Fitness training is more fun when we mix it up. The key is to integrate a variety of movements. There are so many different ways to exercise. At home, I am grateful to have various options including Total Gym GRAVITY. During the pandemic, I’ve also enjoyed a mindful training technique that I call “Fit Mix”. While there’s different ways to mix it up, one unique approach is to include exercises inspired by various dance forms, martial arts, and mindful movement such as yoga. Fit Mix adapts principles from a technique originally titled Neuromuscular Integrative Action. It also applies principles from dance and movement courses that I completed at the University of Toronto. Blending various movement forms together, the integrative training approach provides a mindful cardio dance and conditioning workout.
Throughout my life, I’ve studied various dance and movement forms that influence my Fit Mix approach. As a student at the University of Toronto, I completed a variety of inspiring courses such as Dances of the World. My teacher was a Trinidadian-born dancer and choreographer and the founder of Ballet Creole. Within the curriculum, he integrated traditional Caribbean and African aesthetics with the Katherine Dunham modern technique. I also completed a course called Movement Awareness and learned mind-body techniques that continue to influence my teaching. During these courses, we developed greater appreciation for the connection between our rib cage and pelvis, and learned to move our hips and shoulders in different ways. In addition, we learned exercises to feel more connected to our core. These type of movements help get the energy moving throughout our whole body. From doing the shimmy to undulation movements, dance offers a vehicle for expression and helps provide a break from some of the more rigid movements that we may perform in our strength conditioning workouts. We can isolate body parts with awareness, tune into our feelings and emotions as we move, and invite more joy into our fitness training.
Integrating dance moves within fitness training provides an opportunity for expression. Moving with more feeling, emotion and expression makes the training more meaningful! It can also promote in creativity! When our thinking feels rigid, the easiest way to get unstuck is to explore new dance moves. As we discover new ways to move, we can also play with different facial expressions and continue to connect to our feelings and emotions. After dancing in unique and meaningful ways, it’s easier to come up with innovative solutions to some of the challenges that we may be facing.
While I continue to enjoy strength training workouts that don’t include any dance movements, it is also healthy to explore flexible dance forms such as free dance and modern dance. A liberating self-directed form of dance is to listen to your body and how it wants to move in the moment. Even 5 minutes of free dance can be highly therapeutic and promote healing. We can take off our shoes, connect to our feet including our toes – wiggle them around and sense how it feels. When we move our arms, we can also move our fingers in different ways. As we continue free dancing, we can sense our whole body.
One free dance exercise is to connect to all of our 13 joints. For each ankle – flex, extend and circle your foot. For each knee, bend and extend your lower leg. For each hip, circle your thigh around. For your wrist – flex, extend, and circle your hands and fingers. For your elbow, bend and extend your forearm. For each shoulder, circle your upper arm around a few times. For your spine, bend to both sides and to the front and back, and twist left and right. For each shoulder, circle your upper arm around. For each elbow, bend and extend your forearm. For each wrist, flex, extend, and circle your hands and fingers. For each hip, circle your thigh around. For each knee, bend and extend your lower leg. For each ankle – flex, extend and circle your foot. Then discover new ways to move your whole body and continue to feel connected to all of your 13 joints.
Bringing modern dance to our fitness training provides the opportunity to create shapes in space. We play with balance and contrast, and learn to drop and then recover the body’s own weight. It’s an elegant way to direct muscle loading. In life, sometimes we fall down and then need to get back up. Modern dance movements teach us to be more resilient physically, and this can help us feel more resilient emotionally. The more we practice getting our body off centre gently and then recovering, the easier it becomes to come back to centre in our daily lives.
Martial arts inspired moves help keep our fitness training interesting. It can also help create a sense of focus and empowerment. Tae kwon do is more of an assertive, physically demanding martial art form. The stances and kicks create physical strength and a feeling of confidence. When we bring movements inspired by tae kwon do to our fitness training, we have the opportunity to move with precision. Clarity of intention is important with each movement. The moves feel clean cut, not wishy washy. In life, when we draw the line and set a boundary, it’s more of a tae kwon do energy. T’ai chi on the other hand, feels like a slow dance that focusses on efficiency of movement. The movements come from the body’s core. They feel fluid and graceful, and strengthen the mind-body connection. They also create a feeling of peace and calm.
