Periodization and Transition Phases

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“The dream you are living is your creation. It is your perception of reality that you can change at any time. You have the power to create hell, and you have the power to create heaven. Why not dream a different dream? What not use your mind, your imagination, and your emotions to dream heaven?” –

Don Miguel Ruiz, The Four Agreements, Love More, Fear Less

Chris Oemler recently shared this quote in one of her classes at the Leesburg studio. I often think of life in terms of training periodization cycles – here’s a very simple picture to visualize how training periodization works (simply put, purposeful waves). There are cycles of grinding and maxing out, testing your limits – but to grow and optimally perform, these challenging times must be followed my rest, relaxation, and recovery.

In yoga, sports and life this occurs on macros and micro levels – the “micro” rest at the end of each yoga practice or the “down” periods (transition phases) in life (like having a nice Memorial Day week vacation!). These take the form of rest and reflection, allowing one to process absorbed knowledge and experiences, realize what you’ve even accomplished, and take a moment to learn from the past. If you push too far without this rest, hard work and training will be wasted; you risk injuring yourself, you burn out, and you simply become over-trained, not yourself and no longer engaged and benefiting from the process and practice.

Of course, no surprise…like many of us do, I approached last week with ambitious intentions – the business plans I would write, the personal projects I’d complete, etc. Yet, the moment I finished those final exams and completed the long trek home…all I could do was sleep (and eat). Like myself, many of us are unaware how exhausted we’ve become.

Three years ago, when I was forced to do nothing but think while recovering from my hip surgeries due to over-use injuries (something I never paused and stopped to do), I promised myself that I would intentionally plan time for this in the future. As stated earlier, this rest is essential for growing or else you burn out, or get sick, off-track, etc. and eventually are forced to stop.

Often our greatest ideas, insights and intuitions come after we’ve taken a break – whether that’s meditation, a step away from the office, a walk, or vacation. Like a taper from training, at first, we feel ‘off’ or may question if we’ve even put in our best work…especially if we are letting ourselves rest. Was ‘my best’ good enough? Could I have done better? Will it pay off in the end? In sports and life, there’s uncertainty between the point of hard work behind us and not seeing results. However, along the way you trusted in this process, so shouldn’t you believe in the outcome?

In sports periodization, after a week’s rest, our bodies hit a point where rest kicks in and our body can perform optimally. The accumulation of learning, work, and training experiences…and we realize “we still got this”…we’re on the right track. This “performance test” extends beyond a sport competition but comes in many forms – often life’s challenges, ideas or direction for what’s next.

In training and in life, it’s hard to stay in your own lane, or even your own mat. We all have different goals – but we often get wrapped up in what is going on around us. There’s a balance to be found between surrounding ourselves with people who challenge and support us with while also maintaining focus of our own training strategy.

Ruiz also wrote, “Imagine living your life without being afraid to take a risk and to explore life. You are not afraid to lose anything. You are not afraid to be alive in the world.”

It’s only after these tests you realize it was irrational to have ever worried or questioned yourself. This emotion of uncertainty or fear is purposeful – because without out any sort of discomfort, we would casually go about life, perhaps not attentive, without anticipation, never feeling the extremes, no satisfaction or appreciation.

“Imagine living your life without fear of expressing your dreams,” Ruiz writes. “You know what you want, what you don’t want, and when you want it. You are free to change your life the way you really want to. You are not afraid to ask for what you need, to say yes or no to anything or anyone.”

The following of a challenge or test of performance is an essential time to redirect our focus and make changes to the next cycle according to what’s working and what’s not working (and also what you may want to try experimenting). Whether you are approaching summer, a new job, the end of a school year, or any transition phase – it’s a great time to refocus and align with our goals. Remembering to rest, dreaming the life we want to live, following what we love, acting in alignment with our long-term goals, serving other’s, and fearing less.

 — Amanda Presgraves

Amanda is a recent business graduate from Wake Forest University with her B.S. in Exercise Science from James Madison University. As Division I collegiate swimmer, life-long athlete, and entrepreneur – Amanda is an advocate of health and personal growth, on a constant pursuit to optimize life and inspire others through her commitment to healthy living. If you can’t find Amanda bouncing between projects, the gym, kitchen, her mat, or volunteering, you can find her online as she continues to lead and motivate others towards a happier and improved life through article contributions, newsletters and community motivation. (@amandapgraves, linkedin).

The Power of Art: The Fun and Cutting Edge Secret to Accomplish Your Fitness Goal

The Fun and Cutting Edge Secret to Accomplish Your Fitness Goal

“The key ingredient for success in life is the discipline of mind and body. Setting goals and making sure they are accomplished builds discipline. Whatever goal I set for myself, I will first get a mental image in my mind of exactly what it is I want to achieve, then I will be determined and persistent enough to overcome all obstacles that get in my way toward that goal. Finally, I will train or study accordingly until that goal [fitness goal] is accomplished.”  – Chuck Norris

Goal setting often falls short because of a lack of action.

