Hello, hello! Fitness Friends, I’ve got the teacher hat on for today’s post. I believe language is important and there are lots of words that get mixed up, stirred together, or inadvertently misused in fitness land. It’s been a long time since I’ve covered this, but sometimes we all need a refresher, so let’s break down the differences between training, exercise, and movement today.

Part of the reason things can get so confusing in fitness world is simply because there are just as many similarities as there are differences. I’ve talked many times about health and wellness, but the way we choose to define them lends to an amplification of the similarities. It’s not necessarily a bad thing. At the end of the day, most of us are referring to the desire to have and keep a sense of well-being, especially as it relates to our bodies.

But the devil is in the details, or so they say. Health is just an absence of illness or injury. Wellness is the pursuit of that state across the entire physical, mental, emotional, and metaphysical being. Illness and injury are easy to measure and categorize. But the pursuit of that? And in areas we aren’t used to associating with health, like social components? Much tougher nuts to crack.

Such is the way with training, exercise, and movement. They all refer to moving the physical body, but it is the underlying details that provide more insight. It’s this insight that can actually teach us what is more important for each of us based on our short and long term goals and our present needs.

Movement

Movement is simply that: moving the physical body. With movement, things are not necessarily planned. They can be, as in going for a walk after dinner. But they don’t have to be, as in walking down a long driveway to get the mail. Movement also doesn’t have a specific end goal. We move to feel good and we move to have fun.

As a personal example, when I am playing basketball with my son, that is movement for me. Even though my body is undergoing the physiological changes associated with cardiovascular exercise (i.e. increases in heart rate and respiration), it isn’t part of a particular workout. I also don’t have an end goal in mind beyond having a good time with my kiddo. Both of these things (physiological and psychological changes) will have positive net effects on my overall health and wellness, but neither was planned nor does it have anything to do with a specific goal.

Exercise

Exercise takes movement a step towards the more specific. Pun intended. Exercise is generally something that is planned. Even if it is planned with short notice (i.e. meeting friends for pickleball), there is planning involved. Exercise does not necessarily have a specific goal, though. It can, but it does not have to.

Another personal example: I have not made a secret that I deal with generalized anxiety issues. When I am dealing with a high anxiety state, I exercise. I plan my workouts and they have a focus to them. Steady state cardio (especially walking and biking) to relieve the tension and twitchies (as I call the muscle tightness that comes with), grounding yoga, and moderate strength training if it isn’t triggering more muscle tension. The plan (and the goal), though is to utilize the movement as a tool. We know that regular exercise helps reduce the severity of symptoms, and for me it works wonders. But I am certainly not attempting monumental goals under these circumstances.

Training

Which brings me to training. Training is movement that is both planned, and usually pretty seriously, and goal focused. Your workouts have to be intentional. Each workout  has to keep in mind the end goal. That is the best way to tell the difference between exercise and training. If you want to lose weight, exercise is fine because anything that causes you to burn more calories that you consume will work. There is less intention needed. But if you want to run a marathon or put on five pounds of muscle? You have to train. Those things don’t happen with less focused exercise. Each workout means something and should be trying to move you toward your goal.

Again, an example from my life: pregnancy, childbirth, and postpartum. Sure, we don’t think of these things as something to train for, and in fact there are still doctors around that don’t want women exercising during pregnancy. Unless you meet certain criteria, it’s largely safe, although you may need to modify things in the second and third trimesters.

I digress. Childbirth, vaginal or Cesarean, are hugely demanding for the body. To say nothing of the early postpartum recovery period when you are sleep deprived on top of trying to heal. I trained for this. Now, my training didn’t look like full on running and barbell back squats, but I was still training. I did full body lifting two days per week, cardio of some kind (walking or stationary biking) two days per week, and prenatal yoga three days.

I had an unmedicated labor and normal delivery. However, I had some tearing and healing was a non-linear process. If it hadn’t been for my prenatal routine, my situation could have been a lot worse, especially as I wasn’t able to return to exercise at the six week mark. My prenatal program also made sure I had enough strength reserve to deal with caring for a tiny human under the extreme sleep deprivation that comes with being a new parent.

All three of these have their place and, in my opinion, should be used on a sliding scale based on what season of life you are currently in and what your needs happen to be. But it is important to know that movement or even exercise alone will not be enough if you have a goal you are trying to meet. You will need to plan and challenge yourself appropriately. It is also key to understand that training isn’t necessary for every single phase of life and it is okay to just enjoy moving your body from time to time.

If you have specific questions, drop them in the comments!