Aikido emphasizes harmony in movement. It focuses on blending of apparent opposites, and finding resolution in conflict. It uses spherical motion to create a harmonizing energy that evokes connectedness, wisdom and gracefulness. Bringing aikido inspired moves to our fitness training provides the opportunity to experience harmonious spherical motion. In life, when we are faced with difficult interactions that require de-escalation, one technique is to bring aikido energy to the situation. For example, if someone is venting uncontrollably in front of us without taking time to breathe properly, we can focus on our own breathing and consciously bring awareness to what energy we are bringing to the moment, inviting in more harmony, then sometimes that person in front of us will naturally shift their breathing pattern and begin to come across more calm.
While certain forms of dance teach us to connect to our core, various martial arts forms also understands this region as an empowering part of our body. The Hara as conceptualized by certain forms of martial arts, is an important part of the movement practice. It indicates a reservoir of vital or source energy. It is valued as the vital centre of the body as well as the centre of gravity and for many martial arts, the extension of energy or force from this centre is a common concept. Many martial art styles such as aikido, emphasize the importance of “moving from the hara”. When we integrate exercises inspired by aikido, we learn to move from the centre of one’s very being – body and mind. In tai chi, we focus on a similar area, but refer to this region as “tan tien”. Allowing our chi energy to sink is often referred to as putting your mind in the “tan tien” located 2-3 finger widths below the naval. Putting our attention here can help us feel calm, relaxed – no longer limited to just the brain in our head, but more embodied and connected to our fuller sense of mind.
There are various forms of mindful movement that we can bring to our fitness training as well. Alexander Technique for example, is about moving as a whole person, connecting up. When we integrate exercises inspired by this form of movement, we have the opportunity to move from the top. Feldenkrais inspired movements help to release tension in the neck and shoulders. We learn to pay more attention to the quality of movement rather than the quantity of movement. In life, how many times a day do you bring attention to the position of your head? When we are in front of our computer it’s better if it’s eye level. It’s also helpful to take breaks from looking directly at our computer; we need to make time to move our head, eyes, and neck. It’s healthy to look away from our computer and phone every so often. Feldenkrais is another mindful technique when we bring awareness of sensation to our fitness training. We have the opportunity to become aware of subtle physical movements throughout our workout and daily life, when we practice getting present and continually tune into our body. Bringing movements inspired by Feldenkrais to our fitness training allows us to experience conscious awareness of sensation.
One of my favourite forms of mindful moment is yoga. Integrating movements inspired by yoga gives us the opportunity to experience conscious alignment of bones and joints. Yoga also helps us to increase life energy throughout our whole body. We may sense our body redistributing chi energy. Some people may feel more relaxed after yoga inspired movements, while others may feel more energized. Instead of focusing on the outcome or trying to analyze why we may be feeling a bit differently while doing some of the yoga moves, we can focus on the physical sensations during our practice, without judging the experience we are having. We can trust that any shifts in our energy is what our body needed in that moment. Through movements inspired by yoga, we may find ourselves feeling more grounded. Bringing mindfulness to our movements can also help us to feel more expansive. We become aware not just of our various body parts, but aware of our whole body as one – integrated and connected. In addition, we have the opportunity to become more aware of the environment around us.
In the Fit Mix workout, we can bring mindfulness to each movement. It’s different than seated mindfulness meditation. For example, if we engage in free dance, we can still practice “witnessing” – observing ourselves, without judgement, while focussing on what we sense and what we feel. It may feel like meditation in motion, and then in our daily life when we are actually sitting and not moving as much, such as when we are facing others in a virtual meeting, we can continue to witness ourselves (e.g., aware of our thoughts, feelings and sensations) as we interact with others. Our meditation in motion practice is a transferable skill that we can apply in our every day life when we are sitting down. Same thing goes for the stand up desk. We can continue to witness ourselves, without judgement, staying aware even while standing in front of our computer.
