Free Stuff: Articles

Mind-Body Goes Fusion
Published in “ECA News”, 2003

As I sit to write this article on January first of the new year for ECA, Matt Lauer interviews a singing star on the “Today” show.  When he asks her about her recent ‘comeback,’ she insists that she “never really left.” As I chuckle, I realize I cannot help but see the similarity of that attitude to our fitness industry as we re-examine mindful training.

The ubiquitous claim among instructors and trainers today seems to be that “mind-body is the new trend,’ yet it behooves us to remember that these techniques are not new; they never really left!  To be sure, while principles of mudras[1], T’ai Chi, and Chi Gung invade group exercise and personal training routines these days as ‘new trends,’ they comprise the oldest of fitness forms on the planet.  The ancient Yang form of T’ai Chi dates back to hundreds of years before the Bible’s Old Testament existed, and commands attention on its enduring existence alone.  Add the newer forms of mind-body classes like the teachings of Joseph Pilates, Fredrique Alexander, and Moshé Feldenkrais, and the mind-body fitness professional’s “bag of tricks” today augments exponentially.

Understanding first what mindful training means is paramount.  Mind-body fitness means the successful, synergistic communication among brain, body, and breath for both efficient and concentrated movement where speed is not an option.  A recent study from ACE proved that just thinking of innervating muscles produces measured strength gains in those very muscles (“Think Yourself Stronger,” ACE Fitness Matters, Mar/Apr 2002:5.  In his article “Exercise, Good for the Body, Perhaps Better for the Mind” (ACE Fitness Matters: Nov/Dec 2001), Peter Rubin discusses the role of training the brain as a muscle, and reports documented benefits from mind-body classes.  Further studies abound, such as a “Mind-Body Research Update,” published at my colleague Len Kravitz’s website: http://www.unm.edu/~lkravitz).

Many are the fitness forms in our clubs today that emphasize speed, choreography, and the addition of music, yet ancient practices like yoga began outdoors under the natural elements without any of the electronic group fitness elements of the twenty-first century.  Mindful training helps people return to that natural connection to their bodies, increasing their kinesthetic awareness.  When Regis Philbin recently asked me on “LIVE with Regis and Kelly” the most important reason that mind-body classes are so popular today, I told him that they help people increase the overall quality of their lives.  Truly, where we used to emphasize physique, we are learning to emphasize quality of function, and, where we used to train in isolation the muscles, we are learning to emphasize integrated, functional movement.

Because the public wants to reap the benefits of these mindful techniques in an introductory, exploratory fashion, leading group exercise instructors and personal trainers now incorporate fusion.  Just as the hottest trends in the trendiest of restaurants today boast fusion cuisine, and designers boast fusion fashion, the intercalation of two or more different fitness disciplines into a single format provides the consumer with an opportunity to diminish boredom, vary muscle stimuli and sequencing, experience varied benefits, interplay strength and flexibility benefits, and challenge the brain-breath connection. 

The “First Ever Work Satisfaction Study” of IDEA Health & Fitness Source of July/August of 2001(back issues available at 1.800.999.IDEA)  reported that, not only are the fastest-diminishing classes those of fitness boxing, but the fastest rising are mind-body fusion classes.  Examples of fusion classes are T’ai Chi taken to the pool, Reebok’s “Power Zen” T’ai Chi and yoga on the Reebok Core Board, Resistaball’s T’ai Chi, YogaDance, Yogi-lates, and my signature creation “Yo-Chi®” for land, water, Reebok Core Board, and stability ball programs.  For an example of a concentration of the most cutting-edge in fusion programming, consult the “ECA NYC ‘03” brochure.

As fitness professionals interested in the current trends of fitness in the age of “more,” making an effort to include some type of mind-body fusion can help us address more needs of more clients more readily.