Exercise Resistance Treatment Concepts 

Here is a brief summary of the treatment, which can take several months to complete. It is wonderful work for groups and workshops as well as individual sessions. Consider using journal writing, art as in life maps, collages, visualizations, music, discussions and a meaningful ritual.

1. First, is to give 'exercise resistance' a name.
2. Reframe the concept that “exercise is something you should do” to considering the notion that being physically active is a woman’s birthright, like having time alone or finding her own spiritual path.
3. Offer the suggestion not to exercise during this exploration phase, waiting until a true motivation is established to become active in a brand new way for the rest of her life. This is an initial paradoxical approach to exercise resistance, also wildly successful with binge eating disorder (using the non-diet approach).
4. Next there are a series of questions to ask the resistor to discover the experiences in her history that may have thwarted her incentive to stay physically active. The questions follow her from uninhibited playing in childhood, through the transition to ‘working out’, and how that essential transition might have eclipsed her exercise drive. The questions explore experiences throughout puberty and involve issues of body image, activity and sexuality throughout life stages. Any experiences of exercise connected to weight management are identified (as seeds to resistance), as are periods of over exercise, coaching problems, or experiences with other individuals who made her body their issue. All discouraging experiences are identified, written about or processed.
5. Visualizing-Intention Setting Process: Next, the resistor is asked again to participate in a visualization where she is given the framework to imagine having the freedom and ability to do any kind of activity her body and soul may long to do. Through this process we identify 2-3 activities that bring essential flow or happiness to her.
6. From the idealized visualizing, we take the newly rediscovered longing and use it to convert to actual, practical ideas to begin moving with. Together we create a plan, one that may varying widely in structure according to the individual personality.
7. Once she is ready to commit to integrating exercise into her life, for the rest of her life, never to quit again, only to change the activity .... she decides on a simple ritual to mark the commitment.
8. She performs the ritual (wonderful activity in groups and workshops) and begins her plan. From here, behavior modification strategies as well as exercise physiology and training tips are useful. Psychologically aware personal trainers could also become extremely useful here.

Conclusion

Chronic or repeated inactivity may qualify as exercise resistance, a constellation of attitudes and responses to exercise that end up in a cycle of failure syndrome and self condemnation for women seeking physical health. A model for treatment includes exploring and validating emotional-historical sources of resistance, reframing physical activity as a birthright and life enhancer when performed for internal gratification not external weight or body image reasons. Creating a new beginning to move again as a decision to integrate into one’s body in a profoundly meaningful way, expands the decision to exercise from a simple workout drive. In the end, treatment is focused on removing long-standing blocks to moving, realigning motivation and establishing a life long commitment through empowerment, self trust and the processes described.