Fit Mix is a unique training approach that promotes mindfulness throughout the workout. It’s a great way to get into our body more fully, develop awareness of physical sensations, and practice being in the present moment throughout each movement. Another benefit of the Fit Mix approach is that it helps to manage our Yin and Yang energy. We all have the energy of push and pull continuously competing and negotiating each day. Yin is our feminine energy within and yang is our masculine energy within. We all have both of these energies inside ourselves, and we need both to get through the day. The pandemic reminds us that balance is a myth. When do you actually need 50% yang and 50% yin? Most situations require us to shift the ratio. Sometimes we need more yin – when we need to be more flexible, to go with the flow a bit, to surrender more and be in the moment without the need to control, to be more open and receptive to different viewpoints, to embrace situations as they arise, to be able to wing it sometimes, to be spontaneous once in a while and not be overly dependent on our plan, to pause or at least slow down, to take a break from all the action steps and let situations unfold without being so attached to the outcome. This is our yin essence. It brings us into the now, allowing us to connect to the moment and “be” rather than “do”, trusting the experience we are having without judgement.
Other circumstances in our day require more yang instinct, our masculine energy within. We can’t always be so in the now so much that we’re unable to plan for the future. It is possible to feel present in the moment and also think forward into what we need to do to prepare for the future. We need to also have skills to stay grounded in the practical world and function in a setting that has guidelines, rules and policies, and this is only possible if we crank on our yang energy. If we are overly yin, we are unable to create specific goals, be proactive and take initiative, and set clear boundaries with intent. We need to be able to write outlines, fill out forms, plan budgets, and pay the bills. These tasks require more assertive push energy, our masculine instinct within to control. Whether we identify ourselves as male or female, we all need a certain degree of yin and yang energy to manage the natural stress that is part of our every day life.
The art and skill is to consciously change the ratio of yin and yang as needs change. For example, the choice to speak up or stay silent is a frequent challenge when you are working with colleagues on various projects. Whether you are working from home or in a workplace, it’s not always perceived as appropriate to speak your truth moment to moment. So we learn to choose our battles, and only speak up when it has great meaning to us, or when the consequences of not speaking up potentially challenges our physical and/or mental health. Sometimes we need to be more patience, listen more, and not say what’s on our mind. And other times we need to be bluntly honest, but also make an effort to express ourselves authentically and tactfully.
As the pandemic has dragged on, many people are getting more in touch with their deepest feelings and their intuition is speaking to them loud in stereo. Whatever was a fleeting moment of intuition before may now be amplified on a continual bases. While it’s useful to be aware of our inner voice (those deep thoughts, feelings and sensations within), it’s equally important to realize when it’s more important to keep some of those insights to ourselves, at least for the time being, and sense when there is a more appropriate moment to share what’s on our mind. When the person we are speaking to is not open to receive our message, there’s no point going there. Trainers talk about “teachable moments”. We can sense when someone is more open, and that’s the more appropriate time to provide coaching and share our insights.
The Fit Mix approach helps us be more conscious of our yin and yang energy, and this awareness benefits all aspects of our daily life. If you are feeling overly Yang, practicing more yin moves can help you practice being more comfortable with your yin energy. Then throughout the day, instead of blurting out what you are thinking, breathe in and out consciously a few times and practice holding back what you wanted to say, staying silent for a moment. If you are overly yin and find it challenging to say what’s on your mind even when it’s an appropriate moment to speak up, practice more yang movements, and the later in the day practice interrupting others once in a while and reveal what you are feeling. In our daily lives, we want to be able to do both consciously – speak up tactfully and be heard, and listen mindfully to others. Fit Mix is a unique workout that has the energy of yin and yang built into the training program. Practicing the Fit Mix approach helps us to shift our yin and yang energy with intention, and this skill can be applied throughout our life.
I am looking forward to presenting “Fit Mix: A Mindful Training Technique” for the Certified Professional Trainers Network (CPTN) Online Summit. It will be an experiential workshop that includes exercises inspired by various dance forms, martial arts, and yoga. We will mindfully integrate a variety of movements and shift our yin and yang energy. For trainers and coaches, this mindful training technique can help your clients feel energized and inspired!
