Movement Mindset for 2026

Every year starts the same way: new goals, new motivation, and a fresh commitment to “getting back in shape.”
And every year, most people hit the same wall—burnout, frustration, or injury—by February or March.

In this episode of The Talking Rehab Podcast, Dr. Fred Bagares explains why the problem isn’t motivation or discipline. It’s the way we think about movement.

Quick wins, extreme workouts, and all-or-nothing plans feel productive—but they’re rarely sustainable. They depend on perfect timing, perfect energy, and pain-free joints. When real life shows up, the system collapses.

This episode introduces a more durable approach: building a daily movement identity, not just chasing workouts.

You’ll learn:

• Why intense daily workouts don’t fix inactivity
• How “I worked out, so I’m done moving” quietly sabotages progress
• Why most people overestimate how active they really are
• The difference between workouts and movement habits
• How the Movement Bucket Framework helps you stay consistent without guilt or injury

Instead of asking, “Did I work out?”
You’ll start asking, “Which movement buckets did I fill today?”

This mindset shift removes the false choice between everything and nothing, protects joint health, and keeps movement alive through stress, pain, travel, and aging.

If you want results that last past January—and a body that keeps working with you instead of against you—this episode will change how you approach movement in 2026 and beyond.

For more frameworks, clarity tools, and movement resources, visit FredBagares.com or MSKDirectVB.com.

