A personalized program should always produce better results than a generalized one. However, for that to be true, a program has to be designed to our actual needs not what we believe they should be. Until you know what you really need, there is a good chance that you will pursue the wrong approach for you. Worse than wasting time and not producing the desired results, you may be actually adding strength around dysfunction, stretching joints that need better structure or otherwise unknowingly deepening the problems you face.
Your goals need to make sense with who you really are right now, properly reflecting your abilities and your limitations. It is important to realize that as much as we all have in common, we are all unique. So, we need to make sure our goals are truly our goals and not goals we think we should have or are otherwise imposed upon us. This may sound like basic common sense, but I have been surprised by the number of bright and highly successful people who train in ways that do harm to them. Some are overly aggressive as if proving they are true alpha competitors, while others underestimate their capabilities and limit their progress. When I am able to help people to see themselves more accurately, results improve immediately and dramatically.
Below, are some aspects of training I consider important that may help to kick-start or refine your thought process about what you really want to get out of a wellness program.
Functional Training
Functional training is what modern training is all about. It simply means developing capability through training that is useful rather than cosmetic. Functional training will make you more effective in every way.
Supple and Young vs. Stiff and Old.
These correlations are as old as the ages. If you stay supple you will indeed feel and look younger. Supple does not mean flexible. It means flexible AND strong in balanced proportion. Suppleness is essential for lifelong well-being. As we get older, while we may loose some flexibility, we do not have to become stiff, nor do we have to sacrifice strength for flexibility. Stiffness often leads to significant avoidable health issues. We need training that gives us the right balance so we stay supple.
Posture
If a training approach doesn’t adequately correct posture deficiencies, it is an incomplete approach. Posture is the main cause of many back and joint problems, and it is also important in achieving optimal performance. Proper posture not only makes you look terrific and exude confidence, it is essential to good health. Posture is not simply standing straight, it is the ability to stand straight naturally, without effort and being able to retain proper postural alignment in movement.
Training for Life
For any training to be worthwhile, it must be a life-long endeavor. It must be adaptable enough that it can be done throughout the different phases of life and be sufficiently interesting and engaging enough that it will be done throughout life because we look forward to it. What is the point of training if it cannot be sustained for our entire lives? Can your training accommodate sickness and injury? We need training that can adapt to our life as it really is.
Personal Empowerment and Awareness
It is often possible to mask problems through strength or exercise, but the problem remains, only to appear again. Pain-free does not mean problem-free. “Great workouts” and focused strength and flexibility training can make you more fit, but will not fundamentally change your posture or correct underlying conditions. I know a couple of disciplined and highly knowledgeable individuals who are managing their back pain with strength training. They will eventually learn this approach will not be effective over the long term because their fundamental problem is not lack of strength. Worse, building muscle mass around dysfunction will only serve to solidify it. Real change is about understanding and changing counter-productive habits. In the absence of awareness, our efforts to change remain superficial and primitive. Awareness means knowing and feeling the experience of right and wrong action at a very nuanced level. Change is the essence of life, and our approach must change as we change. If our training does not teach us about our selves, we should consider investing our time differently. Sometimes great change is possible with small effort, but we have to know where and how to place that effort. Awareness is empowerment.
Active Innate Inner Intelligence
We all have inside of us a natural intelligence to help us refine our posture and movement. This intelligence has been buried from years of bad habits and adverse conditions such as too much sitting. It needs the right kind of preparation and coaching to awaken it. When our inner intelligence is awakened, we are able to take charge of our own lives in a more complete way than we might right now imagine. Proper posture and movement then happen naturally, without external effort. This inner intelligence guides us in proper movement reducing our chances of injury, while making our movement more graceful and efficient. Staying healthy requires an investment, and we should get the full return on that investment.
Want to do it vs. Have to do it.
While the answer to this obvious, I find that many people do not even see the possibility of “wanting to do it” when it comes to movement or exercise, they just tough it out through sheer determination. It doesn’t have to be like that. You need the right venue for you, the unique person you are. If you force yourself to work out, you will not be authentic in your action and can easily burn out trying to get it “over with.” Whatever you do needs to engage you.
Equipment
My philosophy is that specialized workout/exercise equipment needs to be minimized. It is not advantageous to need a sophisticated set up to train, as it creates another unnecessary hindrance to regular practice. But the real reason I like the simple equipment, is that, other than therapeutic situations, it most often is just as effective.
Yoga, Awareness and Functional Strength
Yoga Asana (posture and movement) was originally created as a functional discipline. Most people do not realize that the core postures used in Sun Salutes came from and continue to be used by Indian wrestlers for training. That’s right, power training. The original purpose of yoga exercises was to correct posture and nurture good health as those conditions are considered a prerequisite to higher pursuits. Yoga has also been referred to as a “primary exercise sequence,” meaning that it is foundational and will improve all other activities or practices added to it. All yoga postures integrate the entire body and mind into the action.
One of the things that has captivated me about Yoga is that it is possible to execute the same exercise or posture every day and almost always encounter it as a new and interesting experience. Repetition does not have to be boring! Yoga’s emphasis on awareness, refines our ability to see things, even obvious things at a more nuance level. Awareness is deceptively powerful. It serves to eliminate over- or under-working in all areas of the body and to refine action to optimize efficiency, effectiveness and grace.
A primary mission of yoga is increasing our awareness of ourselves and our environment. In fact, the main difference between yoga and other forms of exercise is its mental component. If the mental component is right, virtually any exercise can be brought under the umbrella of yoga. Without awareness, one is simply “working out.” Our time is far too valuable to limit ourselves to mere exercise. We should instead grow and learn from each movement and every effort. In that way, we will get more benefit from every effort in strength, endurance and flexibility.
As traditional yoga took principle elements of training from wrestlers, it continues to evolve using modern research and methods. This means you will not “miss” anything by practicing yoga. I regularly incorporate state-of-the-art core training techniques and other forms of targeted strength training into my yoga practice.
Yoga is highly adaptable making it effective for all phases of life or states of health. The practice of yoga is not only appropriate for one’s entire life, but also one need not ever stop progressing in yoga. The ability to refine awareness and physical action is endless.
I practice and teach yoga because it works, and I enjoy it. My clients stay with yoga for the same reasons.
