Article from our local newspaper on exercise resistance  (with my letter to
the editor following)



"IMMOVABLE OBJECT"

Resistance to exercise can be overcome

Judy Stanford (writer at the Daily Advertiser/accent section)


July 15, 2003

 


You know you should exercise. You’re well aware it could make you look
better, feel better and live longer.

But, somehow, you never get around to it. Or if you do, you try the latest
craze for a few weeks or months, then abandon it.

For many, the idea of exercise has become disconnected from the idea of
having fun, said clinical social worker Connie Konikoff. “When we’re young,
we don’
t exercise. We move; we play.

“Movement is a birthright we’ve lost touch with and we’ve lost touch with
it
for some very good reasons.”

The drive to avoid exercise, for some, may come from exercise resistance
syndrome, Konikoff said. The relatively new concept was introduced by Francie
White, a Santa Barbara, Calif., registered dietitian whose course work included
a
heavy concentration in exercise physiology. White specializes in eating
disorders and exercise disorders.

“Exercise resistance syndrome is a resistance to wanting to move your body,”
White said in a telephone interview. “It’s a resistance to expressing
yourself physically.

“It’s probably, at this point, loosely defined, but I’d say it’s a
syndrome
that has a spectrum, from severe to mild, whereupon somebody finds herself
continuously quitting their exercise endeavors. They just start up, go to the
gym for four months and quit again.”

Although men can also be affected by exercise resistance, White said her work
so far has been focused on how it affects women.




Connie Konikoff





“We know that two-thirds of women do not get enough exercise,” Konikoff
said, “and 25 percent may get none at all.”

Resistance to exercise may have its roots in gym classes where children were
judged on their ability to perform physical tasks and failed, Konikoff said.
Or it might come from criticism by peers.

“The second you’re evaluated — you look stupid, or you’re moving too
slowly
or that’s the wrong kind of exercise, you react to it,” Konikoff said.

It may also be rooted in a rebellion against cultural pressures.

“We have a very authoritarian presence in our culture,” White said. “You
should exercise. You should eat right. I think deep down, it (angers) women to
have someone else implying what we should do with our bodies.

“And, when it gets connected to an external goal of losing weight or looking
a different way, it becomes work.”

Konikoff agrees.

“Where children or adults are told, ‘you need to lose weight,’ it means
you’
re unaccepting of the way you are. People who exercise for that reason often
don’t keep it up. It’s the psyche’s way of saying, ‘Love me as I
am.’”

For others, it may have come from a traumatic incident involving exercise,
said Konikoff, who now finds herself unable to ride horses after being severely
injured in a horseback-riding accident.

Many girls lose their interest in physical activity during adolescence, when
they get the impression it somehow makes them appear less feminine, Konikoff
said.

In the most severe cases, survivors of sexual abuse resist exercise because
they somehow connect it to the time during which they were abused, White said.

The reasons for exercise resistance are many and varied, but it can be
overcome, said Konikoff, who prefers to use the word, “movement,” to avoid
the more
negative associations.

“No. 1 is to paradox the individual,” White said, “by actually telling
them
they’re not allowed to exercise. Put your feet up. No guilt. You’re not to
exercise for a period of weeks, up to two months. It’s just a time out.”

Similar strategies have worked for binge-eaters, White said. During the time
out, clients look at their reasons for avoiding exercise.

Clients of White and Konikoff are asked a series of questions aimed at
finding out why she has become exercise-resistant, the first of which is,
“When did
exercise stop being play?

“Exercise stops being play when the introduction to exercise is lifeless,
rigid, uninteresting and overly competitive,” Konikoff said.

After finding the answers to why they resist exercise, White leads them into
exploring movement that fits their needs. Konikoff, whose background does not
include exercise physiology, refers clients to exercise programs or qualified
instructors.

Konikoff advises clients not to fall into the trap of giving validity to only
certain types of movement.

“Movement doesn’t have to be a formalized, ritualized set of movement. It
can be moving the body in a way that feels authentic and good to you.”

She warns against making into a chore. “I advise people to watch the
‘shoulds
’ around (movement). Because, if you make the time to exercise, it’s not
about setting up another demand, but saying, ‘this is time for me, when I
choose
to move my body.’”

  ©The Lafayette Daily Advertiser (LETTER TO THE EDITOR BELOW)

July 15, 2003


Letter to the Editor:

I wish to clarify a point in the exercise resistance article in Accent/
7/15/03.  First, I want to thank Daily Advertiser writer Judy Stanford for her
interest in this epidemic public health issue and for her ongoing commitment to
our community by making sure relevant issues are publicized so accurately.  I
only wish to add the point that if someone has been emotionally or physically
traumatized, my horse accident in the mountains making me an exemplar, there are
excellent treatments available.  EMDR (eye movement desensitization
reprocessing) and exposure therapies are the usual treatments to consider as
they can
rapidly help heal the trauma and reopen the person to the form of exercise they
wish they could have back, assuming it is medically safe for them to do so. 
I think that there are many forms of exercise available and people usually
only do therapy for issues which interfere with the way they want to live their
lives.  Otherwise it's simple - pick a different exercise!  Sometimes the
exercise resistance is not to a single exercise but to movement in general,
making
treatment important.   Thanks again to the Daily Advertiser for helping us to
understand that exercise resistance is not about laziness!

Connie Konikoff, Msw, Lcsw
110 Nathalie St.
Lafayette, La. 70503
337-237-7643, ext. 2





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