Raise your hand if you or someone you know has a sit-to-stand desk.
Now keep your hand raised if you’ve started hearing people talk about walking pads.
We’re shifting from workouts to a movement lifestyle—and honestly, it’s about time.
Everything moves in swings and roundabouts, doesn’t it? Think about fashion—one minute it’s high-waisted jeans and flares, then it’s low-rise skinny jeans, and now we’re back to high-waisted everything.
Parenting has seen the same cycles. The free-range kids movement feels like a response to the helicopter parenting era—a nod to the 80s, when parents often only had a vague idea of where we were on any given day.
Exercise isn’t immune to this pendulum swing either. There was a time when we moved more naturally—walking more, doing calisthenics, or following short home aerobics routines. Most importantly, we didn’t spend our days sitting at desks.
As technology made our lives more sedentary, we ramped up workout intensity to counteract it—training like athletes in the gym and then spending the rest of the day sitting.
But I think we’re all starting to realise something important: you can’t out-workout a day of sitting. (Although, I’ll admit, it does keep me busy treating injuries!)
Daily movement is so much more effective at keeping our bodies happy.
I realised this myself a few years ago. I was spending 20 minutes driving to and from the gym, and when I got there, half of my 60-minute strength class was spent listening to instructions. It felt inefficient, and honestly, it wasn’t working for me.
That’s when I decided to break my weekly workouts into daily microworkouts—just 10 minutes a day of intentional, well-programmed movement. And I’ve never looked back.
Layering these 10min workouts onto a background of more daily movement has left my body feeling good. Those little niggles settle quickly, my strength continues to build, and the biggest difference is there’s no guilt. Exercise isn’t a big deal anymore. It’s not this giant, looming task hanging over me. It’s just something I do every day, almost automatically, at whatever level I can manage that day.
And here’s the real kicker: if I miss a day, that’s only 14% of my weekly movement—not 33%.
This shift has also changed how I program exercises for women. Time and time again, I’ve seen how daily routines are easier to establish than a 3x/week routine. When movement becomes a regular part of your day, everything changes.
But the movement you do needs to be intentional—with your goals and symptoms in mind. The 10 minutes I’d program for someone with neck pain from sitting at a desk all day looks very different from the 10 minutes I’d program for a 45-year-old woman looking to build strength and manage perimenopause symptoms. It’s not about throwing in a few random stretches. If you’re going to dedicate 10 minutes, make it count.
I still love gyms and studios for the sense of community, accountability, and that extra loving push of what we can do. But the real magic is in the small, consistent actions we take every day. These moments act as a safety net on our less active days and as a booster on our gym days.
If this feels like a breath of fresh air to you, you’re not alone. Movement doesn’t have to feel overwhelming—it can be simple, sustainable, and something you actually look forward to.
If you haven’t already joined my Everyday GLOW Challenge, you need to get on it! It’s starting on Monday, with instructions going out this Sunday, the 19th. It’s totally free and is designed to show you exactly how to build movement into your day, no matter what else is on your schedule. [Click here to join the challenge]
In the meantime, hit reply and let me know what your goal would be for your 10min sessions, and I’ll send you some ideas!