Exercise modifications are not lesser movements
they are the system doing exactly what it’s designed to do
Hiya 🦐! I’m Amy from The Subsnack. I chat about health and fitness through a weight inclusive, non BS lens helping you to navigate fitness free from fads, trends & misinformation. It’s all about fitness deinfluencing over here.
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Let’s talk about movement modifications because it’s something the fitness industry does really badly.
Usually modifications are are given as ‘lesser’ versions of a main movement with words like ‘regression’ thrown in just to make us feel even more self conscious.
One of my favourite client conversations is to explain modifications through the lens of Dynamic Systems Theory to help people think about movement modifications differently. This was the focus of The Snack Pass April monthly meet, and I decided to make the conversation available to anyone to watch on YouTube, so if you prefer to listen to rabble, here’s the video. If you like to read your information, skip past it.
Dynamic Systems Theory (DST)
Dynamic Systems Theory is a framework for understanding how movements are created and learned by us mere mortals. Instead of seeing the brain as a "central command centre" sending instructions to the body like a computer program, DST views movement as something that emerges from the interaction of 3 factors in real time.
The individual (the person and everything you are) — body type, strength, flexibility, experience, psychology, stress.
The task — the goal you're trying to achieve (e.g., smashing the patriarchy, screaming into the void).
The environment — surroundings, gravity, surface, weather, social context.
In DST, movement is not pre-programmed — it’s the result of these factors constantly influencing each other in real time.
Learning a New Movement
Learning a new movement skill isn’t about finding the perfect way to move and then repeating it, it’s actually about:
✅ Exploration:
When you’re new to a skill, your body explores different ways to achieve the task. For example, a baby learning to walk wobbles, falls, tries different foot placements, and gradually discovers what works.
✅ Self-Organisation:
Over time, your body “self-organises” — meaning the muscles, joints, and brain start to work together in more stable and efficient patterns based on feedback from practice.
✅ Constraints That Shape Learning:
DST emphasises that constraints (limits or conditions) shape how you move. This could be anything from an injury to the fact you have a set of huge knockers suffocating you when you try to lie on your back.
Modifying Movement
Movements aren’t fixed because we are not robots.
Movements are adaptable solutions that emerge from the interaction between YOU (you are the system), the task and the environment.
On a slippy floor, we automatically adapt how we walk but don’t see it as a ‘lesser’ movement. It’s just something we do to adapt to the constraints in environment in order to achieve the task which is to get from a to b.
When it comes to body state changes or constraints - injury, pain, fatigue, pregnancy, postpartum, being in a larger body...
Adapting to meet the demands of the current situation by adjusting for different body shapes, spatial boundaries, different joint angles or a different centre of gravity is exactly what YOU, the system, were designed to do.
Movement is not “one perfect shape” — it’s an emergent solution shaped by your current body, the task and the environment.
Same Movement, Different Body
Movement remains meaningful even if the pathway is modified.
If I’m doing a forward fold with the aim of reaching towards my toes, how I achieve this task is going to look different to someone who is in a body bigger than mine.
Someone with a belly or boobs in their way might have to take a wider stance, they also might need to use more spinal flexion where I’d use more hip hinge. This is also not a given, being in a larger body does not mean you are less bendy or that all larger bodies move exactly the same.
That’s why it’s better to focus on the task and not ridiculous cues like ‘keep your spine neutral, engage your core, keep your knees at a 34 degree angle facing due south’.
My Favourite Cues For Real Time Modification
I think the ability to self regulate your own workouts is a powerful gift. Here are a few things you might here me say in a class environment.
Make it smaller (use less range of motion)
Use a lighter weight or no weight at all
Take more breaks
Hold onto something - use an emotional support object
Embrace the wobbles
Create space
Stick or twist
Focus on the task - not what other people look like
I don’t know what your body needs today
Helpful? Shameless plug but try one of my classes to see how it’s different (and better) to the standard rubbish you get elsewhere.
Keep doing it different x