Hey there,
Well here we are, in the fall of 2020, and what a time it is.
Considering the ridiculous obstacles we're all facing, I think it's important to take a moment to send some appreciation to the body that has gotten each of us to this point.
Go ahead, give that body a pat on the back. Hell, give it a hug. You deserve the shit out of it.
Ahhh, that's better. It's so easy to lose sight of the work that each of our bodies do, behind the scenes, each and every day. But all it takes to unwind that uneven relationship is to spend a little love, and check in with your body like you would with a close friend.
The way that this can shift our attitude (and therefore our approach to training) is part of why I love talking with new folx about their fitness journey and goals.
Especially as a "personal trainer", a title that comes indelibly stamped with that gym-rat stereotype, it can come as a surprise when I begin our conversation with curiosity about how they're currently taking care of their body.
Not how they are crushing it, or pushing it, but how they are honoring the relation they have to their physical body.
The reality is that each of us do some amount of care for our bodies, every day. We all sleep and eat. We all feel the pull to reach for a delicious stretch in the morning, and many, many of us recognize the boost we can get from a short walk around our neighborhood.
As simple as those pieces seem, they often make up the extent of the ways that we interact with our bodies and its needs.
But the fitness questions really start to come up when folx start considering how to move beyond a base-level of body relations. How can they cajole their body to change in a specific way? And, critically, how can they do it without hurting themselves?
This exact topic came up in a call last week with a new client.
She mentioned that she hated gyms and gym-culture, and had decided in her early thirties that she did not need to fuck with gyms ever again. Despite my background, I found her directness refreshing, hilarious, and legitimate; mainstream fitness culture has hurt a lot of people, inside and out.
But she was still interested in shoring up some areas of her body that regularly cried out in fear and pain, especially whenever she tried to move more in the ways that she loves. Several courses of physical therapy had allayed the acute pain in her ankle and neck, but left the underlying insecurity about if she could actually trust those joints.
She then called out how the ways that she saw to "work on her body" and (potentially) clear up those issues seemed like a big jump. Rather than building her inner sense of security and safety, most fitness options she had tried and researched just plain didn't respect the inner boundaries (what and what didn't feel ok to her physical body) that she had cultivated over years as a yoga teacher.
And then she said the thing that connected her with soooo many other clients that we've worked with: "There just seems to be this gap between what healthcare can do for me, and what I want my body to do."
There surely is a gap between pain mitigation (the work of health care) and realizing our physical dreams, and bridging that gap is our work at the Fitness Alchemists.
Whether we are helping build awareness of the gap (between what you can and cannot do safely, right now) or working on steadily spanning the gap (with progressive strength training), our goal is that people find a way back to trusting their physical bodies.
Body-trust quickly clears the path for body-confidence, which is the stuff that rich, physical lives are made of.
If this gap is something you've grappled with, I'd love to hear about it. And if you're curious how we might go about bridging that gap for you, book a call with me...I'd love to chat. ;)
Go be a hero,
Coach Will