Money & Exercise

Exercise can reduce stress. Exercise can increase happiness. Improve health. Give you more energy. Help you focus better.

Do you know what else can help with all these things?

Having enough money to get by. Financial security. The ability to save a little for a rainy day. Knowing you can absorb the cost of living increases. Knowing you can pay to fix that noise your car started making.

If you are skipping workouts because you are worried about money, I feel you. I’ve been there too.

I’ve worked in conservation on part-time and short term contracts, and I’ve been self employed for 18 months now. My whole adult life has been a little uncomfortable financially. When I quit my job in September 2020 I had no savings and over £9,000 worth of debt. My secure income was a £750 a month contract. It was a massive gamble and I was shitting myself.

If anyone told me I just needed to prioritise exercise over the coming months I’d have hit the roof.

If you are financially insecure it is OK to prioritise that over exercise. Depending on your circumstances, it could be beneficial to prioritise your financial security over exercise.

Being able to exercise recreationally is a new pursuit, and being able to is a place of immense privilege. If you are still working to get there that is OK, you are not a bad person, lazy, unmotivated, undedicated, or anything else.

And anyone who tells you to just get up and do it isn’t worth the time of day.

If you are worried about money it’s OK not to want to work out. Movement will be here when you are ready.

If you do want to keep moving, that’s great! Keep going.

If not, talk to a business coach. Negotiate a raise. Go for that promotion. Get through the tricky months. Speak to the Money Advice Bureau. Campaign for a living wage.

Money can’t buy happiness, but it can buy headspace, safety, and freedom to choose what you do with your time.

The winter after I quit my job and went full-time self-employed, I essentially stopped training. I lost a lot of strength, put on weight, and my cardiovascular fitness all but vanished. I was literally working in fitness and my money worries were enough to stop me in my movement tracks.

Fortunately, it’s a gamble that paid off, and in spring 2021, just when the bluebells started to appear, I was in a better financial place than ever before. All by itself, movement came back into my life, slowly, steadily, and sustainably.

And it can for you too. Go do what you’ve got to, and we’ll be here when you’re ready.