Scott's class was the best lesson I've ever experienced in breathing through movement and physical effort. We focused on maximizing each breath for almost 90 minutes. Scott's mantra was to bring our attention to our breath and internal alignment and our external alignment in postures would flow from that.
INTERNAL ALIGNMENT WILL BRING EXTERNAL ALIGNMENT!
What joy to my ears. I focus on helping people find alignment in their bodies and know I have so much to learn about how to accomplish this. This extends beyond better posture and muscular balance. This extends right down to aligning with how our bodies feel on any given day. Maybe we planned a high intensity workout but find ourselves dreading the idea of pushing our limits when we approach a workout. Aligning internally means RESPECTING what our bodies need so that they can get back to their happy place, where we aren't further draining our empty reserves comparable to swimming up stream against a strong current that will take us if we learn to flow with it. Training properly has so much more to do with given our bodies exactly what they need from exactly where we are at on any given day.
I hear some trainers cuffaw the idea that training for better alignment is overrated. I guess they aren't working with the same population I do. Most regular folks have something going on that needs to be taken into consideration when designing a personal approach for helping someone become healthier in a meaningful way. It could be feeling emotionally depleted, or maybe being hunched over because of desk work or defeated by the challenges in life or coming out of an illness or having negative past experiences with working out or even depression or anxiety. The list goes on and on. Training for alignment is so much more than balancing our bodies out on a muscular level.
I cringe at macho or superficial approaches to training. Like engaging in a high intensity workout when our muscles already ache or thinking that rest is overrated when it comes to building strength. People in the fitness industry are known for over training their bodies getting caught up in the more is always better mentality. Or doing exercises with improper form for that sake of pushing more reps out or lifting more weight or working out despite an injury just to make things worse.
I just don't get how it serves regular folks just trying to feel and look better. Because internal alignment will always lead to external alignment.
Alignment occurs on so many levels from what Scott taught with breath.
To alignment with what type of workout our bodies need on a specific day.
To alignment with a training paradigm that gets our bodies back to their anatomically correct position.
To aligning with an approach to health that restores vitality, not to look a certain way. The physical changes will always appear when we listen and align.
To aligning with what is truly most important to us in the way we work and be with those we love.
To aligning with larger principles of how we would like to contribute to the world around us.
Right up to aligning with spiritual principles that are about love and compassion.
It starts quite simply doesn't it. It's a path I've seen work with many people. It's the domino effect that will inevitably lead to better big picture alignment.
I feel so passionate about getting better at living in the here and now being true to how I would like to align with the universe.
I've never written anything using the word align so many times.
Next time you go to workout, think less about how you want to look or how you can prove something to yourself about how tough you are and think more about what your body needs. As Olivia Newton John once said, "Let me hear your body talk".
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