Movement Snacks

I tried so hard to be a powerlifter a few years ago. I went all in. I bought the necessary equipment, hired a coach, adjusted my weekly schedule, etc. I went from 0 to 100 with no ramp up period. I burned out and quit within a month or 2 altogether. Powerlifting was not for me. I still enjoy the three specific movements (squat, bench, and deadlift). But, not enough to make them the primary focus of my exercise habits.

 It is hard to build long term habits. We have all been there before:

• “I am going to eat healthier”
• “I am going to exercise more”
• “I am going to start reading daily”

Those are just a few examples off the top. I am sure you can think of something specific to you. 

When starting something new, going all in is rarely the best approach to take. I have experienced this myself and have even experienced this with previous clients when I was a younger clinician. 

I would evaluate a client and then give them a bunch of exercises to start working on for improvement. Keep in mind, oftentimes these clients have not moved in quite a while. They were also dealing with a lot of pain. 

It was no wonder that I never had good results early on. No one stuck with their exercises. Why would they?It was like trying to force feed a child a bunch of food they don’t want to eat. (I have experienced this with my 3 nieces). It won’t play out too well. In fact, they will outright reject what you ask of them. 

Habits are best built one small step at a time. You don’t want to use a fire hose to water a plant. You start with a little bit of water. The plant grows. You re-pot the plant into a bigger pot. You water it with slightly higher quantities of water. The plant grows. You introduce the plant to your garden and give it more room to grow. Now you end up using a garden hose. It is a step-by-step iterative process. 

Luckily for me (and my clients) a mentor of mine taught me the concept of ‘movement snacks’. Sounds tasty right? This helped me make it easier for clients to adhere to their exercises. It also helped with results. 

Movement snacks are created to help those in pain gradually enter the rehab process by making small habitual changes. You don’t need to perform 10 new exercises off the bat. Maybe you just need to start with 2 or 3 simple to do exercises. They don’t even need to be super structured. 

Knee pain? Every time you bend over to put on your shoe, do a couple of your squat variations learned in the clinic. 

Back pain? Every time you get up to have water during your work hours do 1-2 stretches you learned from your previous PT sessions. 

Tight shoulders? Try that stretch or muscle activation pattern you learned every time you get in the shower. 

Pain when you wash dishes? Perfect time to work on your lower leg loading activities to take pressure away from your back!

The goal is to stack these small movement snacks until you are ready for a meal. Everyone is on a unique timeline. Snacking is to keep you satiated until you are ready to have a meal. Start small and make sure they are easy to do. 

This is a part of how we approach rehab at Revenant Physical Therapy. If you are looking for resources on how to build better habits, I highly recommend reading the book Atomic Habits by James Clear. If you are wondering what movement snacks are best suited for you, then schedule a free consultation call with us! We are more than happy to help you build better movement habits to a happy, healthy, and pain-free life!