What Exactly Is Intuitive Exercise & How Do I Practice It?

Most people get intuitive eating wrong. It's not a license to abandon your health and exclusively eat nutrient-poor foods. Rather, it's just the opposite! It takes your mental health into the equation, helps you stop feeling out of control with your food choices, encourages you look forward to nutrient-dense options, and makes not-so-healthy foods less tempting because they are no longer "off limits."

Intuitive exercise means looking at your workout from the lens of how you want your body to feel rather than how you want it to look.

We all know how important exercise is for our overall health. But if we have a toxic, body-shaming relationship with fitness, it can actually damage our mental health rather than help it. Think of it this way: Aiming to lose weight to heal your body image is like smiling to cure depression. Superficially, it may seem like a solution, but it doesn't get at the root of the issue.

Get clear on what you enjoy, what bores you, and what you absolutely despise doing. Just because some influencer or even a friend says something is the best doesn't mean it's the best for you.

So many of us have dissociative tendencies when we're stressed, living entirely in our heads. Movement is an amazing way to not only strengthen the body and improve mobility but also ground us and calm our nervous systems.

You're more likely to get yourself out of bed and onto the mat if you know, at the end of your session, you'll be in a great mood, energized, sleeping more soundly, and feeling great about yourself. That's intrinsic motivation.

Similarly, you're more likely to hit snooze if you're only doing it because someone else said you should (external motivation), at the end of class you're still beating yourself up about how you look, or you're so drained that it negatively affects the rest of your day. (That doesn't mean never do tough workouts; see Step 4!)

It might seem like having a preplanned schedule is a no-brainer way to build exercise into your day—and it can be, if your favorite workout only happens at a specific time with a specific teacher, and your energy levels match that time slot.

However, if you're so rigid with your time and you work out even if it's not what your body needs in that moment, it can lead to more stress and exhaustion and even make you resent your so-called me time. Remember that you're not a robot—and your needs will change with your body's natural rhythms, particularly for those who menstruate.

Pay attention to the narrative in your head before, during, and after your workout. Do you say things like "My body is so gross" or "I've been so bad lately"? Are you repeating limiting beliefs like "I'm not strong enough" or "I'm too weak to do that"? These thoughts are normal and happen to us all, but if we let them have free rein, we'll likely associate exercise with a negative experience.