This book is a great resource for anyone who struggles to find exercise they enjoy or has limitations that makes exercise difficult. This book makes movement accessible to everyone and provides a ton of tools and activities to find what works for you.

Unfortunately, I was not able to access an assistive reader for this arc, either in the NetGalley app or in Kindle. I need this accessibility device because I have diminished a vision. I recommend the publishers and Netgalley to make ARCs accessible by assistive readers to prevent excluding other visually impaired readers.

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily. This book is great, as a disabled individual I have found that many of the old programmes and methods of exercise I used to use are no longer accessible to me and it’s not always easy figuring out the adapted versions of exercises alone. This book provides two different options for each exercise provided making it easier to adapt the exercises I need to but use the traditional version for those I can do. It also outlines the experience of pain and types of pain (including a helpful table) to help readers distinguish their own daily pain experiences and those experienced while exercising. This is a great book that I will definitely be turning to again in the future and recommend to my newly or dynamically disabled friends.

There is a lot to this book, plenty of photos demonstrating proper exercise form, info about mental health,, etc. i read it straight through but you can certainly use it as a reference book and just pick out the pieces you need.. Most exercise info is dry as dirt, as they say “this not your mother’s exercise book’. There is the element of joy through the writings in this book. Exercise does not have to torture. I will be keeping this book close as I work through it.
Disclosure: A review copy of this book was sent to me by.. All of the above opinions are my own.

Movement for Every Body: An Inclusive Fitness Guide for Better Movement--Build mind-body awareness, overcome exercise barriers, and improve mobility
With humor, empathy, and expertise, a Black, femme, disabled, and neurodivergent physical therapist retraces their journey through a weaponized fitness culture, sharing an alternative path to honor all bodies and needs. An inclusive, full-color guide to improving mobility, building strength, and increasing flexibility for every body and any size, shape, and ability. With journaling and reflective prompts and activities; helpful tips covering accommodations, mobility aids, and self-advocacy strategies; and highly adaptable exercise demonstrations reflecting a broad range of body types, physical abilities, and mobility aids, Movement for Every Body provides the instruction and validation needed to redefine our approaches, goals, and pleasures around exercise and ability.
As I had received an ARC, I read through the book and enjoyed the journal prompts and the assessments to help you understand your body and what moves work for you. This builds a basic understanding of your body. This isn’t an exercise routine book; this is about giving you a way to move your body and find what you love. There are standing, sitting, and lying versions of all activities allowing you to decide what is best for you. There were a few places where Marcia Dernie used a few physical therapy terms I didn’t understand but the pictures made things clear.
When I looked up Dr Marcia, I saw she was running a #NewMoveChallenge running four weeks up to the book’s publication. Each week was based on a book session, and we worked through journaling and making goals. I then would return to the book and do the journaling and exercises in that section. I was very happy with her, the book, and the whole process. And also me! I feel so much autonomy in my movement and body.
This is a great book for a lot of my chronically ill friends. While not a typical workout book, you learn about yourself and find a movement you love.

This book reaches out to people who want to become fitter, but are discouraged by ableism, eurocentrism, fat phobia, and other societal obstacles. With kind and gentle guidance and photos of people of different shapes and sizes, ages and ethnicities, the author leads readers to assess their current fitness level, set SMART goals, plan a fitness routine, and enjoy movement.

This book can be motivating and informational, but is definitely directed toward people who are not being served by the typical get fit methodologies. It includes writing prompts, exercises, and a wide range of suggestions for people in many different circumstances.

I am in a difficult phase where moving can sometimes be hard, and always painful. This book has been a beacon of Hope, and thank you to the author Marcia for being so kind in her writing throughout the book - the advice is helpful and takes into account that not everyone is a gym rat or a workout/fitness enthusiast! I have found this book to be very helpful, and highly recommend it.

Thank you to North Atlantic Books and NetGalley for the eGalley to review!

What an incredibly helpful book!! Seriously, I'm buying myself a copy and suggesting it in every resource list for exercise and health from now on. It's non-judgemental, non-patronizing, and uses plain language, while denouncing toxic fitness culture and decolonizing fitness (Dernie rightfully points out that systemic oppression impacts fitness for everyone, as toxic fitness culture and ableism stem from white supremacy and its subsequent eugenics). Every bit of advice in this book takes into account the spectrum of abilities and resources that people have and even points out that not all of the advice may apply to the reader but every reader can do something in this book to start their exercise journey or finally find something that will actually work for them.

