AMANDA STERCZYK - AUTHOR
  • About
    • Meet Amanda
    • Amanda's Fitness Credentials
    • Workshops
    • Testimonials
    • Events
  • Books
    • Chair Exercises for Fall Prevention
    • Audiobook: Balance Exercises for Fall Prevention
    • Balance Exercises for Fall Prevention
    • Balance 2.0
    • Balance and Your Body
    • Ejercicios de Equilibrio para Prevenir Caídas
    • Pace Yourself: Exercising After COVID-19
    • Sweat-Free Exercises for the Office
    • Move More, Your Life Depends On It
    • Your Job is Killing You
    • I Can See Your Underwear
    • Selfried and the Secrets
    • Bulk Orders
  • The Move More Institute™
    • 3 Days to Better Balance
    • Balance 2.0
    • Get Off Your Butt!
    • Add Movement at Work
    • Move More! Coaching for Behaviour Change
    • Move More with Amanda
    • Free Videos
  • Blog
  • Media
    • Print
    • Video
    • Audio
  • Contact

BLog

I’m taking a break from exercise (and you can too)

1/15/2023

0 Comments

 
"The Man with Two Hats" by reated by Dutch artist Henk Visch. Seen by the author on regular walks in Ottawa.
It’s another new year, which some see as an opportunity to change their behaviour and incorporate healthy new habits into their daily lives. Can you relate? Have you set a new year’s resolution to, for instance, join a gym and get fit? When I used to teach group fitness classes, I’d often see a bump in attendance figures at the beginning of a new year.
​
Instead of new healthy habits, I’m pausing a long-standing habit. This new year, I’m taking a break from exercise. You can too and still feel good about yourself and your physical wellbeing.


Let me explain. Although I’m not exercising per se, I’m still staying physically active. How is it that possible, you ask? 

Physical activity is not an all-or-nothing thing. In fact, physical activity lies on a continuum, from NEAT to elite. Let me break it down with a few definitions first.
Physical activity: any voluntary bodily movement produced by skeletal muscles that requires energy expenditure.
Exercise: a subset of physical activity that is planned, structured, repetitive, and for the purpose of conditioning the body.
Physical activity encompasses all activities, at any intensity, including exercise. What’s the alternative to exercise? NEAT, non-exercise activity thermogenesis, or incidental activity. NEAT is all the ways your body burns energy that is not eating, sleeping, or dedicated exercise.
​

NEAT relates to moving about in daily life. Our bodies need both exercise and non-exercise activity, but much of that non-exercise activity has been lost to technology and labour-saving devices. 
NEAT (non-exercise activity thermogenesis): how your body burns energy that is not eating, sleeping, or dedicated exercise.
So, you see, I’m taking a break from exercise, but I’m still moving lots every day. My exercise break isn’t permanent; it’s just a temporary pause while I recover from an injury. I’m still staying physically active with lots of NEAT/incidental activity, because I know that all activity leads to benefits for both physical and mental health. That’s because I don’t live to exercise; I exercise to live. And I want to live a long time. 

If you’re not up to joining a gym this month, if you don’t want to live to exercise, you don’t need to.

Let’s reframe physical activity: All exercise is movement, but not all movement is exercise. No special equipment, change of clothing, fancy exercise sequences, or location changes are required to just get off your butt and move more. If you move more, you will feel better. Guaranteed.

Want more tips to help you incorporate non-exercise activity into your life? Check out my first book, Move More: Your Life Depends On It.
​
0 Comments

    Categories

    All
    Essentrics
    Fitness
    General
    Guest Post
    Health & Wellness
    The Move More Institute™
    Writer

    Archives

    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    March 2022
    November 2021
    October 2021
    February 2021
    October 2020
    August 2020
    June 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014

    Author

    Amanda Sterczyk is an international author,  Certified Personal Trainer (ACSM), an Exercise is Medicine Canada (EIMC) Fitness Professional, and a Certified Essentrics® Instructor. 

    As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

    RSS Feed

Land Acknowledgement

I live and work on the traditional and unceded Algonquin Anishinaabe territory. Algonquin people have lived in the Ottawa Valley for at least 8,000 years before the Europeans arrived in North America, and are the customary keepers and defenders of the Ottawa River Watershed and its tributaries. From coast to coast to coast, I acknowledge the ancestral and unceded territory of all the Inuit, Métis, and First Nations people who call this land home. 

Company

About
Meet Amanda
Contact
Privacy Policy
​The advice and recommendations provided by Amanda Sterczyk - Author are not medical guidelines but are for educational purposes only. You must consult your physician prior to starting any exercise program.
 
​©2022 Amanda Sterczyk

​As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
  • About
    • Meet Amanda
    • Amanda's Fitness Credentials
    • Workshops
    • Testimonials
    • Events
  • Books
    • Chair Exercises for Fall Prevention
    • Audiobook: Balance Exercises for Fall Prevention
    • Balance Exercises for Fall Prevention
    • Balance 2.0
    • Balance and Your Body
    • Ejercicios de Equilibrio para Prevenir Caídas
    • Pace Yourself: Exercising After COVID-19
    • Sweat-Free Exercises for the Office
    • Move More, Your Life Depends On It
    • Your Job is Killing You
    • I Can See Your Underwear
    • Selfried and the Secrets
    • Bulk Orders
  • The Move More Institute™
    • 3 Days to Better Balance
    • Balance 2.0
    • Get Off Your Butt!
    • Add Movement at Work
    • Move More! Coaching for Behaviour Change
    • Move More with Amanda
    • Free Videos
  • Blog
  • Media
    • Print
    • Video
    • Audio
  • Contact