A man took me under his wings. And life will never be the same again. I would have never expected that a decent sports-program can change my life in just 4 weeks.
What is it all about
After 2.5 months in Zanzibar and some weeks stopover in Bern I planned to go to Hamburg for some workshop weeks to Stephan. By the time I arrived in Hamburg Stephan had already made up his mind what he wants to do with me apart from work. What a man? What a friend? So I signed up to an sports mentoring program (first time in my life). 6 days out of 7 we will have sports. This is following his program that was put together by Janine.
Endurance: Jogging.
Agility: Yoga.
Centeredness and bodyflow: Bodywork.
Power at the hotspots: Power Sports.
Extreem coordination: Boxing.
Jogging
We did it 2 times a week. Nicely sprinkled in between the other types of sport. Since we were in Hamburg, the route was around the lake-like Ausseralster. Precisely 8 km we did in 1 hour and something including the streching stops. All important was for me to stick with a pulse sub 147 to stay in the aerobic area of my pulse (vs. Anaerobic). I checked this with an apple watch and the "Running" app of Addidas. Though that is not needed.
A rule of thumb also does the trick: as long as you can talk freely you are fine. Don't be surprised, if you have a hill you will have to stop running and stick with walking. That is fine. Don't overdo in your onboarding to run. If you feel fine with it, you can add one sprint to max power for some seconds. Do streching after and every 15 min.
Yoga
We like Yoga as it is a more attentive version of gymnastics. I picked up a 10 pose, 10 min flow for my back a while ago. It is stunning how such only 10 minutes that I do even in bed rectify my back again. Find the youtube reference in the chapter ressources.
But now back to Stephan's plan. What he got me into the last weeks was 1 time a week an hour of yoga. YogaRoots was a great studio for that. It is always stunning for me to see, how much I can sweat with such little dynamic movements.
On top we added some yoga after the joggings in the workshop place of his summer house in Wendland. One thing got clear in this: 1 time yoga a week is just not enough and each added, even 10 minute short yoga session is helping tremendously to get the body fit.
Bodywork
Mira is Pilates teacher and a Certified Movement Analyst CMA by Laban/Bartenieff Institute of Movement Studies (LIMS®). What that is? She is capable of looking how you move, walk, whatever and see which blockages you have in your body.
So she was able to look at me and understand from my movements that there is a lot of grief in my chest with some tensions in the front chest joints. Also she supported me with my lower back pain with some moves. So she showed me some special moves and stretches that I added to my 10 minute Yoga routine.
Power Sports
Oh Janine. She started with a 20 minute case history (Anamnese). Then we jumped straigt into power sports. She focused we on building up strenght in my upper chest and a optimised movement of my lower back.
After just two hours I was lifting 60 kg multiple times. I rowed, crawled on the floor and got two very special movements for support of my back. Those I integrated into the 3 stretching parts of the 1 hour jogging.
Boxing
I had the joy to run through a super special at Joe's. He compressed the usual itinerary of a 4 hour block into 1 hour. What a special experience. To cut it short, I was boxing with Stephan after just 58 minutes. And it really worked.
But slower. Boxing is the sport that requires the best combination of concentration, movement and interaction between the two brain sides. This way it also reduces risk of dementia. He onboarded me through some first Jumping Jacks, then the Jumping Jacks with frontways instead of sideways counter movements of the hands or the feet. After that I got a quick intro about how the boxing position looks like and why it is like this. Then he added one movement at a time. First a the back fist, then the front fist, then the foot movement to the front then back. In the end all combined.
What does sports have to do with personal growth?
Sports is a wonderful way to pimp your self-esteem. You start to better look at yourself growing more self-concious. When by two it is fairly easy to actually do the sports. Already after two weeks you see a change in how it feels (self-efficacy). While you get more sporty you accept who you are and you grow more happy with what your body can do for yourself (self-acceptance). Sooner or later you will start to make small goals like to stop running too fast, make two sprints, make 90 min, or whatever else (goal-setting). And finally you find new integrity in balancing your goals with what you actually can do. Find the respective book in the ressources.
Tips
Plan it together with somebody, it is soo much easier.
Have an balanced approach.
Do the jogging in the aerobic area. That will not deplete you and therefor is the one thing that will make you run a next time.
conclusion
The one essential thing to make this happen was to do it with a friend. The second amazing thing was to have the general knowledge about the body and the different types of sport of our personal trainer, Janine, in this. The whole experience was rounded off through the great coaches and trainers in each field like Joe for boxing, Mira for bodywork and later Aqdas for nutrition.
Action
Tell us what worked for you in the comments.
Check which mentors may be a match to support you in your steps.
Find a friend or some friends that sign up to do this together.
Become a member and exchange yourselves with other members.
Ressources
Coaches involved: Joe, Janine, Mira
Mentor: Stephan; Mentee: Olaf
Book: 6 Columns of Self-Esteem
Youtube: Back Pain Stretch
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