February 4, 2010  

Monthly Fitness Journal

This Monthly Fitness Journal serves several purposes (which also tie in to the overall purpose of the Integral-in-action Article Series):

• To share what I’ve learned during the month; changes in my practice and mindset, ups and downs experienced along the way, and skills I have adopted to help support sustainable change.  You might want to apply some of these to your own practice.
  
• As a way to honor my responsibility to improve myself in service to others (and so that I do not get so easily winded walking up the stairs).  Also as a form of self-motivation, since publicly committing to a fitness practice is one way to help keep us on track!
  
• To demonstrate an integrally-informed approach to fitness.  Integral-in-action!

Month 1: Getting started: An Intuitive approach

As I reflect back on my first month at the fitness center, I find myself filled with an interesting blend of increased confidence, sense of accomplishment and a better understanding of my own level of fitness (on the one hand) as well as a growing list of nutrition and exercise-related questions and a general sense that I need more direction and advice (on the other hand).  The general feeling is that I could use another hand!

Change is fluid and dynamic.  It is not something that we can contain within some rigid structure.  Some days we will feel high energy and others very low.  We will also feel varying levels of motivation.  How can we expect to keep up the same exact routine day in and day out?  At the same time we need structure in our lives to keep us efficient and effective human beings and to help us stay on track.  This paradox of needing structure yet requiring flexibility is one of the largest challenges we face in stepping toward sustainable change, and I believe is one place taking an integrally informed approach can support us along the way.

My approach the first month was largely intuitive as informed by my life experience and intellect.  I created the routine that I felt best fit my needs at the time and changed it as my needs changed.  Since I have never worked out in a fitness center before, I still found it necessary and useful to get direction from the fitness center trainers, who were more than happy to answer my questions.  I signed up for the 14-day free membership which included a walkthrough of the center and a 1-hour introduction to the facility.  I took advantage of this by collecting as many questions as possible beforehand and asking these questions to the trainer during the free consultation.  Here are a few key findings:

• I got tired during the day after my workouts for a time.  I spoke with a nutritionist and found that this type of tiredness may be a signal that I need more protein in my diet as a result of the extra work I have been asking my body to do.  And I thought it was just a good excuse for a nap ;)
  
• Although I made gradual progress on the elliptical machine, my original approach was to run for 20 minutes at a constant rate.  I subsequently found that it is better to include bursts of high-intensity sprints within the workout.  Who thinks of this stuff?  I want their job!
  
• Muscle needs periods of work followed by periods of rest in order to strengthen.  Who knew!  Thus it is better to alternate workouts between, say, upper body one day and lower body the next.  It’s also a good idea to cross-train (which means to combine exercises to work various parts of the body.  Interestingly, a form of cross-training is also used in Integral Life Coaching.

The Quadrants as realms of consideration 

 Since one of the aims of the Integral-in-action! Article Series is to relate fitness to the Integral model, let’s do so.  In terms of the Quadrants, my Native Perspective is LR, which means I take a “big picture” view to plan my actions.  If you are one of those notebook-carrying people who keeps a detailed log of your progress, chances are that you also orient from the LR.  Still, there are three additional Quadrants we need to keep in mind while considering a topic.  Look what happens if we look at the four Quadrants in terms of maintaining a workout routine:

The main goal of the Integral-in-action! Article series is to show how taking an Integrally-informed approach to fitness can help us to (among other things) step toward achieving sustainable results.  In terms of the Quadrants component of the Integral model, this means keeping all four Quadrants in mind and accessing/leveraging them as necessary and appropriate, given the situation at hand.  In terms of fitness, if you refer to the figure above you can see that some of the components to keep in awareness are 1 setting your intentions (UL), 2 working in a group environment or with a coach/trainer (LL), 3 monitoring energy levels (UR), and 4 having milestones to track progress.  Of course, details of each quadrant will vary from person to person. 

What fitness considerations would you fill your 4 quadrants with?

Month 1 Findings...

My first month at the fitness center as made me realize the following:

• I am finding it increasingly important to hire a nutritionist whose philosophy aligns with my own.  My nutritional needs have dramatically changed since I started working out.  It is important to get a handle on not just what to eat and when to eat it, but how nutrition affects my overall system.
  
• I am becoming more in tune with my body signals both during and after workouts.  It seems to me that listening carefully to and adapting to these signals in various ways is key to honoring the change process.
  
• Keeping the quadrants in mind and to making wise use of available resources can help you stay on track in your practice.

Where do we go from here?

Next month's article will explore some of the many benefits of approaching a workout routine mindfully.

Until then, here's to sustainable fitness...