Putting Some Mind Into the Body

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Broaden your training menu with mind-body techniques that help clients achieve goals as much by “working in” as by working out.

Learning Objectives

After reading this article, readers should be able to:

Identify the three main elements of mind-body training.
List five specific ideas for integrating mind-body training into program design.
Discuss various approaches for enhancing clients’ exercise experience by helping them become more mindful participants.

Total CECs

1 contact hour from ACE

Credits from ACE may be applied toward the ACSM continuing education process. They are also accepted by W.I.T.S. and NFPT.

Test

Follow the instructions on the answer form on pages 44 and 45.

Personal training is evolving to keep pace with exercise-research revelations and changes in consumer interests. An array of “softer” fitness forms such as yoga, Pilates, t’ai chi, chi kung, Feldenkrais and Alexander techniques has earned a firm foothold on the long list of today’s fitness options and has broadened our clients’ expectations for variety in their training programs.

Fitness-minded consumers are well informed about the mind-body exercise options available to them; they rely on trainers and other fitness professionals to train their muscles and their minds. Are you taking advantage of this surge of interest in mind-body training? The most forward-thinking personal fitness trainers (PFTs) thrive in today’s business market by weaving mind-body fitness into traditional program design and addressing clients’ needs more holistically by training the complete fitness trilogy of brain, body and breath.

Not only is it smart to learn mind-body techniques to provide clients (and yourself) with interesting training options, it is also a shrewd business move. According to the 2003 IDEA Fitness Programs and Equipment Survey, results-oriented personal training, yoga, stability-ball-based exercise and Pilates continued their 6-year trend upward in popularity (Ryan 2003).

Changes in training styles have paved the way (and maximized valuable session minutes) for increased integration of mind-body practices. Industry educators and researchers (Chek 2001; Cibrario 2003; Frankel & Kravitz 2000; Seabourne 2001) agree that, over time, repeated isotonic exercise of a muscle group causes increased inhibition of the stabilizers that cross the related joints. Simply put, the more a muscle is trained in the same way over time, the less benefit that occurs.

This is precisely why muscular integration in personal training has become so popular. Functional training allows both prime movers and stabilizers to fire simultaneously during a workout, thereby minimizing the time traditionally devoted to lengthy isolation exercises that take individuals from machine to machine. Training with a total-body, kinetic-chain philosophy frees up precious time to experiment with other forms of fitness.

Why not fill those extra minutes with mindful exercise techniques that will make the client’s training experience more holistic? With the correct approach, your client’s mind and spirit—as well as her response to exercise and her perception of the value of your services—will soar.

Teaching New Dogs (Very) Old Tricks

Effective teachers make it a point to learn new training disciplines by experiencing them firsthand. If you have considered incorporating mind-body approaches into program design, take classes in as many different techniques as possible before asking clients to try them. Take at least two classes in various mind-body disciplines (yoga, Pilates, t’ai chi, Feldenkrais and Alexander techniques, stability ball training, guided meditation and aquatic mind-body classes), and from different teachers each time. Try to experience classes that address more than the physical body of a client (the “what” of the activity), and learn from the cognitive teaching approaches (the “how” of the activity) different instructors use.

Attending mind-body classes can enrich your training style in three ways. First, you can see how other facilities’ instructors teach, which will help you create more balanced, individualized exercise plans. Second, you will learn different approaches to working with clients. For example, you may opt for a more gentle yogalike approach with exercisers who don’t respond well to an aggressive “let’s get to work” style. Third, you will learn a variety of new exercises to spice up program design.

Yoga

Recent research documents that people can gain both strength and flexibility from yoga (Tran et al. 2001). Furthermore, trainers can harvest yogic methods to assist clients with breathing techniques essential to successful execution of many weight-bearing exercises. Effective yoga teachers constantly instill in participants kinesthetic awareness and correct postural alignment—skills that also are valuable for personal trainers to develop. Assisting a client to execute a biceps contraction with heavy weight is useless if you overlook poor core posture and breathing (both essential components of yoga).

You also can borrow some yoga asanas (poses) to incorporate into sessions. These can improve balance and develop muscular flexibility and isometric muscular strength at specific contraction angles. For example, certain functional closed-chain postures (e.g., utkanasana and vrksasana) train standing posture and stability, and teach standing alignment, balance and muscular leg strength using yogic influence.