Most importantly, this book tells the reader that it is okay to take your time--even with reading the book! Results and a "perfect" routine may take years, and that's okay! The most important thing is that you're doing something instead of nothing--as long as it's consistent. There is alternative advice given for those without access to certain things or may be struggling with certain techniques. Each exercise has a video you can watch on the Movement For Every Body website. Dernie suggests journaling often to wrap your head around what you're actually wanting/needing from the situation and how to change not just your fitness routine but your mindset about your fitness routine. Mental health is also taken into account.

All of this advice is broken up into several parts:
1. Appraise: Tackling how we evaluate the worth/significance of our abilities, movement practices, and expectations.
2. Assess: Studying how your body moves and reacts to certain movement to get a feel for your needs and how you feel about that.
3. Explore: Exploring how and when we move, and creating SMART (specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time based) goals to set the intention for movement.
4. Enjoy: Understanding why experiencing joy when moving matters and navigating pain.
5. Resources: Additional resources to explore for neurodivergence, movement professionals, and movement lovers. Additional reading and databases listing fitness professionals is also included.

As you can see, it is both a simple and an in-depth guide. Honestly, this would be one of the first books I will now hand to anyone wanting to ease into exercising. I'm happy it exists!

This was a great guide to inclusive fitness - as a researcher who works in this area and also a yoga teacher, I've read a lot of inclusive fitness guides that are not optimal, and this one was by far more inclusive than any other I've read. I loved that the author acknowledged the relationship between fitness and eugenics, and approached inclusivity with a broad lens, including people with physical disabilities, neurodivergent people, people in larger bodies, etc. The section about pain during movement was especially compelling for me. The images and accompanying videos were also great. However, I was left feeling like something was missing - perhaps more of a conclusion about what next, or more suggestions about how to make the fitness industry as a whole more inclusive, or ways to engage in group fitness in a more inclusive way? I also feel like some more exercise routines or structures might have been beneficial to include. But overall, I would totally recommend this to folks looking for an introduction to inclusive fitness!

Movement for Every Body: An Inclusive Fitness Guide for Better Movement by Marcia Dernie, DPT isn’t a traditional exercise book. This slender book guides you to assess where you are, what barriers to movement you face on any given day, and what you can do to increase your mobility.

Author Dernie rejects the influence of white privilege and ableism to met their readers where they are. They highlight potential barriers and offer constructive suggestions to reframe those barriers while always acknowledging the reader knows their bodies best. The tools are journaling, careful self-assessment during exercises (with standing, sitting and prone versions) and basic medical knowledge.

Greater self- knowledge and the willingness to do what you can do on any given day will indeed lead to better movement.

Movement for Every Body is going to be a new classic.
Thank you to North Atlantic Books and NetGalley for the DRC.

Movement for Every Body is just that-- it's inclusive, and while the formatting of the Kindle version leaves much to be desired-- the actual book/protected PDF DRC version of this provided so many resources. Dernie places clear pictures with a diverse range of body types and abilities with her models, and also advocates that people listen or utilize the book however they see fit: If it's easier to view these exercises on video, she has video links. If audio is preferred, there's an audiobook coming out. Just want to read? Read the chapters assigned to help out. This is a perfect body neutral supporting book for people to get back into moving their bodies. The diagrams are straight forward, but perhaps for those who aren't easily swayed to follow, it might be advantageous for the publisher to assign numbers to each step, and also to provide image descriptions for caption needs in the future. This book is bound to be a new classic though. Thank you!

This title seemed promising but would likely serve better as an article or perhaps a series of YouTube videos. It just didn't feel that it was providing a new premise.

The book felt like a primer to moving and setting up a movement routine during any stage of life. This book felt meant for someone new to movement routines or looking to modify a movement routine due to pain or disability. The language in this book is very positive and supportive of the many walks of life and people who may read it. The pictures and accompanying descriptions of recommended exercises were enough for me to be able to go along with the book to assess where I was in my movement journey. I feel that I got most everything out of the book in the first read and probably wouldn't re-read it. Still, it gave me multiple ways to view mobility differences in comparison to others in a positive light instead of a negative one. My only critique would be that the book felt repetitive as I kept reading though that could be on purpose to address the needs of many potential readers.

