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How to Create a Trauma-Sensitive Home Exercise Routine
6 steps to help you feel safe
Figuring out how to initiate (or return) to exercise in a way that feels emotionally and physically safe after experiencing illness, accidents, or acts of violence can be challenging, triggering, and overwhelming. The same could be said for those trying to increase their capacity for life’s stressors or processing their experiences in talk therapy.
If any of these scenarios resonate with you, a trauma-sensitive approach to fitness can help.
Trauma-Sensitive Workouts
At its heart, a trauma-sensitive approach to fitness accounts for the psychological, emotional, and physiological changes and symptoms of trauma or chronic stress. It makes you the agent of your movement practice, and it prioritizes a feeling of safety in your body and environment while you work out.
Maybe you’ve never heard of trauma-sensitive workouts, or you believe this approach is limited to yoga. The fact is, trauma-sensitive fitness instruction is still quite new.
As a pioneer in this movement, I recognize that for many people, working out at home is the best (or only) option available. I regularly create home workouts for people living with trauma, chronic stress, chronic fatigue syndrome, and fibromyalgia.Whether you choose to work out at home because that’s where you feel safest or because of practical issues like caregiving or your budget, I want to help you create the very best practice. Here are six steps to get you started.
Step 1: Conduct Your Own Intake
Identify your goals, the conditions you need in place to work out, and your resources first.
Your goals may vary. For example, you may want to get grounded in your body. Or you may need to manage chronic pain or improve your sleep hygiene. No matter what they are, your goals will dictate most of the decisions you make, from exercise modality to workout frequency.
Next, define the conditions you need in place. Ask yourself: What do you need from your training environment? Do you need space or privacy? What time of day is best? What equipment do you need? What type of guidance or instruction…