Pilates

Trainers can extract mindful forms of nontraditional isotonic exercise from Pilates. Learning these techniques can increase your movement expertise and help you understand the body as an integrated whole. Your increased savvy about body movement can also improve your client assessment and evaluation skills. For instance, working on muscle imbalances in your client’s body keeps you in tune with problems you might observe when she is walking or standing. If you work with athletes, Pilates also can be a useful tool for avoiding overuse injuries and restoring balance in weaker muscles.

T’ai Chi

T’ai chi, which means “ultimate energy,” not only develops body awareness as it relates to spatial movement but also contributes to balance enhancement, relaxation through visualization, moving- meditation abilities and muscular control of super-slow isotonic contraction. Recent research (LaForge 1995; Lan 1999; and Yu 2003) indicates that t’ai chi can improve balance, and increase VO₂ max, muscular flexibility and T-cells in those with impaired immune systems.

T’ai chi practitioners begin in a standing position with legs adducted. Next, the shoulders are abducted until the fingers of both hands meet overhead (without scapular elevation). When the fingers touch, the hands and elbows are lowered slowly toward the navel, “covering” the body. The hands are separated and the process of “sinking the chi” repeats. The purpose of “sinking the chi” is to practice slow movement and relaxation, increase synovial fluid of the shoulder joints, stretch the latissimus dorsi and prepare for further t’ai chi forms by directing energy, or chi, toward the body.

Simple instructions using t’ai chi cueing—e.g., “Today we will incorporate t’ai chi speed in our approach to these repetitions”—can change the mood of a workout from a “terminator” school of fitness to a more mindfully controlled and balanced approach.

Feldenkrais and Alexander Techniques

Classes in these two disciplines can instill the benefits of slower-paced movement with closed eyes to help develop a client’s inner awareness of movement.

PFTs often follow the “tell, show, do” method of explaining exercises to clients. Moshe Feldenkrais was noted for his “tell, show, imagine, do” model. Using the Feldenkrais model, trainers should encourage clients to take a moment before an exercise to imagine themselves recruiting all their muscle fibers in the exercise.

Recent research supports this. In his book, Mind/Body Fitness (2001), Tom Seabourne says, “Sport psychology studies show that if you think about throwing a punch or kick [before you do], you can actually enhance the nerve-to-muscle function, so that when you actually throw your punches and kicks, they will be faster, higher and more powerful.”

Australian-born F. Matthias Alexander taught his students and musicians to engage deep-core musculature with eyes closed to train mindfulness and active muscular recruitment through breathing and proprioception. You can translate this philosophy to personal training by challenging your clients to perform the final progression of an exercise with their eyes closed (when prudent and safe).

Guided Meditation

Meditation classes can teach personal trainers how to help clients relax beyond mere flexibility-enhancing postures at the end of sessions. You can learn how to verbally emphasize muscular flexibility and review the purposeful integration of mind and body in each exercise addressed. For example, try concluding a session with guided meditation as follows: “Constance, as you stretch your hamstrings sitting in this staff pose we are borrowing today from yoga, close your eyes and review with me the purpose of today’s training, which was to concentrate on a mindful leg workout. Remember how you felt when you tried those hamstring curls, when we used the stability ball and when we tried squats with your eyes closed? Imagine the hamstring muscles along the backs of your legs lengthening every time you exhale.” Adding meditation to the final moments of a session ensures attention to flexibility, enhances understanding of the training and contributes to the client’s positive frame of mind. It also summarizes the theme of that particular workout.

Aquatic Mind-Body Classes

The water, an often unexplored personal training environment, offers another way to add new stimuli and variables for clients. If you have ventured into mindful aquatic classes such as “Hydro Yoga” or “Ai Chi” (t’ai chi in the water), you have discovered a completely new world of training. Such aqua mind-body experiences can enrich your clients’ exercise experience through buoyancy management, balancing skills, dynamic resistance, unique flexibility skills and relaxation techniques. Once per month, Jeff Howard, mind-body personal trainer at the Golden Door Spa at Las Casitas Village in Puerto Rico, takes each of his clients to an outdoor pool at the end of their training session for final relaxation and aquatic stretching techniques.

