I spent the weekend at the IDEA Personal Trainer Institute. It was my third year attending and as usual, my brain and my body are fried. My first thought when I arrived home today was — sleep, rest, repeat. It is cold and grey out, with some intermittent snow falling. A perfect day for curling back up into bed after a weekend of grueling workouts (get a group of fitness professionals in front of another fitness professional and its burpees for days!) and so much information on how the body moves that my head is exploding. But it is Sunday and that means client emails and session planning. Time to put pen to paper one more time, integrate some of the new moves I learned this weekend and plan for my clients and classes.

As I sat down for the first time in 3 days to plan, I found myself popping back up to move. Tight hips, tight glutes (thanks Helen Vanderberg for the 10,000 squats this morning!) and finding my eyes closing if I stared at the page for too long, forced me to get up from my comfy office chair and move. I figured you might be struggling with movement motivation on this dreary day, so here’s 5 reasons why you should and 5 exercises for when you do move.

Restore Energy and Fight Fatigue: Sitting for too long can drain our energy and if we are already fighting fatigue, can make us want to drift off to sleep.
What to do? Stand up and March for 30 seconds. Continue the March but begin to march wide, then narrow, then wide, alternating this pattern for another 30 seconds. Bring it down to a slow march and begin pumping or swinging your arms. If you have good range of motion, you can sweep the arms over head and then back down to the waist. Do this for another 30 seconds. Either pick up your marching pace and return to alternating between wide and narrow marches or start to march and “stick a knee” to hold a single leg balance for 3 seconds each time. Repeat for 30 seconds.
Hydrate Your Connective Tissues and Relieve Achy Joints: When we sit, our hip flexors tighten, our low back might bother us, our connective tissues begin to harden and we get stiff. When we stand up or try to move, it might hurt or make us feel older than we are.
What to do? Stand up, put on some upbeat music — whatever your jam is and make sure the song is about 3 minutes long, if not longer. Crank up the music and dance. Start by moving slowly then build up to tempo, or close to it, with whatever moves make you feel good. Don’t forget to sing along and just let yourself be free for the length of the song.
Reduce Stress: Work and Life can be stressful. We all have moments where it seems easier to curl up on the couch than to move. But moving can release the feel good hormones, get the dopamine flowing and flush out higher levels of cortisol.
What to do? Stand up and walk — walk around your house or even better, walk outside. Even if you only have 5 minutes, go for a walk.
Restore Mobility: There’s no doubt that the more you move, the more you repeat a movement, the easier it becomes because the joints are warmer.
What to do? Stand up with your feet wider than your hips and hinge your upper body at your hips (hip hinge). Soften through your knees and do a soft squat — meaning you are bending in a way that doesn’t hurt anything and isn’t necessarily taxing any muscles. Begin to circle your bottom, swaying in the legs from side to side. Think “hip rotations”. Your arms can be where they are comfortable or you can swing them as you make the rotations. Be sure to go to the right, around to the left and then start again from the left back to the right.
Hydrate Yourself: If you’ve been hanging out at your desk or the couch or wherever you have decided to plop yourself for the last few hours, you probably need more fluid. Staying hydrated helps lubricate our joints and helps us move better.
What to do? Resist the urge to summon your children, spouse or partner to retrieve you a glass of water. Stand up and walk around your house 3 times before heading to the kitchen to get your glass and fill it with water. After you fill it, do a few marches or a few squats.

Bottom line? Just get up and move. And if you have classes or a training with me this week — you’ve got some new exercises coming your way!