[CONDITIONING OF MIND THROUGH BODY] From a strength training perspective, the term conditioning work was defined by me as any training meant to increase your work capacity and cardiovascular fortitude. Things like circuit training and metcon, hill sprints, etc. Truthfully... I hate it. Well, thats not entirely true. I love what it does to condition your body, but I hated knowing what it would show me about myself. The exhaustion and desperation for air I would feel after only ten minutes of circuits, or after my second or third hill sprint, was like my ego holding up a big black mirror of all the mistakes that Id made in my life. Every irresponsible choice that Id recklessly made which damaged my body showed up in a maelstrom of guilt and insecurity, my ego towering over me victoriously conducting a symphony of self loathing with my wheezing as the sound track. I felt cornered into my present (lack of) abilities by fear of facing my past. So I avoided it for a long time. I copped out in a big way, and stuck to training things that I liked instead of things that I needed. This created a HUGE imbalance in myself. Training has become this funny metaphor for my life; my habits and tendencies in training mentally reflect my habits and tendencies in other areas in my life, and vice versa. I found myself avoiding important confrontations with my limitations and damaging belief systems out of fear of facing emotional pain. It was through a lot of personal development work, meditation, and deep conversations with supportive, loving friends and family that I was able to transcend that fear, and see how I was sabotaging myself by running away from acknowledging it. TRANSCENDENCE REQUIRES PARTICIPATION. To go through something gives you the choice to keep going through it, or to go above it. With the right support, I became a participant in my own life again, and faced what I needed to face to grow, spirituality, mentally, and physically. Conditioning work to me now means more than conditioning my body. Its about conditioning my mindset to not be trapped by the guilt of the past, so that I can visualize my real mental strength in the present, and look back with peace in the future. Its about strengthening the feeling of personal power and motivation to push to my limitations in the now, so that those limitations cant keep me there tomorrow. Its a true meditation in motion where the goal is presence, and that presence is an organic investment in the future. I try to walk through my life with that presence, being aware of when Im creating limits that dont exist from fear, or my ego acting all funky. Training in the gym, in meditation, and through mental exploration, has all contributed to the balanced, satisfying path of continual growth. Todays workout with Mel: -10 minute every-minute-on-the-minute sets of squat power clean triples with heavy weight (75-85%) -One person does- +10 parallel bar dips +10 full length ab roll outs +8 high box jumps While the other person is rowing at 85% 4 rounds through -5 rounds for time: +8 reps each of inverted rows and burpees Ive worked with lots of clients who have flourished as people through the lessons of physical practice, and how they create parallels in removing the limiting beliefs in other areas of their life. Watching that process is my favorite thing about being a coach. Lots of love your way Find your center, and in it your balanced, complete self.
Posted on: Sun, 10 Aug 2014 16:14:30 +0000
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