by Daniel Lucas…
Life-long fitness is about practice! Like the Yogi who still gets on the mat at the age of 100, or the Tai Chi master who continually strives to improve their flow, one’s true level of fitness is formed over a lifetime. In America, the fitness mantra over time has somehow become “how do I lose weight, lose more weight and continue to lose weight?” I want to tell you this: losing weight is simply a result and should not be your sole intention to exercise!
If longevity, vitality and strength of character are the heart of your practice, you’ll realize you have a lifetime to develop all the other benefits of fitness, like strength, agility, stability, power, tone and heightened body/mind/soul awareness.
Let me share some of our Nimble Fitness tips to building your practice for life:
- Beginners Mind Taking care of your mind/body system takes dedicated time to become educated and build your exercise knowledge. Pick up a book, study online, go to a class or get yourself a trainer! There are many ways to get fit, but the secret to enjoying it is discovering the style of movement that you connect to and which works for your body type. Whether that is strength and conditioning, yoga, Pilates, martial arts, dance, running, cycling, crossfit, hiking–or some combination of them all–have a beginners mind, and enjoy opening up to new styles of training to see if it’s right for you and your body.
- Environment Find a gym or studio (or even a quiet corner of your home) that fits your vibe, style and needs.
- Make it Easy Keep a mat a home and practice building your body weight catalog of exercises. It doesn’t have to be an hour every time—consistency is the key. Your gym or studio should ideally be close to your home or office so that you can make steady progress with your program.
- Don’t just Exercise—Train! Focused training is a lot more fun and effective. People start and stop exercise all the time, but at Nimble Fitness, our personal training clients that are the most successful are training themselves for life.
- Cultivate Your Deeper “Why” We now know that consistent exercise equals health for our whole selves–mind, body and soul. For instance, neuroscientists have found that increased blood flow to the brain helps prevent dementia/Alzheimer’s. And loading your body with appropriate resistance helps maintain muscle and keep your bones healthy. Movement raises your energy and had been proven to be far and away the best drug for preventing depression! There are a lot of very important “whys” on the list, but the core of mine is being fit to experience life on the highest level until I’m no longer in my body.
Making movement part of who you are is about altering your perspective and diving in to the mystery of your own body. Have fun exploring and challenging yourself! Amazing things can happen when you make movement/training a practice for life!
Namaste.
Daniel
