In training, we have a flavour for each personality type. People generally choose that which draws them in: The heavy weights, the high intensity circuits, the yoga crew, the “movement” people, the tai chi, the endurance athletes.
The human mind loves attachment. Identify, copy and paste.
We like to grip on to one of these areas – usually something that fortifies our perception of ourself (however inaccurate that may be).
This division creates borders. Like little countries in the landscape of exercise and leisure.
My approach is to keep disintegrating the borders. Do what is right for you, at all times. Train for strength, then meditate. Run when you feel it is right, then practice yoga. Do not identify so much with either. Ultimately, this will be the new way.
Yoga is not just a physical stretch class, it traditionally has a meditative and spiritual core.
Strength training need not be linked to heavy metal or wearing certain brands or clothes, it’s simply recognising the clearly positive benefits (physical and otherwise) of loading the body (both with its own weight and external loads).
The gap which currently exists is that people are fearful if they do something outside of their domain, they are deviating from who they are or what they are good at (both fortifying our sense of Self). This is difficult for us and we generally avoid it.
Some borders are less difficult for people to cross than others. As a triathlete, it was easy for me to become an “adventure racer,” then a “CrossFitter,” then a “weight lifter.” Typically, it would be more difficult to go from CrossFit to Yoga directly, for example, as we would be giving up part of our “toughness” identity.
With clients, I use strength training, stretching (or, if “mobility” works for you better as a word, then that’s OK), but also a lot of breath work, stress down-regulation and recovery work. For most people, despite not knowing it, their system is under too much physiological load (too much stress with too little resources). This can create both their tension and their plateaus.
On paper, my work would be a split between the strength, “weightlifting,” “corrective exercise” coaching, “meditation” and possibly “yoga.”
Yet, we don’t need to live on paper. We don’t need to live through just one system, as we are not fixed. We are alive.
We can move dynamically. We can use what is right for the body and the mind, but we just need to create the flexibility.
This new way is not the only way. There is nothing “wrong” with strong identification with just one method and a more limited approach will actually get you “better” at that one area.
However, this dynamic approach brings the ability to move in between. Without borders, you can travel freely and do what is right for you. With no need to rise to the “top” of any particular landscape, you can finally listen to what the body is needing at this time.
This is difficult, requires experience, courage and a constant feedback loop, but in the long run is perhaps the only way.
