Mindful Movement: Incorporating Mindfulness into Your Workouts--at FitStop

If you've been to any of my classes, you've probably heard me say a time or two: Be intentional with your movement. Add your own tension. Challenge yourself, but listen to your body.

These are mindful practices within your workouts and they can be game changers.

Let's say you're doing squats. Down and up. Down and up. Monotonous. You honestly can just zone out while doing them. What if you start to pay attention to each rep. Press your feet firm into the floor. Feel your heels. Feel your toes. Focus on the knees. Where are they? Then add tension in your quads. Fire them up. Your glutes: are they sitting back looking for a chair to tap? What about your arms? Feel the weights. Or if you're doing bodyweight, are your arms assisting you in adding tension? Can you feel your core engaging?

Asking yourself these questions, paying attention to each part of your body, can truly turn a tedious move like a squat into something unbelievable and much more beneficial for you.

Let's keep going. Do you run? If so, do you pay attention to your body while running? What are your arms doing? How is your spine aligned? How does your core feel? And most of all, how is your cadence? How do your feet touch the ground? Toe ball heel? Or mid foot? Where are your knees and hips? How are you breathing? I'm telling you it's a game changer!!

In short, mindfulness in working out is truly paying attention to what you are doing!

• Stay in the present moment — instead of thinking about work, your phone, or what you have to do afterward.

• Listen to your body — recognize the difference between healthy effort and pain or exhaustion.

I just read this and I love it: Let go of judgment — rather than thinking, “I’m too slow” or “I’m not strong enough,” simply observe how you feel and what you can do today.

Everyone's workout, whether in the gym or in a class or at home by yourself, is unique to them. Even if it's the same workout someone else is doing, it's still YOUR OWN. Make it just that. Take the move and pay attention to it. Remember this for your next workout!!

Before I close out I wanted to touch on if you are recovering from an injury or illness. These times are especially important to be mindful. If I learned anything from my chemo rounds, its to listen to my body and if ANYTHING felt different I needed to let someone know. The same rings true in a workout. If you feel ANYTHING is off, you let me know or the instructor. There is ALWAYS a modification or an alternate move to do. AND GIVE YOURSELF GRACE. Don't be scared to REST! If you need more time to recover, please take it. That is being mindful.

And lastly, I'm not saying that you need to do this each time for every move. Practice is a bit until it becomes second nature. Then every workout you do will be the best workout you do!

PSAs

As many have noticed, we have some issues with at least 2 of our treadmills. I think Matrix maintenance have done everything they can think of and may have 1 more option to keep those treadmills from tripping on us. Fingers crossed. And thank you Phil Vienneau for persisting in the matter.

Indoor sneakers are so very important and I'm asking you to please bring a clean pair with you when you come!

Our Birthday Draw will take place on Wednesday, Sept 30th! If you celebrate this month don't forget to add your name to the draw! You could win some pretty nice FitStop swag.

Our Fall schedule is in full swing! I hope you take advantage of our full week of classes! From Sunday to Saturday, there is something for everyone! If you have questions regarding classes, let me know. tracy.jones@summerside.ca

If you know someone who is thinking of becoming a member, tell them about our BOGO sale. On for one more week (until Sept 19th). Buy one day pass, get one for free.

As always,

Thank you for your loyalty to FitStop!

Your coach,

Tracy