The idea of this book is a really great one and definitely something that is needed. The fitness industry has become increasingly toxic and not an inclusive environment though this is being challenged by a lot of fitness professionals.

I liked that there was a focus on exploring movement and exploring your body. That is something that has been lost.
Movement has to have meaning now. You can't just move because you enjoy it, it's to lose weight or build muscle or whatever, and that's very damaging.

My feelings are split about this book. I am both the target audience and not the target audience. I am a Pilates teacher and I am a neurospicy hypermobile.

The focus on improving sleep, hydration, stress levels etc were excellent. The bite sized explanations on the body and exercise were really well written and easy to read and understand. Loved that.

The exercises were well explained and the photos helpful. I liked the movement snacks. Short flows are a great way to get people moving and building it into their routine.

My problem is with the ‘assessment portion’. It was not an assessment. It was a mobility check in and I have no issue with that! Get to know your body, get to know what niggles and clicks to inform you going forward but you are not assessing your body.

You are encouraged to make notes about what you feel doing these movements but that is the end of it. There is no further advice, or explanation, or suggestions for different movements.

There's a difference between noting your shoulder crunches in arm circles and knowing to move more slowly, than noting you rotate in a seated side bend which could be due to muscular imbalance though you wouldn't know that.

Assessment implies that this information will be used to inform something. If you take these notes and pass them onto a movement teacher they will ask you to repeat the movements so they can watch you. I think I'm mostly confused by the language.

Excellent handbook for those getting back into exercise or trying to figure out how to modify exercises for what their body can do. Dernie avoided the anti-fatness that is often prevalent in exercise books and included helpful photographs of the different modifications. As a fat fitness instructor, I will recommend this book and Dernie's YouTube videos.

Written by a person who is far from the usual stereotype favoured by the fanatic fitness industry, which often uses exercise as a weapon to terrorise all those who fail to live up to its standards, this book is a welcome change for anyone who doesn't fit that bill.

Dernie has made a commendable effort to produce a useful book that is inclusive and empathic about the different needs and abilities of people who all know exercise benefits us, but could use a little help in figuring out how best to get some!

Movement for Every Body is an outstanding book that has profoundly impacted me as someone living with multiple chronic illnesses. This book has provided me with the encouragement and practical guidance I needed to start incorporating movement into my daily life, despite my health challenges (hopefully the tips I've picked up will help me lose a bit of weight for my wedding!)

This book is exceptionally inclusive, there are parts addressing ableism as well as mental health with sensitivity and depth. It combines factual information with practical advice, offering a wealth of everyday tips and journaling activities that have been incredibly beneficial.

Movement for Every Body is a must read for anyone facing similar struggles. I will definitely be recommending it to my circle of friends who also suffer from chronic illnesses.

This will be helpful to me in exercise suggestions for my mobility restricted patients in my primary care practice. As patients become more obese with the physical limitations that accompanies this, this is critical information to understand and relay to our patients.

I'm so happy about the existence of this book; it truly lives up to its inclusive title. As someone who is chronically ill and disabled, I found the language within it to be inclusive, gentle, and encouraging. I really liked the addition of the 'body audit' it recommends before delving into the exercises. This thoughtful approach allows you to gauge your current capabilities, providing a benchmark for progress as you start on the exercises outlined in the book.

For both the 'body audit' and the exercises there are clear instructions with photos as well as adaptations for those of us who can't do the exercise straight away.

I definitely recommend this book to anyone seeking to increase their physical activity and movement. It's a valuable resource that empowers all individuals to start their journey.

I really enjoyed this accessible and inclusive guide to fitness. The author Marcia Dernie's knowledgeable and clear writing style made the book welcoming and available for readers coming from many different places. The activities and photos were very clear, and I appreciated that they included diverse models. I bookmarked several exercises to revisit. I appreciated her emphasis on joy and exploration. Recommended for people who are looking to add more movement and activity in spite of any limitations. I also learned about some great resources. Thanks to NetGalley and North Atlantic Books for the eARC.