Transcript

0:01

Within a year coming up, this is the time of year where people head to the gym with fitness goals. Over the years, I've seen a couple of recurring patterns. Some people are successful at hitting their goals and they can sustain them throughout the year. Unfortunately, this is not the common story. Others put in the work without seeing the results that they expect, and the rest end up with injuries as a result of doing too much too soon. But the real problem isn't the lack of motivation. What's most obvious to me is the absence of good habits around movement. Let's face it, quick. Wins are irresistible. The human brain is attracted to anything that bypasses the hard work, whether it's an extreme diet, a new biohack, or a seven day a week workout schedule. These strategies deliver a fast hit of results, but they inevitably crash and burn. Forming and keeping bad habits are often easier than developing and maintaining good habits. But why bad habits like extreme exercising or severely restrictive diets give you the deceptive belief that the results are just around the corner and that they somehow last forever, New Year's Day marks a special time. It's the end of one chapter and the beginning of another. You may have friends and family that have the same goal and it's quite motivating, but the problem is that you are trying to run a marathon at a sprint pace. At some point, you hit a wall and then you stop. The minute that initial high wears off, the questions start piling up. What happens when your gym buddy stop working out? what happens when your work schedule and workout schedule don't line up anymore? What if your joints start hurting and you realize you need to go at a different pace? The plan wasn't sustainable to begin with, and you hit that wall. This is exactly where creating a daily movement goal is fundamentally more sustainable. Movement doesn't need a strict definition. It can be a session where you are absolutely drenched in sweat, or it can be a 30 minute walk. Now the reality is clear. A soul crushing workout is difficult to execute every single day. It comes at a high price mentally, emotionally, and physically developing a movement goal. Any movement is the good habit that we need. But here's the problem. For many people, if they can't be drenched in sweat, they don't perceive value. They have that classic bad mindset. If I'm not dripping, how am I going to lose this weight? This mentality is destructive. It's a bad habit that forces a terrible conclusion. They will choose to do nothing rather than try something they perceive as quote unquote, less than ultimately an all or nothing approach to movement. And joint health doesn't just limit your options. It eliminates your future progress. Creating a day where movement is part of your routine is a much better strategy. I'm not just talking about the intense workouts, but all the other types of exercises and movements your body was fundamentally designed to do. A lot of people plan for one good workout per day, that's great, but what does the rest of your day look like? Are you mentally done moving for the day? Most people won't say this out loud, but behaviorally, that's exactly how they live. They crush a workout, they sweat, they feel productive, and then they mentally close the book on movement for the day and what happens next? The remaining hours are spent sitting, driving, scrolling, and recovering from the workout. Today I want to talk about why that belief does not hold up and introduce a simple framework that can change the way you think about movement without adding guilt, pressure, or unrealistic expectations. I'm Dr. Fred Begar and this is The Talking Rehab Podcast. Before we dive in, if this show has ever made you see your body or your recovery in a new way, hit that subscribe button. It's free, it's quick, and it tells me these conversations matter to you. Thanks for being a part of this movement. Now let's get into it. Here's the cleanest version of the problem. Weight isn't the issue. It's what we see in the mirror. we all want to look leaner and feel stronger, but historically, humans are always attracted to quick fixes, and we run away from the hard part. We need to change our behavior. Our current behavior typically leads to chronic inactivity and poor food choices. And here's the blunt truth. working out hard, every single day will never solve this underlying problem. Most people believe they are far more active than they actually are. You ask someone, how many days a week do you work out, and they tell you three to five days, at least 45 minutes. But what they're really remembering is one great week where they hit those numbers. Then the next week they only squeeze in two days because they got busy. Then they go on vacation and completely fell off the wagon. When they get back, they work out six days in a row to make up for it, and now their knee hurts. Again, this is not a sustainable way to operate That entire strategy is highly dependent on timing. On other people and how they feel emotionally. What was stopping them from moving on? Vacation. They rationalized it. the equipment I like wasn't there. I usually work out with a partner. It was raining and I hate to be that guy but these are all excuses. The reality is this person only has one way they like to work out. If those perfect conditions weren't present on vacation, their chances of moving were almost zero. As a result, they experienced guilt. They forced themselves to work out harder when they got back and they triggered an injury. It's the all or nothing trap leading directly to a crash. Let's break this down a little bit further. Our concept of what exercise looks like needs to drastically expand. Not every workout needs to be blood curdling to get the desired result. Now, I love a hard workout just like anyone else, but that is nearly impossible to sustain over an entire lifetime. Are we really saying there's no benefit to taking a 60 minute walk? Are we really arguing that it's equivalent to do nothing, so we might as well save the effort. I know that I've had those thoughts, so I know some of you are thinking the exact same thing, and I'm telling you now that is plainly false. That destructive belief usually rests on one massive, wrong assumption if I do a hard 30 minute workout offset the rest of my day, but a short bout of intense exercise does not erase eight to 10 hours of sitting. Long periods without posture change or repeated inactivity cues throughout the day. That single misunderstanding quietly undermines most New Year's resolutions, especially for people who genuinely care about their health. A hard workout is uncomfortable. It produces sweat. It feels productive. It also produces a sense of completion. Maybe we just like checking that box, but let's look at the full checklist for that day. Sitting in 45 minutes of traffic going to work, check eight hours in front of a computer check, sitting in 45 minutes of traffic again to get to the gym. Check the 60 minute body pump class check, eating dinner, and watching TV for two hours. Check. Somehow we think that 60 minutes resets the rest of that day, but it simply doesn't. The problem is not always laziness or lack of discipline, perhaps it's that we