How Your Nervous System Shapes Your Relationship with Exercise

You know that thing where you want to move your body… but you just can’t seem to?

Or where you drag yourself through a workout and feel worse afterwards, not better?

Or where you’re all-or-nothing — training hard for a few weeks, then crashing completely?

It’s not laziness.

It’s not a motivation issue.

And it’s definitely not something to shame yourself over.

It’s your nervous system.

Wait, What Does the Nervous System Have to Do With Exercise?

Everything.

Your nervous system is your body’s internal surveillance system. It’s scanning all the time: Am I safe? Am I under threat? Can I take action or do I need to shut down?

And depending on the cues it picks up - from your environment, your past experiences, your thoughts, your physical state - it decides whether to mobilise, freeze, flee, or shut things down altogether.

So when it comes to movement:

If your system feels safe and supported, movement might feel energising or playful.

If it feels under threat, movement might feel overwhelming, exhausting, or even impossible.

If it’s stuck in survival mode, you might crave intense output — or avoid it completely.

None of this is personal failure. It’s biology.

Signs Your Nervous System Might Be Driving the Show

• You constantly override your body’s signals to “push through.”

• You find it hard to start moving, even when you know it would feel good.

• You experience anxiety or dread before workouts, even if you enjoy them after.

• You’ve got a pattern of all-or-nothing when it comes to training.

• You feel disconnected from your body while moving — or numb to sensations entirely.

• You only feel “okay” once you’ve punished your body enough.

These aren’t things to fix. They’re messages.

Signals that your body’s been trying to stay safe in the ways it knows how.

What Helps? (Hint: It’s Not Forcing It)

At Fresh Air And, we don’t teach people to fight their bodies. We teach people to listen.

That means learning to:

• Work with your nervous system instead of against it

• Use breath, pacing, and environment to create safety

• Recognise when you’re in a survival response - and know what to do about it

• Build trust over time, not through force

• Honour rest, stillness, and softness as part of your training

This isn’t just about working out.

It’s about learning to feel safe in your body again — or maybe for the first time.

Movement That Meets You Where You Are

Your body’s responses make perfect sense.

Your patterns are adaptations, not flaws.

And movement can be part of your healing, growing, future health - if it’s offered with compassion, care, and regulation at the centre.

That’s the work we do in our group offers at Fresh Air And.

Not punishing, performative fitness.

Not shame-driven “transformation.”

But slow, steady, safe reconnection.

Come see what that feels like. Our intro offers are open — and we’d love to meet you.