Working Out to Work In

Are you up for the challenge of training your clients’ minds, bodies and spirits through a more holistic approach to exercise? You can glean much from popular mind-body techniques by taking classes as a first step. As a mind-body PFT you can help clients achieve their realistic goals through programs that allow them to grow successfully as much by “working in” as by working out.

SIDEBAR: N-A-M-A-S-T-E

Practical Steps to Mindfulness

Yoga instructors often greet students individually at the door with a sincere “namaste.” This Sanskrit word means “hello” and “goodbye,” and conveys the message, “My inner peace meets, greets and salutes your inner light.” Trainers who educate clients on the meaning of this word bring centuries of mindful greeting into each subsequent session. To help you incorporate specific mindful training techniques, try remembering “namaste” as an acronym.

stands for nurturing the client’s brain-body-breath relationship. You begin nurturing when you ask your client how his body is feeling (“How is your energy level today?”), and how his brain and breath are responding (“How is your concentration level today?” “How has your breathing been this week?”).

One way to nurture the trilogy of brain-body-breath is to give your client reading materials to take home. Encourage him to read at least one mind-body approach article for every traditional strength training article recommended. This posttraining “homework” continues your nurturing of the brain-body-breath connection well after the session has ended.

stands for aligning the body with the brain and breathing. Try beginning the session with a fitness fact, quiz or riddle pertinent to the day’s training pro-gram. Stimulating a client’s thinking early in the session will improve productivity throughout and stimulate mindful exercise. Sharing a thoughtful quotation or motivating story before a workout can also inspire your client’s mind and spirit. Try a powerful, deep inhalation and exhalation to align the mind and body for work.

is for motivating clients to pursue their integration of brain, body and breath. As a mind-body personal trainer, make it a goal to plant the seeds of motivation so your participants independently cultivate mind-body fitness and integration. Show your client the benefits of both physical and mind-spirit cross training. Share article clippings from the media and Internet that show how mind-body fitness rounds out the total approach to well-being. Exposing your client to ongoing research and the latest results can prove very motivational. Motivational books also can be excellent sources for stories about people who have overcome physical limitations to embrace fitness.

Be sure also to point out mental and physical training progress to your client. When you point out specific examples of his brain-body-breath fitness improvement, it builds his confidence and spurs him to reach for more.

The second A stands for appraising the client’s integration of brain, body and breath. You may opt to record and file a client’s feelings along with her numerical measurements, and track these over time to follow emotional progress related to fitness level. For example, instead of merely “weighing in” the client and tracking measurements, try recording a few adjectives that describe how her energy, concentration and breathing feel that day. Track these changes over time and periodically share the journey with her. Another useful tool for appraising clients is Borg’s Rating of Perceived Exertion scale, which requires the client to make a connection between body and brain.

stands for starting sessions mindfully. Consider greeting clients with “namaste,” to start the session on a mindful tone. Starting sessions with a mind-body approach also means asking the client how he feels in terms of energy, emotions and breath. Another way to begin mindfully is to verbalize a mindful “theme” for that day. For example, you can develop cards that each list one mindful focus; have the client pick one from a basket before you begin training and have that be the mindful theme for training that day. Some examples follow:

Focus on movement with eyes closed.
Focus on outdoor training.
Focus on super-slow training with t’ai-chi-like speed.
Focus on yogic breathing techniques.
Focus on Pilates breathing techniques.v
Focus on verbalizing how the repeti- tions feel.
Focus on ending our session in the pool for liquid flexibility work.
Focus on chatting about our training over green tea as we conclude.

stands for transitioning and refers to how you spend the time with your client between and among exercises and equipment. As you become more familiar with mind-body exercises, try incorporating them as transitions between machine-based repetitions. As for the time you allot for flexibility, try drawing from yoga or t’ai chi to make it a more mindful segment of the session. Some examples include:

After a super or giant set of exercises involving abdominal flexion and other core work, try having the client stretch in some variation of the yoga “bow” (dhanurasana) posture; this can work wonders to open the chest, abdominal and hip flexor areas.
Between abdominal crunches on the ball and spinal extension exercises on a machine, ask the client to try yoga postures of “cat” and “cow” (calling them by these yoga names), to stretch both erector spinae and rectus abdominis muscle groups.
Insert a standing yoga “tree” position between exercises to challenge muscles isometrically, especially after explosive isotonic sport-specific drills.
Have the client walk from one exercise to another in “bow steps,” traditional, slow steps from t’ai chi.

