Mind-Body Fitness Alternatives
Get Toned with Yoga, Pilates, Tai Chi, not Aerobics and Weights
So you've been going to the same gym for years, taking the same cardio classes, using the same machines; but things are changing. Is mind-body exercise for you?
Hey fitness fanatics: Do you watch TV while running on the treadmill? Do you make small talk while lifting weights? Do you blast house music and hip-hop while spinning? The fitness community in the typical American gym is fun, diverse, and active, but the whole "mind-body" exercise phenomenon that is creeping onto the scene is bewildering to some. What's the difference between a yoga class and an aerobics class? How will Pilates give me a better strength-training workout than weightlifting? What on earth is Tai Chi all about?
Perhaps you've let your mind drift off to somewhere else while working out and oops, there goes a ligament. Maybe, more than a few times, you've told yourself to "feel the burn" or "tough it out." Perchance there is an ideal "you" floating around in your head that you strive for with each workout, tracking the calories you burn, the weight you lose, the changes in your body mass index, and the inches around your waist?
When we exercise absent-mindedly or in a goal-oriented mindset, we cultivate several behaviors that can be detrimental to our overall health including increased risk of injury, a lack of enjoyment of physical activity, and chronic conditions resulting from improper and repeated movements.
Mindlessness vs. Mindfulness
Ancient arts such as Yoga and Tai Chi and modern techniques such as Pilates offer something to the student that conventional fitness routines do not. These practices engage the body and the mind; their approach to physical activity is through mindfulness.
When you calm the mind and cultivate your awareness, you begin to experience the joy of movement and become sensitive to the messages your body is sending you. This is the empowering feeling of developing your own "body wisdom," the ability to know intimately what is going on in your being and the skill and knowledge to be self-healing.
The focus of mind-body exercise is to engage the entire being in the present moment. There are no goals. There are no judgments. There are no distractions. There is only experience.
Because awareness is at the center of these practices, there is typically a lesser risk of injury. You may get into "the zone" on a treadmill and not feel your knee going out. You may wake up the day after a high-impact aerobics class and ache all over. Yoga, Pilates, Tai Chi and other mind-body arts teach the student to respect the body as he moves through the practice and honor its abilities and limitations. This level of mindfulness keeps you aware of your edge in any given movement and usually pre-empts strain, overexertion, and dangerous misalignments.
Pain Versus Pleasure
The intention behind mind-body exercise is to bring wellness to both aspects of our being. This is in contrast to our western concepts of "getting fit," "toning," and "shaping" the body, terms which connote that there is some end-goal we must strive for through punishing hard work.
A healthy and happy body is a fit body: the goals we often push ourselves towards in the gym to "look good" and "be strong" are natural side effects of mind-body practices. In the wisdom of doing what is good for us, our best selves come through, happy, healthy, and beautiful.
The most pleasant benefit of mind-body exercise is the sense of innate joy the practitioner begins to derive from the simple act of movement. Mindfulness and awareness will transfer to other activities like running and biking, playing sports and playing with children, gardening and cleaning; work becomes play when it is done with joy.
