Welcome to your quick-fire, end of week update with a few bite-sized bullet points covering what we’re learning about and loving in three areas: fitness, nutrition and mindset. One bullet from each trainer, a little nugget of health and fitness gold.
FITNESS: Nic reflects on wise words
‘Fitness’ is more than tough training. It has to involve i) clever training and ii) providing the body ample opportunity to recover… but striking this balance is often a challenge. Here’s a useful explanation of these two critical components of fitness from martial arts expert and renowned fitness coach Scott Sonnon (Nic has a man-crush):
“Active Recovery: Joint mobility, myofascial ball rolling, stick twisting, band resisted traction and compression, compensatory yoga stretching, vibration drills and heart rate recovery breathing techniques; as well as the more accessible: having healthy sex, walking, swimming, gardening and gathering. Active recovery is MORE important than intense exercise, because exercise reinforces the dysfunction you’ve already adapted to. Recovery (confused with rest) methods actively clean the slate and remove dysfunction, so that any exercise you do, builds healthy structure and function, rather than impede it.
Intense Exercise: Intense exercise is necessary for fitness, because the body adapts to stress. Without stress, you decay and die. I learned this while working with the Cosmonaut researching doctors in Russia: you can’t lift weights in zero gravity, but if you don’t have resistance, your bones and tissue separate and become porous and brittle. No matter how old, you need pressure or resistance to cause your bones, tissues and organs to adapt and grow stronger. Darwin actually said, “It is not the strongest who survives, but the most adaptable.” The most adaptable, not the strongest, “survives the fittest.” Be a chameleon to stress: adopt it into you, adopt to it, and then remember all the prior steps and REST AND RECOVER.”
NUTRITION: Vee wants to boost your immune system
Vee has some simple and effective tips to help boost your immune system this winter (and hopefully keep you safe from the cold & flu!):
- Swap your morning coffee for a cup of hot organic bone broth
- Throughout the day drink hot tea with freshly grated or sliced ginger, manuka honey and fresh lemon
- Get some extra nutrients into your diet with high quality greens supplements (Vee loves Nuzest’s Good Green Stuff and Passion Projects’ Superfood)
- Keep hydrated throughout the day – aim for drinking 3 litres of water, and
- Have loads of vitamin C (from fresh fruit and veggies).
MINDSET: Libby & The Art of Balance
This week Libby spoke on the panel at a League of Extraordinary Women and lululemon event, on the topic of The Art of Balance. Here are a few of the takeaways she took from the speakers on the night (including, erm, herself).
- Balance can sometimes be a bit of an illusion, I think you’re always leaning a little more in to one thing or another. Right now I’m leaning a little more towards work and I’m actually really OK with it… there’ll be time later to lean in to other things, like family or me time.
- You have to show up and suck before you can show up and crush it.
- The moment you stop growing, learning and evolving, so will your business. So keep chasing inspiration!
- For the parents out there, don’t feel guilty about being a hard working mum and not having all the time in the world for your kids. It’s inspiring for them to see you fulfilling your potential, and it teaches them radical self reliance. Just be really present with your kids when you are able to spend the time with them… even if you only have 30 minutes a day, put your phone aside, listen to them and make it count. And never compare yourself to other parents!
- If you feel like you’re falling apart sometimes, just understand that’s pretty normal, everyone goes through it. Ride the wave, take a little time out for yourself when you need it, even if it’s just a few minutes, then get back in the game.
- If you’re feeling anxious and out of control, with a thousand thoughts bouncing around in your head, there’s only one thing that will truly help you take control: stop, plan and prioritise. Getting organised clears your mind and really helps you get back into a positive frame of mind.
- Another trick that really helps is to change your internal language towards the actions you’ve chosen to take. For example, instead of saying/thinking “I need to” or “I should”, replace those words with, “I want to” and “I choose to”. It makes a really big difference to everything from your work to your workouts. So… who wants to workout? 😉
Thanks for reading Agogians! Have a wonderful weekend, and we’ll see you in the studio.
