A Conscious Approach To Exercise

[Zeroh]

The Conscious Approach to Exercise

First we go surface level. Then we delve into the deeper understandings of the task at hand.
Please discuss this and add inn elements you find are necessary and ask as many questions as you wish.
I have 9 years of experience with various forms of exercise and will answer as helpfull as possible.
Hopefully this will result in the realization that Personal development is closely related to physical exercise (if you are not aware of this already) and that they potentiate each other.

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What is exercise?
"A trial or practice session in athletics"

This means anything that trains your performance in any activity. This could be dancing, parkour, lifting, running, swimming and a whole list of activities. We will remain within the field of athletics even though the concept of exercise, or training rather, applies to all aspects of experience.
See Leo's video "No Growth Possible Without Training" for more.

Exercise for most is about pushing boundaries and developing further performance within their chosen athletic field for the purpose of attaining a series of goals. If you lack the goals you are also not doing true exercise, you are then running around a dark forest without a flashlight. Most fail at this initial step. The rest who manage to set certain goals also tend to set "non-conscious" goals.
The last nine years to the present moment I have seen countless individuals come and go to the gym, whereas only a handful have made it through and carried on with the years. What made them so special? Let us delve into the principles of exercise.

So why do most exercise? What are the common goals or mindsets that drive most to exercise?
I decided, 6 years ago, to actually ask every newcomer what their reasons for joining the gym was, and the top tier answers are as follows;

- "I want to look good"
- "I want to be sexy and have women/men look at me with envy"
- "I want to get BIG"
- "I want to get ripped"= = 

- "I want to feel good"
- "I want to be strong"
- "I wish to build my confidence"

- "All of my friends are doing it!"
- "It's become a thing lately, so I had to try"
- "This one over here convinced me to join"
- "It is a great place to hang out as well as getting some healthy exercise!"
 

"It is healthy for me"
"I have to do it because if I don’t, I will get fat and unhealthy"
"I don’t like the way my body feels and need to make a change"
 

- "I'm curious as to what exercise is"
- "I want to test out my boundaries"
- "I want to see how far I can get"
- "I just like to push myself"
- "I like the feeling of exercise and how it affects my body"
- "I love the pain of it"

There are countless other answers as well, but these are the main categories.
Many people, of course, are within more than one answer. Some wish to both look good and test their boundaries others have the knowledge of the health benefits as well as the wish to attain more confidence. Regardless, these are the fundamental triggers for the initial attempts (in most cases).

Why then do most fall off this waggon?
This is where "level of awareness" usually plays an important role. The lack of understanding how true exercise works and the ability to figure it out. Initial goals are that of the ego, yet exercise does not necessary follow the attractive path the ego wants - fast progress and ease. So the ego lose interest, motivation and simply "forgets" to exercise further. I tried and found out; "it wasn’t for me".
The usual duration lasts from 1 week to a year. After a year 90 percent of all who started have fallen off. They may even start all over and end up progressing exactly the same only to fall off once more.
Let us take a deeper look at the hurdles that toss most off in a fairly chronological order as you encounter them:

The first barrier is simply interest and motivation:
Interest in exercise itself and a fundamental curiosity provides with the essential energy required to take action.
This energy is motivation. With these one might attempt the first challenge of exercise;

Habit;
Every single January the gym is packed with newcomers, the infamous New Year Resolutions. A week later the amount of people are halved. A month later its halved again. Those who remain now usually manage to push on for various stretches of time and some even successfully creates a fundamental exercising habit.
We all know the challenges of habit, and most in this forum have good knowledge of its structure and elements.
Being aware of this hurdle will be an essential tool for success and opens up for the next challenge;

Lack of Goals;
Let us say you have successfully constructed the habit of exercising, you go three times a week and you have done so for over 3 weeks. You will even start to feel some effects about now. Your goal however, is blurry and not really substantial.
"Well, I just want to look good". So when you train, you lift some weights, feel some pain and push here and there.
But the goal of "looking good", is not really a useful goal is it? Nor is it the most conscious.
So you do not really have a clue as to what you are doing, and thus motivation will slowly deplete as there is no progress.
There is no progress because you have nothing to compare with nor anything to aim for.
 
Take a look in the mirror, assess your body. It is a sculpture and it is perfectly sculpt-able. How then can you transform "want to look good" into a useful goal?Find a vision. Visualize where you want to go, what you regard as "looking good" and aim for that. A six-pack for most is categorized as looking good. Let us use that.
"My goal is to get a six-pack"
Now that you have such a goal you can easily plan out your exercises toward the success of this by adding sit-ups to sculpt and define your abs, and cardio to rid the fat. (Nutrition will also play a very important role here)
With this you will gain more energy in the form of motivation and maybe even passion toward exercise.
Around this time it is also very important to start journaling your exercises, which will a fundamental help in tracking your goals and progress.

The challenges will progressively become more and more difficult henceforth.

