At Natural Fit, we believe that insight is more useful to our members than advice. The adage, ‘give someone a fish, you feed them for a day; teach someone to fish and you feed them for a lifetime,’ rings true and guides our approach.
At Natural Fit, we believe that insight is more useful to our members than advice. The adage, ‘give someone a fish, you feed them for a day; teach someone to fish and you feed them for a lifetime,’ rings true and guides our approach.
As we find ourselves in another lockdown, this seems particularly relevant. This morning I walked along the beach and saw people running, doing press ups, burpees… they were working hard and to be honest, I tip my hat to them for getting out there and doing their thing. Exercise has many benefits, and during a lockdown, if you get out of the house, get moving and feel like you have accomplished something then that is fantastic.
Very often however, I feel like exercise is a missed opportunity. When we move, every function within our bodies is affected. In the same way that people engage in the Wim Hof Method using icy cold water as a stress to impact their entire system, at Natural Fit we focus on the stress of exercise to practice responding and adjusting.
It is undeniable that exercise provides stress to our system. Stress is often a misunderstood term. In the right dose, stress provides the stimulus to adapt, develop and evolve. The premise behind a well-designed exercise program is to place our system under enough stress to stimulate positive changes like increased muscle tone, enhanced cardiovascular function and improved mobility. There are obvious limits however, of course there is a point where the stress is too much, and our system cannot tolerate the demands.
At Natural Fit, we coach you use exercise to provide insight, rather than mindlessly moving without listening to your system. We teach you to ‘notice and adjust’ how you are functioning as you tiptoe this fine line between the appropriate stress dose-effect. We want to challenge ourselves beyond our comfort zone to elicit a positive adaptation; but avoid the potentially detrimental effects of taking things too far. Are 10 squats better than 8 squats? In most exercise contexts we are told that more is better. At Natural Fit, we say that 8 good squats trumps 10 ‘poor’ squats any day of the week. We are looking for positive adaptations rather than forcing our system to compensate or reinforce poor function.
On the beach this morning, those diligent exercisers I saw repeating countless reps of press ups, squats and burpees, were working well beyond their system’s ability to adapt in a positive way. The message here is not about practicing perfect technique. It is simply that when we ‘listen to our system’, we can ‘notice and adjust’ how we function and get more out of what we are doing. We also learn a great deal about how we function under certain conditions (stress); and we have the opportunity to make profound changes to how we function once we have gained these valuable insights.
To gain insight, we must become self-aware. This may seem obvious, and while some might assume that this is a natural function, it often requires our specific attention. During our Natural Fit classes, listen to how our coaches cue. They guide your attention to areas that might need adjustment. Can you feel the weight through your feet? Is there balance between right and left feet, between heel and toe… ‘insight is more useful to our members than advice’. When you notice that you are placing more load on your left foot during a squat, you can then adjust your own form to achieve balance. We are teaching you to notice and adjust, which can then be applied to everyday settings.
This style of coaching is particularly important when you are doing our online classes. We are not there to ‘tell you to shift your weight’; ‘GIVE US 10 MORE’; ‘drop down deeper’; or ‘tense your glutes!’. We teach you to use your own insight during a Squat to make these adjustments by yourself.
Body Weight Squat
1) Purpose: E.g. Balance, do you have equal load through your feet?
2) Mindset: E.g. Be willing to shift ego and either adjust or stop when form drops.
3) Complexity: E.g. Do you need to adjust range of motion; deeper or shallower?
4) Intensity: E.g. Goal is 10 reps. Should you stop earlier or add more reps?
5) State: E.g. Can you adjust your breath or tension to achieve more with less?
When you listen to your system, you will learn to work right to your limits, which is where positive changes are promoted. Too little and your system will not need to adjust. Too much and your body will compensate or shift into ingrained patterns that lead to more of the same thing. These insights are revealing. You might be surprised at how often certain thought patterns, emotional patterns or physical patterns pop up, when you challenge your limits. Very often, it is our thoughts or our feelings of discomfort that stop us rather than our ‘physical’ ability to perform a task. Who would have thought you can learn so much from a Squat?