In a world where living’s evolved into a constant stream of to-do list tasks, goals, and “if-only’s” – we are expected to prioritize our time, handle information, maintain focus, allocate resources, and constantly increase performance…and goals are the answer. How can we ditch the distractions and get things done? 

A fitness goal serves to fuel motivation and have been found to improve performance. A previously frowned upon and distracting activity has now emerged as the cutting edge of neuroscience and behavioral psychology.

The lack of action in fitness goal – setting is caused by a stall resulting from the constant data and stimulus overloading our brain and stealing our focus. BUT, when you draw a picture of what you desire…your chances of remembering it improve by 65%! Add in the body chemistry from imagining and drawing – a serotonin/oxytocin potion that guides your pattern-making brain into focus – and you have yourself a fitness goal – achieving master.

Even better – doodling requires no artistic talent (so don’t say you “can’t” draw!), expensive tools, training, or talent. The science-backed
key to scheduling in that workout, or simply knocking off a line on your to-do list is to physically write it out.

For so long, doodling has been criticized for its useless endeavor, but new research is supporting the clear, tangible effects on outcome and performance – particularly in the power of a tool for active visualization.

Mental imagery can have a very powerful effect on behavior, research found that participants who visualized a task before completing it performed better than those who had actually practiced it. At the deepest levels of the mind, the brain and central nervous system can’t actually distinguish between something vividly imagined and an actual occurrence. We see this utilized in professional athletes and sports settings such as with Michael Phelps who’s well known for applying visualization techniques to gain an edge over the competition and reach peak performance, in the process of healing injuries and managing symptoms, and for increasing actual muscle mass by simply visualizing an exercise routine.

“To doodle is to engage in an intellectual, creative, and physical act that recruits many neurological networks simultaneously. This makes it a strong force for chance and portal for imagining and inviting preferred realities” Sunni Brown, The Doodle Revolution

Not only does imagery create a motivating vision which allows us to take the necessary steps to fulfill it, but it changes the information processing in our brain at the earliest levels. As humans we tend to revise the same neurological pathways we know and get stuck in our comfort zones. Next week we’ll share the multiple and unexpected ways doodling serves as the fitness goal game-changer, allowing us to enhance what’s possible.

The #1 Way to Get Your Child to Workout

The #1 Way to Get Your Child to Workout

“No man has the right to be an amateur in the matter of physical training. It is a shame for a man to grow old without seeing the beauty and strength of which his body is capable.”   – Socrates

Fact: DID YOU KNOW… many children in the US are way too sedentary…

Unless you are disconnected from the modern world..I promise you hear this shocking fact every day. Research, morning news reporters, doctors, now even our boss…we can’t escape…people are lecturing us left and right in efforts to motivate us into motion.

Shows how much it’s helping…

We all know we need to be more physically active – and we certainly understand how critical it is for child development and of course our personal health – but that doesn’t seem to get our butt off the coach.

Last time I checked  – after reading the latest research, listening to the morning news reporter, or leaving my yearly check-up – I didn’t miraculously levitate and end up on a treadmill (that would be nice though!…someone invent that).

Obviously we’ve become immune to it….

-Maybe you could care less (it’s not worth it)
-You value other things more (*cough cough* that nightly long awaited bowl of ice cream)
-It will never happen to you – (out of the many thousands of subscribers…I guess there’s a chance you could be in the 3.5%…yes 3.5% of adults who do the minimum amount of physical activity (PA) recommended by the Department of Health and Human Services (150 minutes a week of moderate activity))

Let’s look at this differently…

42% of children (6-11 y/o) engage in the recommended 60 minutes of PA most days of the week…ok…at least some of them our moving (I’m sure it’s your kid, right?)

..Hit adolescence (12-19 y/o ) and the percentage significantly drops to 8%!

42% – 8%?! Seriously…what is going on that makes someone stop?

SELF–MOTIVATION

-It’s more than an Monday Motivational newsletter (even though this is great, right?!)
-It’s more than shaming kids on their weight and lack of play time with friends
-And it’s more that yelling at them for spending a stunning 6-8 hours a day on their screens and forcing exercise upon them by taking away their electronics, phones and TV’s

…and don’t even think about using poor sports performance as a motivator to get them out practicing more.

“If Americans know exercise is so good for them, why don’t they take the message to heart as they did the exhortations against smoking? And if exercise makes people feel so good, why don’t they just do it?” – Gina Kolato

Research is beginning to point at something new – the message. Obviously the current ones have no effect on us.

It’s a lot easier on you if you make it so kids WANT to do be active.

How many times do you yell at your kids “go play outside”….”in a minute!”…

You don’t want to yell, they don’t want to be yelled at. Simple.

Make them want to do it. YES..make them want to go play, enjoy themselves and be active. I know..a difficult phenomenan to wrap our heads around.

The key: Giving kids and teens autonomy toward their choice of being active.

A recent study out of UGA discovered teens who don’t feel in control of their exercise choices or who feel pressured by adults to be more active, typically do not engage in physical activity.

The same research found that middle school students were less likely to be physically active if they didn’t feel in control of their exercise choices or if they felt pressured by adults to get more exercise.

