When I first set up Energise Wellbeing or Energise PT as it was in it's previous format, it was all about getting fit and healthy for life. Which is great, right? Because that's pretty much what every other personal trainer is trying to offer as well with some nutrition or lifestyle tips thrown in. And for the most part i'd say people are pretty happy to just improve their overall fitness and when they hit their goals or losing/gaining weight and maintaining that then that is an achievement in itself.
But as I started down the route of not only doing yoga for myself but then putting that into practice with clients, both in an individual practice as well as being part of my client's training plan, it made me more and more aware of just how powerful the mind and the breath is in a person's overall well-being.
Alongside my personal training and strength and conditioning background, combining yoga into the mix made a whole lot of sense.
I often used to say to clients at the end of their PT workout we can do some stretches or we can do a little bit of yoga to see if we can help improve your flexibility. Male and female alike were keen to try out the yoga aspect. When I started focussing their mind not only on the stretch but the breath** into the stretch they noticed something else....their ability to calm their mind, to slow down their heart rate much more quickly and the depth of their stretch becoming easier to accomplish, which if you know what its like to not be able to touch your toes you can probably appreciate how good that would make you feel!
Over time through teaching yoga, personal training and strength and conditioning I have become more and more intuitive in the way I coach. All coaches will have a performance or progression based programme that they like to create for you to see the goals you are achieving, whether through increased weights, reducing body fat, sport based gains and so forth. However, how many coaches out there are also considering the place their clients are in in that moment. It's all about mindset and more importantly, a healthy mindset. I have come across clients who are burnt out from work and relationships and then come to a gym to be forced through a programme they aren't enjoying but "hey, we all have hard days" then go home absolutely exhausted. Cortisol* levels still high. Goals not being attained because their body is in a constant state of stress and no way to manage these stress hormones. This compounds over time and the client becomes more and more despondent about their lack of progress.
What if a personal trainer could do more than get you through a workout, but could work to where you're at, getting that little more out of you than you might have anticipated for the day and at the end of the session you actually left feeling that not only had you achieved something but felt calmer and more rested at the end of the session.
This is where Energise Wellbeing comes in....I am so keen to promote our mental health alongside our physical health as being equally important that this is why intuitive training has become the way I train all my clients.
Intuitive Training is about:
Training you, the client, in a way that works for you on the day
Progressively training you both in body and breath to help give you even better mental clarity and improve physical ability
Implementing different methodologies (fitness coaching, strength and conditioning, trx, yoga, barre and Qigong/TaiChi influences) to provide a more rounded training solution
Understanding the connection between the mind the muscles and the breath to get greater results all round.
As we become more in tune with our bodies, we begin to understand far better what our body wants rather than what we think it wants and in turn our perspective on what we consider healthy and more importantly happy changes as well.
If this sounds like something you would genuinely like to know more about and are willing to approach your training with an open mind to new possibilities of what your body is truly capable of then drop me an email info@energisewellbeing.com
I look forward to connecting with you and discussing your fitness journey for your body and mind
Maddy x
*Too much cortisol for too long can have serious, negative effects. The tissue breakdown, reduced protein synthesis and conversion of protein to glucose can decrease musculature and increase abdominal fat, not an ideal result! It also suppresses levels of growth hormone and sex hormones, which can reduce libido and fertility. It lessens glucose usage and increases blood levels potentially predisposing to diabetes and its effects on calcium can increase osteoporosis.
**For those who don't know me, before I truly moved into the fitness space i trained as a classical singer. Due to a lack of confidence at such a young age I never pursued this route but bringing back the understanding I had from those years of training (the control through the diaphragm, ribs, chest and lungs) in the same way that we do in yoga has bought a whole other element to my training with clients as we understand not only the breath but also the way it moves through our body, the vibration of sound and the happy hormones this elicits.