The Exercise Graveyard

Last week a teacher made me laugh out loud. We’d just finished working on Teaser on the Reformer, when she looked at me and said without any sign of joking: “Right… that one’s going straight in the graveyard.” And there it is. The Exercise Graveyard: Where movements go to die. We all have one. For the movements we quietly sidestep in our own practice and sometimes mysteriously “run out of time” to teach. The ones that feel awkward, exposing, too demanding, or that highlight exactly what we’d rather not look at. Sometimes it’s not the big, dramatic exercises, it’s the simple ones that ask for precision, control and honesty. The roll down that reveals where we grip. The single leg work that exposes a left/right difference. The footwork that shows us we’re not as balanced as we thought. Why do we bury them? Because they make us feel uncomfortable. They take us out of the flow of what we’re good at and place us firmly in beginner’s mind. They challenge our habits, our compensations, and the movement strategies we’ve built often very cleverly sometimes over years. And if we’re honest, they ask us to slow down and pay attention. But here’s the magic: the exercises we avoid are usually the ones that have the most to teach us. They shine a light on what’s missing. The lightbulb moments live here That wobble, that lack of control, that “I have no idea how to do this” feeling, that’s not failure. That’s learning. Deep learning. The kind that changes how we move, how we teach, and how we understand our clients. Avoidance has a story Very often the exercises we dislike are linked to:

• an old injury

• a lifestyle pattern

• a structural asymmetry

• or simply a movement we’ve never truly experienced in our own body

When we visit the exercise graveyard instead of avoiding it, something shifts. We discover:

• A part of our body we didn't know how to access

• A connection that has been switched for years

• A strategy that no longer serves us

• A strength that was waiting to be found

Why do we bury them?

Because they make us feel uncomfortable. They challenge our habits,  our compensations, and the movement strategies we've built sometimes over years.

What’s in your Exercise Graveyard?

Which movement do you always skip? Which one makes you sigh when it appears in the repertoire? Which one do you hope your teacher forgets? That might just be the place where your next breakthrough is waiting.

From graveyard to goldmine

What if, instead of burying these exercises, we approached them with curiosity? Because when we do that, these once-dreaded movements become some of our most powerful teaching tools.

• They remind us of what it feels like to be a student.

• They deepen our empathy.

• They sharpen our eye.

• They expand our movement vocabulary.

And every now and then, they give us that beautiful, unmistakable

lightbulb moment

.

Your turn

What’s in your Exercise Graveyard? Which movement do you always skip? Which one makes you sigh when it appears in the repertoire? Which one do you hope your teacher forgets? That might just be the place where your next breakthrough is waiting.