Your GP Told You to Exercise. Now What?
any.BODY Journal · Exercise Physiology
Your GP Told You to Exercise. Now What?
Knowing you should exercise and knowing how to actually do that in your body and your life are two very different things. That's where an Exercise Physiologist comes in.
You've been told to get stronger. To exercise for your bone density. To move more to help manage your blood pressure. To build muscle through menopause. To improve your fitness before surgery. To start exercising again after an injury. Or perhaps simply that losing some weight and becoming more active would be good for your health.
The advice makes sense. The problem is that "you should exercise" and knowing how to actually do that in your body and your life are two very different things.
That's where an Exercise Physiologist can help.
Bridging the gap between healthcare and exercise
An Accredited Exercise Physiologist (AEP) uses exercise as part of the prevention and management of health conditions, injuries and disability.
In simple terms, we can help bridge the gap between what you're hearing in the consult room and what you actually do with your body.
Your GP might tell you that resistance training is important for your bones. Your cardiologist might want you exercising regularly. Your physio might have finished the initial stages of your rehabilitation. Your specialist might have cleared you to return to exercise.
An Exercise Physiologist can help answer the next question: okay — but what does that actually look like for me?
That might mean working out where to start, what type of exercise is appropriate, how much is enough, how hard you should work and how to progress over time.
But at any.BODY, we think there's another layer to this.
Ready to get an answer to "what does this actually look like for me?" Book your initial EP consultation and we'll start there.
What does an any.BODY Exercise Physiologist do?
Most of the people who walk through our doors already know they should exercise. They don't necessarily need another health professional telling them that movement is good for them.
What they're often struggling with is how to move in their body. And that's a much more interesting question.
We're less interested in simply giving you a list of exercises and more interested in helping you understand your body, build its capacity and become increasingly confident using it.
Because a diagnosis can give us useful information, but it doesn't tell us everything we need to know about the person sitting in front of us.
We start with the person, not the diagnosis
Two people can have exactly the same diagnosis and need completely different things from exercise.
Someone living with POTS might want to increase how long they can comfortably remain upright. Someone else with POTS might already be exercising and want to return to heavier strength training.
Someone with hypermobility might want to feel more stable and confident under load. Another person might be trying to rehabilitate an ankle injury while also navigating joints that move differently.
Someone with muscular dystrophy might want to maintain enough strength to get out of a chair and up from the floor — while also building the upper-body capacity to continue a ceramics hobby they love.
Someone with scoliosis might not need us to "fix" their spine. They might need help understanding how their body compensates during different movements, so they can get stronger without being frightened of moving the "wrong" way.
Someone with osteoporosis might know they need to lift weights but have absolutely no idea what meaningful bone-loading exercise actually looks like — particularly when pain, hypermobility or previous injuries are also part of the picture.
And someone living with persistent pain, fatigue or complex health conditions might need to learn how to exercise without constantly worrying that every sensation means something has gone wrong.
The condition matters. But the person living with it matters more.
Sometimes, the exercise isn't actually the hard part
Weight loss is a good example.
If you came to see us wanting to lose weight, we could assess you, explain the benefits of resistance and cardiovascular training, determine an appropriate exercise dose and give you a program.
But chances are, you already know that being physically active is probably going to be part of the picture. The more useful conversation might be:
What happens when work gets busy and exercise is the first thing to disappear? Why have previous attempts worked for a few weeks and then stopped? Is the routine you're trying to follow actually realistic for your life? Do you find yourself stuck in an all-or-nothing cycle where missing one workout turns into missing the entire week? What happens to your movement, eating and sleep when you're stressed? And what kind of movement do you actually enjoy enough to continue doing?
Exercise Physiology meets lifestyle coaching
This is another important part of how we approach Exercise Physiology at any.BODY. We don't exist in a vacuum, and neither does exercise.
Your health is influenced by your movement, but also by your routines, behaviours, sleep, stress, environment, confidence, competing priorities and everything else happening in your life.
So sometimes our role looks like traditional exercise prescription. Other times, there's an element of lifestyle coaching — helping you identify what's getting in the way, set realistic goals, experiment with different strategies and build behaviours that are sustainable outside the studio.
Because we can write the world's most physiologically perfect exercise program, but if it doesn't fit into your life, it isn't a very good program for you.
And this doesn't only apply to weight loss. Someone managing persistent fatigue might need help balancing activity and recovery. Someone returning to exercise after years away might need to rebuild confidence before they need a complicated training program. Someone going through menopause might want to get stronger but need to work out how training fits alongside changing energy, sleep and a busy life. Someone managing a new health diagnosis might need support making movement feel normal again rather than something medical, scary or overwhelming.
Exercise is one part of the conversation.
We want you to understand why
Our goal isn't simply to supervise you while you exercise. We want you to begin understanding your own body.
Why are we choosing this exercise? What are we trying to change? Why are we increasing the weight? What does an appropriate amount of discomfort or fatigue feel like for you? What can you change if an exercise doesn't feel right today? When is it okay to keep going, and when might you need to modify something?
Over time, you start developing your own toolkit. Instead of needing someone to tell you exactly what to do every time something changes, you become better at adapting, problem-solving and making decisions about movement yourself.
That's particularly powerful for people who have spent years feeling like their body is fragile, unpredictable or something they can't trust.
Ultimately, we want you to need us less
That might sound like a strange thing for a healthcare business to say. But one of the best outcomes of Exercise Physiology is empowerment.
We don't want you to believe that you can only exercise safely when an EP is standing beside you. We want you to understand what you're doing and why you're doing it. We want you to recognise what your body is capable of. We want you to know how to modify something when you need to, how to progress when you're ready and how to navigate the inevitable ups and downs without feeling like you're back at square one.
For some people, that eventually means exercising completely independently. For others, particularly those living with complex or changing health conditions, having an EP involved for longer might continue to be valuable. Either way, the goal is the same: more capacity, more understanding and more confidence in your own body.
So, when should you see an Exercise Physiologist?
You don't need to wait until exercise becomes complicated enough to feel "clinical."
You might see an EP because your GP has told you to exercise and you don't know where to start. You might already exercise but have a health condition, injury or changing body that means the usual advice doesn't quite work for you. You might know exactly what you're supposed to be doing but struggle to make it happen consistently in real life. Or perhaps you've spent so long being told what you can't do that you'd like someone to help you discover what you can.
At any.BODY, we don't just ask "what exercise does this condition or goal need?" We ask: what does this person need to understand their body, build its capacity and make movement work in their life?
Because exercise prescription is only one layer. Understanding your body, understanding your life, building capacity, building confidence and eventually giving you the skills to manage more of it yourself — that's the bigger picture.
Not sure where to start? Book an initial Exercise Physiology consultation and we'll help you figure out what your body actually needs.
Book an EP Consultation