After an initial sense of awkwardness, most clients soon look forward to such exercises. They may feel that not only are they stretching after working hard, they are getting a bit of “extra” mindfulness, education and value for their training dollars.

stands for ending. Try to finish each training session mindfully. Saying “namaste,” adding guided meditation, ending a session with flexibility exercises in a warm-water pool, offering mindful reading material or brain teaser handouts are all examples of how you can incorporate mindfulness into a client’s regime.

Petra Kolber, 2001 IDEA Group Fitness Instructor of the Year, says that clients will “always remember and learn from the first and last 5 minutes they spend with their trainer. In many ways, those moments are the most crucial for behavior change.” This underscores the importance of careful planning for the ending stages of training sessions, which often are the most rushed.

Some trainers offer green tea to their clients after training sessions. Recent research (Quinlan, Lane & Aspinall 1997) shows the benefits of drinking decaffeinated or natural green tea at the end of a training session. Because the beverage is hot, clients must pause from hurried life as they drink. Such a pause can invite reflection, especially when coupled with a motivating handout or conversation with the trainer. Beverages like green tea also help stimulate the body’s relaxation process—a great bonus after working out!

When planning how the session will end, consider that your client can make mindful gains by remembering how he has trained his mind, body and breath. If you have chosen a theme for that session, the ending serves as an appropriate time to reiterate it.

SIDEBAR: How and Where You Train

Understanding how physical factors contribute to emotions can help PFTs train the overall well-being and health of clients.

As trainers, we tend to rely solely upon the confines of inside space in fitness facilities. Individuals who spend a great deal of time sitting indoors in offices should experience gross movement patterns during training. If your program design only takes clients from machine to machine inside a fitness facility, you have facilitated little more than more indoor sitting!

How you utilize the facility’s or your studio’s training space can greatly influence the brain-body-breath trilogy. Most facilities in the United States dedicate little, if any, gym space to private flexibility. Often clients must stretch without privacy on mats placed between pieces of heavy gym machinery. How can you avoid this awkward and nonrelaxing situation for your clients?

Try to develop “flexibility enhancing rooms”—private spaces where you can control the mood. Soft light, candles, incense, gym or yoga mats, appropriate music and even a small water feature are examples of items that can enhance a client’s muscular relaxation response during flexibility work.

Taking clients outdoors for a bit of fresh air and sunshine is another way you can enhance the training experience. Serotonin, a naturally occurring chemical in the body, helps connect the synapses between brain cells and leads to feelings of happiness. One of the most natural ways to stimulate serotonin production is to expose the skin to natural sunlight for 10 minutes or more.

If you have access to transportable equipment such as stability balls, medicine balls, resistance tubing and core boards, consider taking your clients outdoors to capitalize on sunlight’s natural effects on the body (be sure to check first with facility management to ensure that it is legal for you to do so and remind clients to apply sunscreen). Seabourne (2001) suggests that changes resulting from such natural-light-driven training include benefits to the immune system, bone marrow, thymus, spleen, lymph nodes, endocrine system, bones, muscles, internal organs, and the walls of veins and arteries.

You can train or stretch clients outdoors at minimal cost and you’ll create long-lasting rewards.

SIDEBAR: Resources

Books

Coulter, D.H., & McCall, T. 2001. Anatomy of Hatha Yoga: A Manual for Students, Teachers and Practitioners. Honesdale, PA: Body and Breath Inc.

Farhi, D. 1996. The Breathing Book. New York: Henry Holt.

IDEA Resource Series Book. 1999. Mind/ Body Fitness. San Diego: IDEA Health & Fitness Inc. To order call (800) 999- 4332, ext. 7, or (858) 535-8979, ext. 7.

Articles

Argo, C. 2001. Integrating Pilates and yoga into aquatic classes. IDEA Health & Fitness Source, 18 (11), 57-62.

Burch, D. 2001. One-to-one water training. IDEA Personal Trainer, 12 (4), 37-43.

Durrett, A. 2000. Feldenkrais fits into fitness facilities. IDEA Health & Fitness Source, 18 (6), 18.

