Movement Snacks

As we near the winter months, we also near the time of year where, for a lot of us, it becomes more challenging to be physically active. With the colder weather, we don’t go on as many walks or engage in as many outdoor activities. We tend to park as close as we possibly can to the store so we don’t have to endure the cold wind any longer than necessary. It makes sense! I’m generally a chilly person, so it’s way easier for me to choose to curl up on the couch next to a fire than it is to put on 5 layers of clothes just to go on a cold winter walk or run outside.

But less overall activity can lead to weakness, stiffness, and LESS energy! 

So, it’s important to keep our bodies moving regardless of the time of year it is. And when I say movement, I’m not saying it has to be a 30 minute walk or a full workout. Those are wonderful too, but I’m actually more talking about little movement breaks sprinkled throughout the day. I’ve heard these called “movement snacks” and I love this term! Instead of a full workout, which could be termed a full “movement meal,” a movement snack is a short bout of activity or movement that can be interspersed throughout your day. For example, these movement snacks can be a walk to the kitchen to get another glass of water, simply standing and stretching out your limbs, or doing a quick lap around your home or office. These movement snacks can really add up to some great health benefits, and they are especially important during the colder months when we aren’t naturally doing as much movement snacking throughout the day, as compared to the warmer seasons. So let’s go through the benefits of implementing some movement snacks into your day, and explore some easy-to-implement strategies for making it less painful- and less cold- to do so during the winter months. 

The benefits of movement, and exercise in general, are nearly infinite, but I will highlight a few. Working movement snacks throughout the day improves your circulation, which helps to prevent blood clots and reduces swelling. It also keeps up your core strength, as your core muscles can weaken if you are lying down or sitting for much of the day. Frequent physical activity throughout the day is especially important for those who are highly sedentary, who are post-op, or who are recovering from illness, because it helps to build up your cardiovascular endurance. Since muscles atrophy extremely quickly on bedrest - up to 5% decline per day - the more you can weave a little movement throughout your day, the less you’ll lose and also the quicker you will regain it as well. 

Another huge benefit of movement snacking is that it helps to alleviate overall muscle and joint stiffness, as well as reduce aches and pains. Your joints are made to move, and in fact they do not get their nutrition unless you DO move them. The reason for this is that joints do not have blood flowing through them, which is how the rest of your body gets its nourishment. Instead, joints have what’s called synovial fluid, which rushes in and out of the joint when we move it, and provides nutrition to the joint. So if you are sitting still in one position for an hour watching TV, and then you go to get up, you will likely feel a bit (or a lot!) stiff and sore those first few steps as you get going again. This is largely due to the fact that while you were sitting still, there was no synovial fluid moving in and out of your joints. These symptoms really compound if a joint is affected by arthritis: arthritis loves to make joints very stiff, achey, and painful. The less you move, the more that arthritis can really settle in and flare up your symptoms. However, the more you move your body- and especially the more you move those specific joints- throughout the day, the more nourishment the synovial fluid can provide for the joint, and the less stiff and painful you will feel. The arthritis is still there, but you don’t feel it as much because you are keeping that joint moving. 

Now let’s go through a couple of strategies to help you work movement into your day more seamlessly. One of my favorites is using a timer: this could be on your phone, or on your microwave or oven. Set the timer for 20 minutes, and when it goes off, do something! Walk a lap around your home or office, or stand up and stretch. If you’re in the middle of something at work, you could simply pump your ankles up and down, kick your feet out a few times to straighten your knees, and march your knees up to get your hips moving. If you’re using the timer on your phone, you could even set yourself a recurring timer to go off every 20 or 30 minutes throughout the day to serve as a reminder. A built-in benefit to using a timer on your oven or microwave is you’ll already have had your movement snack, just by walking over to turn off the timer! 

Another favorite strategy of mine is using commercials. Since TV shows are created to suck us in and keep us hitting “next episode” for hours on end (or even auto-starting the next episode without you having to lift a finger!), watching TV can be an easy trap that will keep us sedentary all evening, if we let it. If your program has commercial breaks, use those to your advantage. Whenever a commercial starts, that’s your cue to move. Again, this doesn’t have to be extravagant or even take the whole commercial break, if you don’t want it to. Get up and get a snack or refill your water. Use the restroom. For those of you already enrolled in The Balance Boost Course, choose one of your exercises to do during a commercial! (For those who aren’t, you can download my Top 3 Balance-Building Exercises for free and try one of those! Click here and I’ll email it straight to you!). 

If your show doesn’t have commercial breaks, use the transition period between episodes as your reminder to grab a movement snack. 

The most important time to incorporate movement snacking into your day is during any periods where you are susceptible to prolonged inactivity. Do you tend to sit at your desk for work, only getting up for bathroom breaks or lunch? Try some movement snacks during your workday. Do you like to lounge in the evenings watching TV for an hour or 3 before bed? Add in some movement snacks here. 

To summarize, here are a list of movement snack ideas: 

• Walk to the kitchen to refill your water or get an actual snack

• Stand and stretch your limbs and your back 

• Stay sitting, but do some ankle pumps, kick your feet out to straighten your knees, and march your knees up and down to get your hips moving 

• Walk to the mailbox and back (if it’s not too freezing out!) 

• Walk a lap around your home

• Walk upstairs and back down 

• Do one of your exercises from The Balance Boost Course if you’re a member. If you’re not a member, you can download my Top 3 Balance-Building Exercises for free and choose one of those exercises to do. Click here and I’ll email it straight to you! 

What is your favorite movement snack? Are there any that I missed that are your go-to? Email me at [email protected] or join the conversation on social - either Instagram or Facebook!