Here at FitFarms we don’t just believe in exercise, we believe in MOVEMENT

When people talk about a healthy lifestyle the emphasis is often placed on exercise. And it makes sense in a lot of ways.

Exercise has many benefits, for example:

• It builds strength and endurance
• It can lift your mood, increase confidence and relieve stress
• It is fun and social

For these reasons we do a lot of exercise during every FitFarms course. During the week we will introduce you to lots of different exercises such as yoga, resistance training, HIIT training, aerobics, kettle bells and boxercise. The aim is to give you a wide variety so you can start to get an idea of what types of exercise you enjoy and which ones you will want to carry on when you get home. All the classes are fun, relaxed and our trainers make everything accessible, so no matter what your fitness level you can give it a go.

That said we also take a very holistic approach to health, which recognises that being healthy is much more than being able to do lots of push ups and squats. It doesn’t matter if you exercise every day or only a few times a week - if your body doesn’t feel good during your everyday activities (walking up and down the stairs, getting out of the car, carrying your kids) then that isn’t true health.

We want to give you the tools to achieve better whole-body health, and not just improve your fitness (but don't worry, your fitness will definitely improve too!) thats why we emphasise MOVEMENT and not just exercise.

What is the difference between movement and exercise, and why does it matter?

Movement is anything that your body can do. And by anything, I mean anything. Digging in the garden, walking to the shops, getting up and down from the floor, playing with your kids. These are all movements. And they all count towards improving your whole-body health.

Exercise is a sub-category of movement, and it’s great for all the reasons mentioned above, but its not enough. Our bodies evolved over thousands of years to expect lots of and lots of low-intensity movement spread continuously through the day. If you exercise for an hour a day thats great for your fitness but it only makes up around 5% of your day. Five percent! That’s hardly anything!

Frequent, varied movement over the course of the day will improve the health of your muscles, the mobility of your joints and the density of your bones. Even if you have a desk-based job this kind of movement profile is possible with a little effort and lateral thinking. During the week at Fit Farms we show you how to improve your mobility and flexibility and you will get lots of ideas for movement breaks to take during your day at the office. We even run a Dynamic Workstation workshop to help you set up your workspace to better facilitate movement.

So what are you waiting for? Let’s get moving!

Special blog post editorial from one of our FitFarms Health and Fitness instructors.