don't know what true success looks like. we look around, see how others live their lives, and assume that that is the secret to health. But we aren't those people. We see someone for one hour a day working out and assume that's the entire equation. We don't know how their body feels or how they live the other 23 hours a day. The secret is simple and it happens outside of the gym. It's building movement, habits and routines. Here's the shift. Movement isn't a workout problem. It's a distribution problem. Instead of asking, did I work out, a better question is, which movement buckets did I fill? Today in episode 53 called Movement Buckets, Instead of asking, did I work out? A better question is, which movement buckets did I fill Today? I call this the movement bucket framework, and I describe it fully in episode 53. It's a structure for how you think about an organizer daily movement. These are different types of exercise you choose to do every single day. Now I organize these into three specific categories that help you structure your entire week. Bucket number one is your everyday movement. This is your non-negotiable baseline. These are movements you can tolerate every single day, regardless of whether it's a good day or a bad one. Examples include walking five to 10 minutes easy cycling Or basic mobility work. This bucket exists for one reason to keep movement alive, even when motivation, energy, or pain isn't ideal. This is dedicated time for your body unrelated to your day-to-day activities. Remember. if movement disappears on hard days, the entire system collapses. Beca number one keeps the lights on. This is what keeps people moving throughout pain, stress, travel, and aging. It's not about intensity, it's about proof that movements still exists even on the hard days. Bucket number two, these are your most day movements. This bucket is where your typical workouts live, moderate to high intensity type workouts. These activities can be done frequently, but usually not two to three days in a row because they might create mild symptoms like soreness, this bucket does require some self-reflection and judgment. It asks, how do I recover? What happens the next day? Can I repeat this soon or do I need time? This is where most people start learning their body instead of battling it. Bucket number three, the challenge days. These are high intensity, heavy lifting, really, really hard workouts. At the end of these workouts, you're gonna feel exhausted, highly rewarded, but you know that you're gonna want to rest the next day. And here's the rule that makes this bucket safe and sustainable. A challenge day cannot be so intense that it prevents you from performing bucket one movements the following day. If it does, the challenge was too much, not wrong, not a failure. just miscalibrated. That might mean fewer sets, a shorter duration, a lower intensity challenge. They should expand your capacity. They should never steal from your movement tomorrow. When people rely on high intensity as their single way of exercising, they grossly underestimate its cumulative impact. When you're 20 years old. Sure you can push those limits and recover relatively fast, even then back to back. Heavy days still take a toll, but as we age, recovery demands more time Trying to relentlessly relive your twenties when you're 40 is not just hard, it's a recipe for disaster. The power of the bucket system is this sampling from each bucket keeps you on task, keeps you motivated, and delivers consistent results that last. This is not just a movement plan, It's your best strategy to prevent injuries as you age. Daily movement succeeds because it spreads effort across time adapts to pain, stress, and schedule changes. Plus, this crucially removes the false choice between everything and nothing. When movement only counts, if it's intense, being time rich and pain-free become unnecessary. Barriers. If you're dependent on these unpredictable conditions just to move, what becomes predictable is that you simply won't work out. But if you have a bad day for one reason or another, you can always fit in time for a bucket, one or two. Injuries and pain are a reality of living an active life. Rotator cuff tissues, bursitis, tendonitis, joint arthritis, All of these things tend to pop up no matter how cautious you are. Now, you might ask if that's true, then what's the point? The point is that the person who is the most rigid only has one bucket to choose from. intense forms of exercise are the hardest to return to if you sustain an acute injury. Trying to jump back into bucket number three, activity is far more difficult. Plus it can also re aggravate the injury. There's also an identity shift that's happening here. You stop thinking I'm someone who works out, and you start thinking, I'm someone who moves daily. That is a completely different kind of person. That person doesn't need perfect conditions to stay in motion. They're defined by resilience and not rigidity. This isn't just about weight loss. This movement framework is specifically aligned with your goals, so why not choose from them every single day? Moving lifelong should be the ultimate goal. People who adopt a movement-based lifestyle are categorically healthier, maintain more lean muscle, and experience fewer aches and pains. Everyone wants to lose weight to get ready for the summer. Ultimately, you choose how you want to proceed. I can only give you my experience. some people are successful and some people aren't The two most common outcomes that I see, people quit in February because their intense method was unsustainable. The next group develops pain and sees me in March or April. By that point, the joint or tendon is so irritated that it requires medical treatment to settle down. This group is always frustrated because they fear losing their gains. Sure a medication or an injection can make them feel comfortable, but what do they choose next? They go straight back to bucket number three and they re aggravate the injury. I've been practicing for at least 10 years and it's like clockwork. This always happens. You simply cannot offset a sedentary day with one intense session, but you can out move inactivity by strategically filling multiple movement buckets every day, when appropriate. Set yourself up for success by creating habits where movement is always possible. Short term goals are rewarding, but when it comes to the musculoskeletal system, there are no shortcuts. Tendons and joints can be very unforgiving if they're not treated with respect. This is how habits last past January. And keep people moving even when pain, stress, or age enters the picture. If this reframed how you think about movement, please share it with someone who might need to hear it. And if you want more frameworks like this, tools that help you build movement systems that work in the real world, head over to fred begar.com or MSK direct vb.com. I'll see you next time. Thank you for listening to The Talking Rehab podcast. I hope that this podcast stimulates you to question your own practice and how you approach rehabilitation. I truly appreciate your time and attention. If you enjoyed listening, make sure to like and subscribe to the podcast. I wish you a movement filled day. Take care.