Fall is here! It’s the season of dramatic color and chilly nights. In the colder and darker areas of the country, the decrease in sunlight signals our bodies that it’s time to hibernate. (California might not experience it to the same extent but trust me, we feel it here, too.) It can be difficult to find motivation, but slowing down is not necessarily an obstacle, just merely a bump in the road on our long and exciting journey to a healthier body and lifestyle.

A big part of living a healthy life is listening to what the body needs, and accepting the changes it goes through. Let’s invite some new movement to play with, to get the body going and the mind motivated again. Here are a few things that bring the fun into staying fit…

Hula hoops
Go back to the old days when you were hula hooping on the playground! Did you think that it was exercise? Hula hooping can be a fun cardio workout as well as core and abs all in one. It can burn up to 400 kcal per hour! It’s very important to stretch before and after, but other than that, it’s a safe and fun exercise. There are hoop DVDs, but the easiest thing is to go to the nearest Target, pick up a hula hoop, and get going!

TRX Suspension Training
These are traditional strength exercises performed while hanging suspended from the ceiling. Your core must be involved and you will be working out your entire body, as you use your own body weight as resistance. Of course, it is important to receive proper guidance to avoid risks. In my business of personal training, everyone seems to have a TRX Suspension Training strap available for anywhere and anytime training!

YOSPIN fusion
Mix 30 minutes of yoga with 30 minutes of spinning for an excellent body-mind workout. The cardio-intensive cycling followed by flexibility-increasing yoga helps stretch and condition muscles. Switching between the two activities can lead to injury, so a mindful stop and switch – waiting until the heart rate recovers before starting yoga – is imperative. If you don’t have spinning or yoga at your gym, go to a spinning class, download yoga to your MP3 player, and do your own thing!

Of course, you can also create your own fusions of your favorite exercise routines! Do you have any tips to trade? Any fun workouts like hula hoping that you would like to share? Please let us know!

Live Life Loud!

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Our bodies heal through movement.

This is a bold statement to make without referencing studies to back it up, which would normally be my style, but then there is something to say about the innate sense of something that intuitively feels right. (And, of course, tons of studies have been done to back this up.)

I spent all day Sunday in a seminar with my good friend and colleague Scott Kuhagen, of Functional Evolution. He teaches a revolutionary way to heal tender muscle tissue and reverse the aging of cells, thus slowing down our aging process. I know, that also sounds like a bold statement to make without citing studies, but broken down into physiology, it makes all the sense in the world. This new tissue healing system has two specialized research and practicing MDs who have helped to develop the program.

In simplified language, our physical movement is our metabolism. When we move, we convert nutrition to energy and expel toxins and waste products. That is what gives us energy to move. We are a moving, detoxifying organism just by doing what we were born to do: move! So what happens when we don’t move? Disease, depression, obesity, aches and pains in our backs and joints. Worst of all, this decline accelerates the older we get. Not a fun story at all!

There is also a somatic response to emotional trauma, which resides in our muscle tissues. I have encountered many incidents where a traumatic event from someone’s childhood has impaired their range of motion. By implementing psychotherapy with movement therapy, I’ve seen many people return to a normal range of motion. Once again, while there are case studies to reference, we don’t need the studies to know what is true when we feel it for ourselves.

Emotional release is a natural part of the healing process. We need to connect our bodies and minds again, by allowing movement to be not only a guide, but a therapeutic tool. You may have heard of NIA and Dance Therapy, which are both movement systems used in cases of eating disorders and other types of body dysmorphic disorders. These programs help individuals learn how to trust their bodies again and, through movement and sensation, feel themselves and slowly heal.

The next time you move, train, or workout, try to use all your senses. Be less intellectual and just start exploring what is really going on in your body. What do you feel? Maybe you will cry or maybe you’ll laugh out loud. Whatever you feel, you are making a good start in the healing process.

Live Life Loud!

Image: Elvert Barnes