Today is World Heart Day, with this year's theme, Don't Miss a Beat. It got me thinking about something slightly different: how much movement we miss because we don't really count it as movement.
We have a funny definition of being active. If we changed into workout clothes and deliberately made time for it, it counts. If we walked to the MRT with a bag digging into our shoulder, took four flights because the lift was taking forever, or carried groceries home because we were already out anyway, apparently that was just Tuesday.
None of those things made it onto the exercise part of the calendar. But your body still did them.
Your day asks more of you than you think.
Think about an ordinary workday. There's the walk from the car park or MRT, the stairs, the trip to another floor for a meeting, standing while you wait for coffee, reaching for something on a high shelf, walking out to get lunch, carrying your laptop, and perhaps popping into the supermarket on the way home.
Then there are all the little things you don't even notice anymore: bending down to pick something up, stretching across the kitchen counter, walking around while you're on the phone, or taking the longer route because the other one is crowded. None of this feels particularly athletic. That's precisely the point.
Movement doesn't have to look like exercise to be real.
Maybe we're just very selective about what we count.
Somewhere along the way, we've made “being active” sound like something that requires a dedicated hour, a particular outfit and a workout plan. And those things can absolutely have their place. But they aren't the whole picture.
Your body doesn't switch on when your workout starts and switch off when it ends. It moves through your entire day, sometimes deliberately, sometimes because you have somewhere to be, and sometimes because someone needs something from you. Sometimes because the lift is, once again, taking forever.
That ordinary movement is part of what makes up an ordinary life.
This is something we think about a lot at Active Liberated.
We're interested in the space between the moments that get labelled 'exercise': the commute, the errands, the walk, the stairs, the busy afternoon when you barely sat down, and the evening when you realise you've been on your feet all day.
Because women aren't active in neat little categories. Life doesn't come with a “workout mode”. It's one continuous day, and the things you wear have to move through it with you.
That's also why we think differently about what women need from the things they wear underneath their clothes. Not every bra needs to be a gym bra. Not every day needs to become a workout. Sometimes you just need something that works for the life you're actually living.
So today, don't worry about whether it “counts”.
Instead, notice it. The stairs you took.The walk you made. The bags you carried. The rushing, the reaching, the standing, and the hundred little movements that were simply part of getting through your day.
It may not have been a workout. It was movement.
And maybe that's worth noticing.
What was the most ordinary thing you did today that involved more movement than you realised?
Tell us. We want to hear it.
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