I’ve noticed when it comes to movement people often take on an all or nothing approach. You might align with one of these two personalities. Maybe you have found your movement practice, but you don’t push yourself out of that box much— you like to stick to your comfort zone, and do what you love as much as possible!

On the other hand, some people never find a form of movement that works for them. You hesitate to dive into anything because you feel like you have to put in an hour a day, or a ton of gym time, to ever feel strong.

Or you may feel out of place in conventional ‘sports’ type training environments.

Movement Snacks in their most basic form are little bite sized practices you can do for 10 minutes each day. This can range from rolling, to mobility, to simply getting up and down off the ground. The reason I cherish this idea so much is because Movement Snacks are beneficial for the lifelong athlete, or the everyday person who just wants to feel better.

EveryBODY should feel pain free and at ease in their movements.

I think it’s important for everyone to liberate themselves from whatever limiting beliefs you may have around movement. Maybe you think you’re too busy, you want to spend more time with your loved ones, or you just don’t want to step away from the form of training you adore. 

Or that you’re too old or injured to start moving again.

You’re not.

I think we can all admit that we have ten minutes a day to spare, right? Many studies have found that ten minutes a day is the sweet spot. It’s enough to build strength and mobility to support you through everyday life. That alone is a positive reminder that you don’t need all the time in the world to step into your full physical potential.

For me, I move because I want to be able to take on whatever task life throws my way. If my friend needs help moving something, I want to be able to trust my body to show up for me. To play ‘lift & carry’ and help them move house or bring in supplies. I want to be bale to set up my tent when I go on adventures. 

Movement Snacks are all about diversifying your movement, and identifying the parts of your body that might not get as much attention.

If you made a sculpture of your body at the end of the day based on your movement, what would it look like?

Sometimes it may look like a variation of movement, positions and postures. Other days, you might realize you were sitting hunched over a screen all day. So from here you assess, where does my body need to move? Maybe you need to focus on your hip flexors, release tension in your back, or do some rolling on the floor to engage your spine. So you take ten minutes to work out those muscles, and get energy flowing to the areas that may feel neglected.

I have a big philosophy on being 360 degree strong in your life. This doesn’t mean you have to be a superhuman, but that you have access to your fitness 24/7. If you aren’t a generalist in your movement, your body isn’t prepared to take on new physical challenges in your daily life. For example maybe you’re amazing at lifting weights, but the moment you have to stretch your body in a foreign way your nervous system goes “oh no, it’s not safe to do that, we can’t do this.” Your body tries to protect you from entering these uncharted territories, because it’s not prepared or accustomed to moving in this way. This can create a world of limitation for even the most natural athlete, and limitations are the thief of freedom in our life.

Everyone deserves to feel capable and strong, especially in midlife. Movement Snacks engage these new variations of movement in an accessible way. It’s ten minutes a day that helps your body become 360 degrees strong.

I’m a multi-passionate person, and a very happy generalist in my movement culture. I like to move, swim, climb, do parkour, strength train, roll, jump, and play, do handstands, lift and throw things. It’s okay for this variety of movement to look different for you. I have friends I do parkour with and because of our backgrounds, the movement looks very different for us. So there are ways to still engage with what you naturally love and enjoy this generalist approach to movement.

“Fear and distress are movement’s greatest enemies!” 

When you adapt your body to new ways of movement, you also protect yourself from imbalances that lead to injury. Injury then takes you away from doing what you love! So this idea of ‘no pain, no gain’ or an ‘all or nothing’ approach are concepts I encourage a lot of people to step back from.

Movement goes far beyond just play or exercise or hard work. It’s about your life, and being able to walk into these uncharted movement territories and know that you’re capable of handling it.

If you constantly push yourself into one extreme or another, you’re operating on borrowed time. You fall into injury, limitations or pain because you aren’t 360 degrees strong. Diversity is what prepares you for life, and Movement Snacks help you incorporate these sustainable practices everyday.

Stepping out of your comfort zone is intimidating for anyone. You may even find yourself doing a “simple” ten minute Movement Snacks practice and it’s far more challenging than you expected. The mind body connection is a part of everything we do, and you’ve got to ‘reveal it to heal it.’ Movement snacks are your foundation, and they might draw you into a new state of being along the way. They should be part of your baseline of training, in order to address the things you might not want to spend hours doing. Those ten minutes get you moving, engage foreign areas and in the end help you feel good. It feels good to feel good and it’s only ten minutes. So you have plenty of time to keep doing more of what you love in life.

So what does a Movement Snack look like?

4 years ago Jared Tavasolian (Mohsen Health) and I came up with a system that we know works as not only have we been using it but so have all of our clients.

 Start with:

1 minute of breathing

2-3 mins of nervous system resets

5 minutes mobility

1 minute finisher to fill in the gaps of how and what you moved in the 5 minutes

Some people find joy in harder workouts, while others like a more playful approach. It’s all about finding your movement culture, and adapting these Movement Snacks to fill in the blanks—when you’re not moving enough, or not moving in new ways. I promise that commiting to these actionable bite- sized movements everyday will make a difference. As you step into midlife, you want to be able to move. To get up the stairs, carry your groceries or get down on the ground with ease. This is a state of living where you have true freedom, and you feel good. Movement Snacks help you build this 360 degree strength, so you show up in life feeling capable in everything you do.