It's that time a year again when holiday parties roll around and I get asked (usually by a stranger) the perennial question (usually several times over the course of a season)…
"So you're a trainer ... how do I lose this gut?!" (or some variation on this self-flagellating body-size comment).
I look up from my boozy eggnog, smile, and ... have no idea what to say.
First, I can't help but want to grab them, hug them, and tell them that the SIZE of their body, the girth of their gut and the shape of their WHATEVER really ... doesn't ... matter ... when it comes to their fitness (or their abilities, "health", background, level of virtue, morality, or worth). Having a belly, or thighs, or bony edges is rad, all of it--all of YOU--as are all of the other radical ways our bodies simply are, right now...because being alive is miraculous ...
...But that's a lot to unpack at a holiday party.
Over the years I've learned (after much hand-wringing), I now know to do a side-step and ask them about what kind of movement brings them JOY.
Because truly, the first and most important thing to know about a person, to help their fitness, is to know what kind of activities they WILL do, out of pure satisfaction....
Walk a forest trail? Swim? Play pick-up soccer? Waltz in the kitchen with their love? (Remembe JOY means it's actually fun, pleasurable, dopamine-producing...?!)
Only then, once you tune into that JOY signal, can you begin exploring how to orient your body and all it's parts to be more effective at that (and, often, that feels like things hurt less). To become more fit for that (and not just "look fit", which is...again...not a thing ).
For me, the activities that get my heart pumping with JOY (and with blood! heart) are riding my bike around the East Bay hills, play-fighting with my nephews, and saying yes to (almost) any weird physical adventures that life throws across my path.
But by no means is that the ONLY thing I do training-wise; in order to get keep my body ready to invite JOY in, I end up doing a lot of what you see happening in the time-lapse below...
...and THIS is the stuff I wish I could show/talk-thru with my new party-friend .. cuz doing this stuff really changes how it feels to live inside your body. I might be biased 😉 , but I can say it unequivocally: this stuff works if you do it.
What you see (if you click the pic and watch the time-lapse video) is lots of @posturalrestoration breathing drills, interspersed with lots of #CARs variations and then some short-n-sweet strength "exploration" (basically: "Wonder if I can do THAT?" in tiny progressive steps).
So as we all wade in to this (possibly fraught) holiday season holiday, I wish you a.) some grace and kindness for yourself and your body, and b.) an invitation to move in the ways that give you JOY, now and forever...
**If this shocks you, go check out a #HealthAtEverySize practitioner's work, and start exploring how #FatPhobia shows up in your life (it's usually a part of all of our lives, if we've lived in a western country for the last few decades). Weight stigma and fatphobia cause heart-breaking harm on a daily basis, on playgrounds, work places and medical offices around the world.