If you’re already exercising regularly and you still feel like you “should” be doing more, it’s probably not a time issue.
And it’s unlikely to be a motivation issue either.
In most cases, it’s a capacity issue.
As in: your week is already full of movement you enjoy, that supports you in some way, and there’s just no obvious place to put this other important thing without something else giving.
And that’s the part no one really helps you with.
When you already have a routine you like, but you’re now being told something else matters too, how do you know:
if it deserves a place in your week
and how to make it fit?
This is something I work through with women all the time in my 1:1 physio consults and online coaching.
Just last week, I had a woman in her 50s come in to see me who was already doing plenty of exercise.
She was doing Pilates four times a week, walking most days, had an active job, and genuinely loved her routine.
She wasn’t unmotivated.
She wasn’t “falling off the wagon”.
But she kept hearing the message that Pilates doesn’t replace strength training, and it left her feeling uneasy.
She didn’t want to blow up a week that was already working for her.
She just wanted clarity.
She was asking:
How do I fit this in when I don’t actually have any more space?
This is where most women get stuck.
Not because they don’t care, but because they’re trying to add, when what’s actually needed is a rebalance.
And you can’t rebalance what you don’t understand.
Because to change the balance, you need to know:
➡️ what each type of exercise is actually doing
➡️ what outcomes it supports
➡️ and how much you actually need
So with this client, we:
✔️ double-checked that strength training actually deserved a place in her week (it did)
✔️ clarified how much she needed each week for it to do its job
✔️ decided when, where, and how she would train (she chose two sessions per week at home)
✔️ swapped out one to two Pilates sessions for strength training
✔️ built a strength program based on her goals, injury history, lifting experience, and the equipment she had at home
She wasn’t thrilled about replacing a session or two of Pilates, but she left feeling clear and confident that her plan was aligned with her values and goals.
The thing is, different types of exercise do different jobs.
Walking, Pilates, yoga, strength training, cardio. None of them are better or worse. They just support different outcomes.
Clarity comes from intention.
Not from doing more.
Once you’re clear on why something is in your week, the question stops being:
“Should I be doing this?”
And becomes:
“How do I create capacity for this?”
That’s a thinking skill most women were never taught.
My Exercise with Intention Cheatsheet is a resource I use when I’m working through this process with women I coach.
It shows:
✅ what different types of exercise are good for
✅ how much of each you need for it to be effective
✅ a filter so you can run all of the exercise ‘noise’ through it to see what deserves a place
All designed to help you get clarity on what actually belongs in your week.
If this sounds helpful, I’m sharing it for free with everyone on my email list:
👉 Download the Exercise with Intention Cheatsheet here
As always, thanks for being here and for letting me share how I see things.