacements.So there is something else involved here that is much deeper and more powerful, and that is what you mention -- a true loving connection with yourself and the the choice of energy that is flowing through you before you move. Even if I do something gently, the moment I let my mind wander away and think of other things, the tension comes into my muscles, and not being with myself in the moment, I do more harm than good We have to be fully present, and feel that presence from deep inside the muscles, even the bones Then our bodies move congruently and fluently without strain, Our emotional state and intention also influence the entire use of the body, if we do something with anger, what do we express? All this is worth careful attention.

bernadette curtin link

3/6/2017 05:29:38 pm

Reading the articles on the exercise page has been very encouraging.As I age I am discovering a new and more gentle and caring relationship with my body, having been encouraged to exercise with more conscious presence. I feel more flexible than when I was younger, and I also enjoy exercising when in the past it was a 'should'.

Carmel Reid link

13/6/2017 05:05:00 pm

When I was younger, I used to play squash and that kept me pretty fit, but as I gained weight and grew older, it showed up how bad the sport was for my knees, and eventually I stopped. By way of replacement exercise I went to a gym and swam a lot, but again, as I've got older, that has deteriorated to only occasional exercise, unless I found an exercise class to attend. Fortunately some gentle exercise classes have been made available on Skype and these have helped me enormously. Recently I stopped exercising altogether and my body responded by feeling very stiff and my arm hurt when I threw a ball, so I have arranged once more to join online sessions, and resolved to do a few minutes exercise each day on my own, including going for a walk.

Beverley Croft

17/6/2017 03:25:47 pm

For many years, from my early 50's I worked very hard rehabilitating an open paddock that had previously had rainforest growing on it. It was a very sloping block of about 7 acres, but for years, I pushed myself hard, to keep up with my late husband. I obviously felt I had something to prove. In that period, most years, I would have a lower back problem that would last sometimes a few weeks until it cleared. Then when I eventually sold that property when I was almost 70, I went to the other extreme, doing very little real exercise, a little gardening and sometimes a short walk on the beach. For a short period I attended a gym with a personal trainer which I enjoyed, but then they introduced a much more aggressive regime, with loud music playing and I terminated that programme.

Thankfully, I discovered a different way of exercising when I was in my mid 70's, based on really connecting with my body and feeling every detail of every movement. This I find I really love, and I have learned so much about my body through this way of exercising. There is no pushing, no going beyond what my body is capable of doing comfortably, and I feel so good when I have exercised this way. I do a fortnightly class now one on one, to keep me on track, still developing the rhythm of doing it regularly at home, and I know that I have become more flexible and comfortable in my body now, it has increased my confidence in myself enormously.

We don't have to push ourselves to get a huge benefit from exercising this way, and I have found it is much easier to make it an ongoing process of building up my strength when I am approaching my eighties.

Gill Randall

31/7/2017 04:09:24 pm

I have had a very erratic relationship with exercise. When I was younger with 4 children, looking after them, the house and the garden used to keep me fit. In my 50’s a gym opened nearby and I joined that for a few years, but noticed I was not content with simply swimming, I needed to join the classes and push myself more and then it all became a chore. I have realised all of my life, I have pushed hard with everything. Having had a severe episode of back pain recently, I have had to stop everything and am starting to return to exercise with a very gentle approach, feeling exactly what the body wants to do and am really enjoying some gentle stretches and a little walk at the moment. The body is deciding what exercise it would like at last.

Deidre Medbury

19/8/2017 07:14:48 am

I have had a great relationship with exercising (I thought) for many years and was quite consistent with it mainly through doing yoga asanas (exercises) but also through aerobics where there were no yoga classes available close by, always pushing my body to the limit and even past that, however after realising that this was not true yoga I stopped exercising nearly altogether and only did them intermittently up until recently. Now I have found that I can still have the same flexibility and strength even by being more gentle in the way I exercise by just remaining focused with how my body is feeling and not buy into that 'no pain no gain' mentality. It is more about honouring what my body feels is appropriate to do at the time which is not always the same amount of time spent, but the way in which I do them and this for me is in a gentle way. It's not about the doing it's about the quality I do them in that makes the difference.

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IS GENTLE EXERCISE GOOD FOR YOUR BODY?

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