Are Fitness Trends – Helping or Hurting Your Whole-Body Health?

I just read the article The Massive Fitness Trend That’s Not Actually Healthy at All by Jonathan Angelilli. And it’s worth your time to read. This is a very well-written article with good reasoning for learning to listen to your body.

Developing the mind-body connection is one of the reasons that I truly LOVE and appreciate what Pilates has helped me to achieve (and continue to work on) on my own personal journey to achieve, and maintain, balanced whole-body health – Mind, Body, and Spirit.

So many people believe that if they’re not busting their hump in the gym daily, that it’s not even worth trying.

So where does that leave you when you’re dealing with chronic pain, an injury, or other ailment? Do nothing but rest and eat? Only to recover, work out too hard and repeat the injury-inactivity cycle?

Yes rest is important, and cross-training is immeasurably beneficial. Somewhere one has to find their own personal happy place, where the training methods you use you enjoy fully so that exercise is FUN, and the activities you participate in not only help you stay healthy, active, and fit, but injury-free!

Not every meal we eat can be a gluttonous Thanksgiving Dinner. (Can you even imagine?) So why does every workout have to be “balls to the walls” challenging, or long, or repetitive, or with super-heavy weights? Train for your sport if you are an athlete, Yes. But overtraining regardless of athlete or everyday person and sooner or later your body is going to break down and protest the pounding. What your body will let you get away with at 20 is much different than at 40 or 50. And trust me, I love exercise and enjoy how my body feels after a good workout. But there’s a difference between creating trauma and effective training.

You can gain as many benefits from a calm, gentle training session as you can from training for a triathlon. And sometimes stillness IS the best exercise – just ask a Yogi or Tai Chi Master about that.

I believe efficient exercise with good body mechanics is vital for BOTH your “easy” and more challenging workouts. Without paying attention and learning to use your muscles and joints correctly – injury will result. (And over-fatigued muscles can’t support healthy movement habits) The magic happens in Pilates with low repetitions 3-5, up to 10, with the goal being that the last repetition you do is the very best one you’ve ever done, so you leave your muscles with the memory of how to work correctly. Brilliant!

Are you one that’s on the bandwagon for the latest massive fitness trend, regardless of how it might be affecting your health, or are you learning to listen to the inner wisdom of your Soul which can speaks volumes to help you make good exercise choices, and work at an appropriate pace to help you be healthy.