“Can we put these children in situations where they come to value and enjoy the act of being physically active?” – Dr. Rod Dishman

Dishman explains just how there are kids that are more drawn to music or art, the same exists for physical activity. So we need to find a way to draw in those kids.

Above all, parents and teachers shouldn’t make children feel guilty for not being physically active.

Dishman’s research studying the Motivation and Behavioral Regulation of Physical Activity found that this developmental period during youth and adolescence was highly critical because physical activity declines without intervention, and self-identities are sensitive to social influences.

The results suggested that motivation for physical activity became more autonomous (i.e. exercising because they enjoyed it, it was a part of their sense of self, or it made them feel good) for some children as they moved through middle school, but introjected regulation (internalized social pressures to be active…like from classmates, parents, news, etc.) also became much more influential.

This is where things could be going wrong. This type of motivation is not effective for long-term adherence…

All these people telling us to be active is actually detrimental “This can result in anxiety, guilt, and shame, which might be detrimental to psychological development and health in some children.” Needless to say, this is not regarded as a desirable target for interventions to increase physical activity.

However, there were strong correlations providing additional evidence on the importance of children’s self-identity for physical activity during a transition period when identities are especially malleable…meaning parents, peers, coaches, and environment play a huge role in establishing a lifelong physically active life…and love it.

Key Points:

• To get your kids moving allow them to find an activity they enjoy.
• Immersing kids in fun, enjoyable activity early on allows them engage in an environment where it is part of how they see and express themselves
• Let them do something they love (whether it be because of friends, the activity, weather…anything!) so they see value, and the enjoyable return they continually receive. The intrinsic motivation will follow.

The most important piece: It’s more than just getting them active, the social component, the life skills, the importance of healthy developments, the learned aspects through team sports..the reason it is so important to have kids enjoy and want to be active at a young age is that you are instilling lifelong habits….

This leads us to part 2 next week – how to get yourself moving.

I love this question by Dishman, “Can we put these children in situations where they come to value and enjoy the act of being physically active?“ – Now apply it to yourself..what are you doing to allow yourself the chance to value and enjoy being active.. how can you share that excitement with others?

The #1 Habit of Effective Athletes

The #1 Habit of Effective Athletes

“The commitments we make to ourselves and to others, and our integrity to those commitments, is the essence and clearest manifestation of our proactivity.” – Stephen Covey, 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

Week 2 of the New Year – How are those 2016 commitments going?

Covey’s 7 Habits are gold. His message is a simple reminder of the core influences occurring behind-the-scenes of our new commitments. How do we decide if we are fulfilling our goals, how do we judge the success of ourselves, and how do we set forth setting new aspirations?

It was at the beginning of high school when I first stumbled upon Stephen’s son’s teen version of this book.  If there is one small takeaway – the foundation for the other six habits – it’s his first message.

Proactivity

Covey’s #1 Habit: Be Proactive Athletes

What does that mean? 

Focusing on what you CAN change.

There’s tons of psychology chatter, sports performance research, and behavior change evidence behind his concept, but here’s it to you straight –

“Just remember that every moment, every situation, provides a new choice. And in doing so, it gives you a perfect opportunity to do things differently to produce more positive results.” 

That’s all.

Simply said – Every moment is a chance to align our goals and actions. We respond pretty well to it too. Proactivity becomes both our approach to our commitments as well as our actions.

We judge our productivity off our sense of integrity – the coherence between our goals and actions…when our values, actions, beliefs, etc. integrate it becomes something that builds upon itself. This explains the exhilarating, momentous, encouraging snowball effect of accomplishment and working towards goals.

Proactive folks focus on the things they can change – in sports, these are your everyday details (finishing out those reps, keeping technique on point when fatigued, etc.).

It’s also how we respond to our environment.

“Response-able” – your ability to choose a response:

#1 way to start – what we say (and sometimes what we don’t say) – whether that be spoken or through out thoughts.

Language: A proactive person uses proactive language. A reactive person uses reactive language.

I can, I will, I prefer, etc. > I can’t, I have to, if only

Taking the initiative to find the solution (ex: How to fit the workout in while traveling – “I can do a body weight tabata circuit in my hotel room”)  > Dwelling on the problem and waiting for someone to fix it for you (“I can’t exercise because the hotel gym is nasty”)

Not all things are within our control, we need to identify those that we can change and focus our efforts on thosecommitments.

“Proactive people focus their efforts on their Circle of Influence. They work on the things they can do something about: health, children, problems at work.”

“Reactive people focus their efforts in the Circle of Concern — things over which they have little or no control: the national debt, terrorism, the weather.”

Gaining an awareness of the areas in which we expend our energy is a huge step in becoming proactive. *where the magic in accomplishing goals happens*

What are doing something about this week? Share it! Are you triggered by a stimulus or do you choose your response?

How do I start off a new beginning/commitment (like a new semester!)? Writing all the things I want to do, how I’m going to commit, and stick to it. Keep that integrity, push forward, and be proactive!