How Long Is Enough Movement?
I’ve been thinking a lot about a question that kind of annoys me.
How long do we need to work out for it to “count”?
There’s something about that framing that feels gross to me. Not because it’s a bad question. It’s a very practical one. Life is busy. Energy is finite. Time is weird in midlife.
But the idea that movement only matters if it crosses some invisible threshold feels off.
Still, I think about it a lot. Probably because I’m living it.
Most of my workouts right now are short. Ten to fifteen minutes. Dumbbells for arms. Resistance bands. Booty bands. The usual suspects if you’ve been following along for a while. I’ve also added some fascia work, though I learned quickly that thirty minutes of that was a little too ambitious for me. So now I’m doing about ten minutes there too.
And here’s the thing. I feel progress.
Not visually. Not in a mirror. But in what my Body can do. In how it feels during the day. In how it functions when I’m not “working out” at all.
That shift is kind of the entire point of this project. It’s not about how I look. It’s about what I can do.
But even with that mindset, this question keeps coming up. Especially in conversations with other midlife women.
How long do we need to move?
How long do we want to move?
And are those the same thing?
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The Difference Between Showing Up and Craving Something
I’ve got my basic routine down now. I stick with a specific video for a while. Long enough to almost get bored with it. Then I change things up to make it a little more challenging again. Some days I add extra videos. Other days I do the bare minimum and call it a win.
That part feels good. Sustainable. Kind.
But this week something else came up.
I realized I really miss long walks.
Not errands. Not city walking with stops and interruptions and standing in lines. I mean real walks. Just walking. For an hour. No clock. No goal. Just moving forward.
I used to do this all the time. Trails in California. Gentle hills. Long stretches where the only decision was whether to keep going or turn back. Albania had a bit of this too, though heat and pollution made it harder to do regularly.
And I haven’t done anything like that in a long time.
So I asked myself what was stopping me.
And honestly? Not much.
Yes, there’s adulthood. Responsibilities. The mental load of moving countries. Winter weather. Wind. Rain. Stress. All of that is real.
But there’s also plenty of nature around me. Both where I live and where I work. And the weather, even on bad days, isn’t actually that bad.
What I’m struggling with is something else.
Detaching.
Letting myself take that time without structuring it. Without optimizing it. Without deciding in advance how long it should be or what it should accomplish.
And that’s when this idea clicked.
Not All Movement Is the Same
We talk a lot about movement as something we should do. Something that keeps us healthy. Strong. Mobile. Pain free.
And yes, those kinds of movement matter. They’re important. Especially in midlife.
But I don’t think they’re the whole picture.
I think there are different lengths of movement for different needs. And maybe even different categories of movement altogether.
There’s movement that keeps your body functioning.
There’s movement that helps you get stronger.
There’s movement that supports your joints and muscles and fascia.And then there’s movement that feeds your soul.
That might look different for everyone.
For you, it might not be walking. It might be cycling. Swimming. Stretching for a long time on the floor. Dancing in your living room. Hiking. Gardening. Anything that makes time feel a little less rigid.
Something you don’t do to make progress.
Something you do because it feels good to be in your body while you’re doing it.
That realization surprised me a little. When I first jotted this idea down, I didn’t expect it to turn into a conversation about soul movement. But here we are.
Good for Your Body vs Good for Your Soul
I don’t mean this in a vague or abstract way. And I’m not only talking about anxiety or stress relief.
I’m talking about cravings.
Physical cravings for movement you actually like.
What movement feels good for your body versus what movement feels good for your soul.
Sometimes they overlap. Sometimes they don’t.
For me, walking has always been one of those soul movements. Biking too, though safety matters more to me now than it used to. I’m no longer interested in fighting cars just to prove a point.
Walking, though? I can do that now. Even in winter. Even in the wind.
The challenge isn’t my body. It’s giving myself permission.
Permission to step away.
Permission to not measure it.
Permission to just go.
When Movement Helps You Feel Like Yourself Again
There’s something about finishing a soul movement that’s hard to explain.
You’re not just physically tired or energized.
You feel connected.
To yourself.
To the world around you.
To your thoughts.
Things settle. Ideas land. The rest of the day makes more sense somehow.
And that matters. Especially right now.
I’m about a week away from a visa decision here in Spain. The stress is high. The uncertainty is loud. And this is exactly the kind of moment when it’s easy to double down on productivity and forget the things that actually help.
This episode was as much a reminder to myself as it was a question for you.
So I’ll Ask You This
What is your soul movement?
Not the one you schedule.
Not the one you track.
Not the one you feel obligated to do.
The one you love.
The one you forget about sometimes.
The one that makes you smile from the inside when you’re done.
And if you don’t have one, maybe that’s okay too. Maybe this is just a nudge to experiment a little. To try things without committing to them. To notice what feels different afterward.
Because our Bodies can do so much.
And they don’t always need to be managed or optimized or corrected.
Sometimes they just want to move.
And sometimes that movement is meant to feed more than muscles.
my Body can
And your Body can too
See you next week,
Steph
