by Nicki Miller, personal trainer and aerialist![\"nicki](\"https://www.neighborhoodtrainer.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/nicki-upside-down-crop-300x201.jpg\")
You want to “get in shape.” You set a compromise for yourself. You agree to 60 minutes of physical activity for a somewhat arbitrarily prescribed number of days per week, but the other 23 hours a day can be filled with whatever you want. Inevitably, somewhere in one of those 23 hours, you do something careless and your body revolts: a muscle spasm, a sticky joint, a nagging mystery pain. Now you can’t do the workout plan you had scheduled! Foiled! Now what?
- Stop Compartmentalizing Your Body Awareness
It just doesn’t work. The body is with you 24 hours a day, even when you’re not officially “exercising.” When you work out, are you paying extra attention to how your body feels? Try paying this kind of attention walking down the street with a heavy bag, running after your child, when your shoulders seize up with tension during a stressful conversation. Notice how just being more “in your body” during your day makes your body more interested in feeling good and moving well.
- Set Goals Based on What Your Body Tells You It Needs
Last week you decided Tuesday was the day you’d do the Big Run. Tuesday rolls around and your stomach aches and your hips feel really, really tight. “BUT I SAID I’D DO THE BIG RUN ON TUESDAY SO I MUST DO THE BIG RUN TODAY!!!” What does your body say? Maybe it’s best to wait just one more day and do the run when your body is eager to go running after a needed rest day. Your mental schedule and your physical schedule are different. Allow yourself to be flexible when your body wants something different than your mind.
- Show Up
Even when you don’t feel 100%, show up for your body. Even if that means spending 60 minutes of a sick-ish day on a foam roller or doing gentle stretching since you can’t make it through the High Intensity Interval Training you had scheduled. If you have created 60 minutes in your day for your body, show up and do what your body needs that day. Even if you can’t push crazy hard, don’t cancel on yourself. Life requires us to move in different ways in times of intensity, times of moderation and times of ease. Practice all of these in your workout time depending on what feels best to you.
Your body will only work for you as long as you are good to it. Just like any relationship, the best results come from listening. Start paying attention. The real goal of training is finding a sustainable relationship with your body that allows you to stay healthy and active. The journey is an ongoing and fulfilling one- enjoy it!
Nicki Miller is an NASM certified personal trainer, Fit For Birth Pre/Post Natal Specialist and aerial acrobat. In addition to physical education she teaches aerial fabric and rope classes and is Co-Founding Artistic Director of Only Child, an aerial theatre company. www.nickimiller.com
