March 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 2: Building trust: An Informed approach

Month 1 was about getting acquainted with some of the fitness machines available through the fitness center and my internal and external responses to using them.  By the end of the month I was better able to see my strengths plus those aspects of my experience that acted to hold me back from making progress in the program.  I also got the sense that more of these strengths and areas of development will become apparent as I continue along my path toward greater levels of fitness.  Looking back on the second month I see that addressing these areas of development is a lifelong process.   This “lifelong process” ties in nicely to my Integral Life Practice and Integral Life Coaching practice, since all of these practices, including fitness, involve improving my self in service to others.

During the second month I focused more on breathing and focus and being fully present during each exercise.  I continued tracking progress on a fitness journal, and am seeing evidence of progress in a number of areas, including reps and amount of weight I can handle.  I am still finding fluctuations in my overall energy level and am looking to relate these fluctuations back to general life conditions.  Still, I am willing to accept these fluctuations as mysterious, or having no known explanation. 

One of the practices that I discovered is called “Focused Intensity Training” or FIT, and has to do with increasing presence during training.  Since this practice can be a great part of an overall Integral Life Practice, I am going to devote my next article to describing it in more detail.

Following are some key insights regarding Month 2:

• Since I wasn’t very sure of the fitness program I intuitively designed during Month 1, I decided to take advantage of another of my free consultations with a trainer at the fitness center.  She reviewed my program, suggested a few additional exercises, and basically suggested that I was doing very well.  In fact, in her experience, not many people follow such a detailed plan.  Since my Native Perspective is in the LR quadrant, creating detailed plans comes naturally to me.  For those who do not orient from the LR, it might be helpful to work with someone to create a fitness plan for you to follow.  The structure itself can act as a way to keep you on track.
  
• Although weather and a bad cold kept me from the fitness center on a regular basis, each time I went back to the center, even after missing a few days, I felt stronger.  The fact that I felt physically stronger was incredibly inspirational and kept me motivated to keep trying.  The idea is not to be perfect, but rather to keep trying despite (or perhaps because of) our imperfection. 
  
• One day I felt extremely low energy and sluggish during my entire workout.  That night I developed a bad cold.  It’s amazing how working out can improve the relation we have to our bodies! 

I am now working with a nutritionist to better recognize my nutritional needs based on body signals.

Next month’s article will discuss additional insights from the month.

Until then, stay fit, friends!