17/08/2026
Things I hear all the time when I start talking about movement with my clients are:
“I can’t exercise because I’ve hurt my knee.” “I’ve got arthritis.” “I can’t go to the gym.” etc etc.
I think sometimes we hear the word movement and immediately picture going to the gym, running, doing a workout or whatever we’ve seen someone doing online.
What I actually want you to think about first is simply, how can you spend less time being sedentary?
That could be walking the dog, pottering around the garden, walking around while you’re on the phone dancing in the kitchen or even getting up and down from your chair a few times while you’re watching TV.
It might not feel like exercise, but your body doesn’t care what you call it. You’re using your muscles and you’re not sitting still.
This is really important when we’re talking about metabolic health. Our muscles play a huge role in taking glucose out of the blood, and regular movement helps improve our sensitivity to insulin.
If you’ve been sedentary for a long time, going from that to trying to copy someone doing workouts on Instagram is probably going to feel pretty overwhelming and the chances are you’ll decide exercise isn’t for you before you’ve really even started.
So start with what you know your body can do. Because as you move more and start trusting your body more, then you can look at adding other things focusing on cardiovascular exercise and resistance training.
What you choose to do doesn’t need to look like anyone else’s version of exercise.
Sometimes the best place to start is just moving a little more than you did yesterday because all movement counts.