‘It’s Ok To Rest’: Alice Liveing Explains The Benefits Of Intuitive Exercise

Alice Liveing is not only a personal trainer and celebrated fitness influencer, she's also a bestselling author and last year founded the Give Me Strength App, an inclusive platform that offers workouts for all levels, recipes and a mood tracker. Suffice to say she has a busy schedule, but that didn't stop her from finding the time to speak exclusively to Grazia about a topic she has recently become very passionate about: intuitive exercise.

Intuitive exercise is involves listening to your body and using your energy levels and mood to inform your workout rather than forcing yourself into a regimented quota of workouts. 'The word "intuitive" is becoming really popular, both in relation to food and movement,' explains Alice, 'I think a lot of people are waking up to this idea that our internal cues are quite good, we can trust them, they tell us when to move, when to rest, when to step things up.' Alice continues, 'It's about letting go of a regimented routine and asking yourself: do I feel up to training today? Am I going to feel better after I've moved my body? Does my exercise need to be something restorative? Or can it need to be energising? And is there any downside to me doing this? It's all about leaning into your own internal dialogue.'

Alice recalls the way she used to think about exercise: 'My old approach to training was tied so strongly to wanting to look a certain way and wanting to burn a certain number of calories. My goals were so aesthetic.' Nowadays her goal is headspace, 'for me, exercise is all about mental clarity. It's about energising myself and feeling strong. I'm far less focused on how I look and much more in tune with how I feel.'

How To Exercise Intuitively

The first step to exercising intuitively is digging into your motivation. 'Ask yourself what it is that's making you train,' says Alice, 'sometimes, as a personal trainer, I have to have a hard conversation with people because they are so stuck in that must-burn-calories mindset. I ask my client to separate the two notions and then I ask them, "what type of exercise would you do ideally?", "how much would you train?". All of a sudden they realise, OK, maybe I don't have to sign up to five exhausting cardio classes a week, maybe I don't have to run 15k, maybe 5k will do.'

'Allow yourself to dial it down a little,' says Alice, 'we can't always be turned up to our highest setting, that's when people start to experience immune function issues, low energy, poor sleep, mood fatigue and your periods might be disrupted. Learning to dial it down and exercise intuitively can make all the difference.'

Photographer credit: Lydia Collins

Alice Liveing's Give Me Strength App is available to download across all platforms, The Give Me Strength January challenge is available to access now with a 4 week programme.

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