Durrett, A. 2001. Creating a soothing space. IDEA Health & Fitness Source, 19 (4), 14-15.

Durrett, A. 2002. Pilates and personal training. IDEA Personal Trainer, 13 (3), 18-25.

Hebert, M. 2000. Musings on meditation. IDEA Health & Fitness Source, 18 (9), 55-9.

Kern, D. 1999. In the realm of the spirit. IDEA Health & Fitness Source, 17 (5), 65-71.

Ross, D. 2000. Mind your own mind-body business. IDEA Health & Fitness Source, 18 (4), 32-40.

Sherman, R. 2002. Yoga for athletes. IDEA Personal Trainer, 13 (1), 20-6.

Lawrence Biscontini, MA

IDEA Author/Presenter

Lawrence Biscontini, MA, is a world-renowned presenter, trainer, author, movement specialist and spa... more less

References

References and Suggested Readings

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Austin, J.H. 1998. Zen and the Brain: Toward an Understanding of Meditation and Consciousness. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

American Council on Exercise. 2002. Think yourself stronger. ACE Fitness Matters (April/May).

Biscontini, L. 1999. Exercising your global talents: Making the most of your ACE faculty status. ACE Faculty Network, (Fall), 1-3.

Biscontini, L. 2000. Fitness at your fingertips. Asiafit (May-June), 32-4.

Biscontini, L. 2000. Nothing softer than the water! What mind-body hydro classes can do for you. AKWA Letter Magazine, 14 (6), 10-11.

Carrico, M. 1997. Yoga Journal’s Yoga Basics: The Essential Beginner’s Guide to a Lifetime of Health and Fitness. New York: Henry Holt.

Chek, P. 2001. What is functional exercise? www.paulchekseminars.com; retrieved June 2003.

Cibrario, M. 2003. F.I.S.T part 10: Integrated hip-core-shoulder exercises with spinal stabilization. www.ptonthenet.com; retrieved June 2003.

Cotton, R.T. (Ed.) 1996. Personal Trainer. San Diego: American Council on Exercise.

Crompton, P. 1990. The Elements of T’ai Chi. Dorset, England: Element Books Limited.

Etnyre, B.R. 1998. Antagonist muscle activity during stretching: A paradox reassessed. Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, 20, 285-98.

Fox, J., & Gould, P. 1999. Yoga 101: A Practical and Fundamental Guide. New York: Avon Books.

Frankel, C.C., & Kravitz, L. 2000. Periodization: State of the art training. IDEA Personal Trainer, 11 (1), 15-6.

Glisan, B. 1995. The Spine in Sports. St. Louis: Mosby-Yearbook Inc.

Kendall, F.P., & McCreary, E.K. 1993. Muscles and Testing Function. Baltimore: Williams & Wilkins.

LaForge, R. 1995. Exercise-associated mood alterations: A review of interactive neurobiologic mechanisms. Medicine, Exercise, Nutrition and Health, (4), 17-32.

Lan, C. et al. 1999. The effect of t’ai chi on cardiorespiratory function in patients with coronary artery bypass surgery.Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, 31, 634-38.

Mingwu, Z. 1988. Chinese Qigong Therapy. Jinan, China: Shandong Science and Technology Press.

Overturf, R., & Kravitz, L. 2002. Strength training and flexibility. IDEA Personal Trainer, 13 (8), 17-9.

Quinlan, P., Lane, J., & Aspinall, L. 1997. Effects of hot tea, coffee, and water ingestion on physiological responses and mood: The role of caffeine, water and beverage type. Psychopharmacology, 34 (2), 164-73.

Ryan, P. 2003. Fitness trends report. IDEA Fitness Manager, 15 (5), 1-5.

Seabourne, T. 2001. Mind/Body Fitness. Boston: YMAA Publication Center.

Tobias, M., & Stewart, M. 1989 Stretch and Relax. New York: Body Press.

Tran, M.D., et al. 2001. Effects of hatha yoga practice on health-related aspects of physical fitness. Preventative Cardiology, 4 (4), 165-70.

Yu, T. 2003. T’ai Chi Mind and Body. New York: Penguin and DK Publishing.

Zemach-Bersi, D. 1990. Relaxercise: The Easy New Way to Health & Fitness. San Francisco: Harper.