The best training secret an athlete can give you is that in their most successful moments, they have absolutely no control over their body. Their body is simply following through on the training they have gone through, strengthening their quick twitch muscle fibers. They let their emotions take over and their body simply follows suit. So one of the best things you can do is training is to practice
Ever wonder why you can’t change certain parts of your body when you exercise? It may be a lack of body awareness. Research shows that lack of body awareness creates an inability to engage muscle, and this awareness is an important tool in progress changes in your body. If there’s a certain part of your body that is especially challenging and just won’t budge, it may be because you are not activating the muscles that encompass it properly.
1) Start With Pressure; Notice where your body contacts the earth. For example, in this bow pose, my foot is in contact and is supporting my entire (5’10!) frame. That’s a lot of strength in that little foots. It’s all because I am applying pressure evenly across the four corners of my foot, and I am able to do this because I am cognizant of the muscular contractions in my foot.
2) Change Your Posture; Until you feel the proper activation, keep moving your body to a different position. For example, on my body, my left abdominal wall is weaker than my right, so I need a different angle to properly engage all my obliques and anterior abs. If I change the angle I am working in while engaging my left side, I get the same work done as my right.
3) Engage Your Multifidus; Remember those tiny muscles that support your spine I spoke of so lovingly last week? Yep, they’re integral in allowing you to engage all your muscles eloquently. Instead of over using the major muscle groups and getting bigger and bulkier because you lack the foundational strength of the multifidus, try working on pelvic tiles and engagement FIRST before you do any other exercise. I start my day with my multifidus pelvic tilts and ab exercises, then move on to other exercises that engage the larger muscle groups.
I know, I know… Apps are the next “It” thing if you are in business. But I am proposing that you NOT carry your cell phone everywhere you go. And hey, especially when you are exercising. Because, if anything, exercise is your hour to yourself everyday. And it should be peaceful and quiet and you shouldn’t have emails buzzing and text messages being sent and you shouldn’t be looking at yet another florescent screen just to follow an exercise routine. No, I’m thinking all you need is your eyes, your ears, your heart, your arms and legs to carry out the most physical part of your day. Forget technology, get in touch with something even more intelligent and complex–your body.
So I’m developing a CoreFit Deck that you can take with you. Get the first of these workouts here and print out so you can just grab them and go to the gym. In fact, why not just take a few in your gym back so all you have to do is follow the pictures and do the routine. Simple. And it won’t even show up on your data usage.
This weekend I was over at my friend John’s condo and he was showing me The Man Who Can Fly–Dean Potter. Dean potter is a phenomenal athlete, mostly known for his free ascents, base jumps and slack lining all over Yosemite National Park and Patagonia. In the video Potter base jumps in a bird like suit off a plank suspended probably thousands of feet into the air without knowing whether or not the flight suit will allow him to descend into a clearing far below. He does not hesitate at the end of the plank, he simply jumps.
What I loved about this video is that Dean Potter is so capable physically of allowing his mind to clearly focus on shutting his intuitive muscles down and allowing for the natural process of movement to occur. He is able to quiet his mind of what he should or should not be doing.
Fast forward today and I am reading an article in the NYTimes called Rethinking Sleep. The author talks about the importance of shutting down our mind in order to get a restful nights sleep. It’s not the hours you get, but the quality. Most people do not get the 8hrs their body requires in order to allow the body to recuperate physically and mentally.
“It seemed that, given a chance to be free of modern life, the body would naturally settle into a split sleep schedule. Subjects grew to like experiencing nighttime in a new way. Once they broke their conception of what form sleep should come in, they looked forward to the time in the middle of the night as a chance for deep thinking of all kinds, whether in the form of self-reflection, getting a jump on the next day or amorous activity.”
Dean Potter has the ability to shut down his intuitive active mind. We should all take this as a cue as to why exercise and conscious physical challenges are important to our sleep cycle which allows our brain to do more deep thinking, self reflection and the important rest it needs to recuperate our body for tomorrow.
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