Lack of Knowledge;
You go to the gym regularly and you have a goal set and you have some fair understanding of how exercise works, most likely from a few articles online and what you remember from school.
You know that exercise is about pushing boundaries and pushing the body to its limits in order to progress.
Now ask yourself, do you really have true knowledge of how exercise works?
Do you know of the fundamental principles and variables of training?
Do you know how your body responds to exercise and how to make this efficient?
Do you know the various exercises and their effects?
Do you have nutritional knowledge?
A great man once said; "Learning equals behaviour change".
This could not be more true for exercise. The more you learn the more you will change your exercise behaviour.
This is also the one true challenge that differ success from failure. If you stay true to always updating your knowledge you will be successful in the art of conscious exercise.
There are two branches of experience resulting from the success or failure of this challenge.
One leads to the next series of challenges; Mastery - dealing with the plateau, Nutrition - developing your fuel for success, etc
The other leads to; Lack of Progress and loss of Motivation
These are essentially the same challenge but with two different approaches, one is with knowledge the other without.

Branch One, Lack of Progress
Without sufficient knowledge one will ultimately hit the infamous plateau and will have absolutely no clue as to what to do next. The training plateau is one of the hardest challenges of exercise and requires extensive knowledge and energy to defeat.
Let us carry on with our story;
You have your goals, habit and a fair understanding of exercise. You have read a few articles and surfed bodybuilding sites and seen a bunch of videos. The last six months have been awesome, you clearly see some abs coming forth and you may even have set new goals. Motivation is at its peak and you are ready for more. As the next month pass absolutely nothing happens, you train but the progress seems to have slowed down substantially, weeks pass by and you might not notice any change. You might even try to change up your workout regiment, and even though it helps a bit the progress doesn’t regain its previous levels. Motivation starts to drop and other events in your life starts to take priority. Suddenly there has been a week without any exercise and before you know it, none at all.

Up to this point we have lost, say out of 100 people, 50 the first week, 25 the following month. Another 5 to lack of goals and 10 to lack of knowledge and the resulting plateau. What remains are 10 people whom now have to delve deep into the conscious approach to exercise to defeat the plateau.

- Developing a fundamental knowledge-base

- Setting both short and long-term goals

- Getting familiar with concepts and principles of training

- Strategizing for success

- Acting it out consciously

 

Branch Two - Deepening your Knowledge
Mastery - Dealing with the plateau
This is a reference to the book "Mastery" which is essential to success in any attempt at mastering anything.
It is especially powerful for exercise. Learn to love the plateau, develop a strategy that will ensure a continued progressive stressor on the body with sufficient rest to allow for supercompensation that ultimately results in a boost to the next plateau.
Simply put, do not give up.
Periodization principles - Knowing when to train, at what intensity and when to rest. Look up General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS). It is in fact strikingly similar to the graph provided in Mastery.
Nutrition - Developing your fuel for success
Without sufficient nutrition you will not only loose progress but also put yourself in danger of harming your body.
Nutrition is essential for growth and development of both body and mind.
Now as we deepen our knowledge we start to realize the truth of what exercise really is, fulfilling potential.
Nutrition will makes us more effective in any field of reality. Suddenly things are more profound than those initial "I want to get ripped" mindsets. We are now delving into efficiency of mind and body - Personal Development.
Calories and Macronutrients knowing what fats, carbohydrates and protein do and why they are so important.
Micronutrients knowing what vitamins, minerals and other supplements do and why they too are important.

Training Principles and Variables ;
Developing deeper understanding of the principles and variables of training, their importance and effects.
Where do you find this information? Most successfull atheletes have produced a book, read them, learn and apply.

Strategize;
Compile your knowledge, create/further develop a journal, structure and strategize how to complete goals as well as overcome challenges.
Strategy is the collection of your abilities into the action-plan, this is where knowledge and goals merge into one.
Strategy will defeat the plateau and ensure progress.
What we see here is in fact not only physical exercise but also very strong mental exercise.
You will learn to do research, goalsetting, strategize and structuring - compiling these into a system.

The essentials of exercise are then as follows;
- Knowledge - Know what you are doing
- Goals - Know where you are going
- Strategy - Know how you are to do it
- The final fundamental pillar for conscious exercise is then, of course, conscious effort.

 

We have now delved through the essentials of exercise, but as most may have realized - the common reasoning for exercise are not exactly "conscious". Egoic goals and mindsets introduce many into this realm, and thus they fall off when the path to success depends on deeper understanding and effort, even those with admirable goals and mindsets lack the conscious effort needed for success. Those who do succeed have realized something entirely different, the fact that during the process of attaining these exercise goals - something profound arises. Literally the blueprint to Personal Development. If you exercise by these principles diligently over the course of years most notice profound changes to both body and mind. The Body includes the brain, the brain is in strong Neurogenesis if you are a regular at exercising. You literally grow your brain - your mind. The strategizing and structuring of your training journal will also, if you are conscious enough and familiar with personal development, morph into a beautiful system that enables you to take on reality and change it.
(See Leo's video on Journaling.)

let us say you wish to learn the piano, how then would you proceed?

Knowledge - Know what you are doing
Goals - Know where you are going
Strategy - Know how you are to do it
Action - Do it with conscious effort.

 So, to those of you who look upon physical exercise such as bodybuilding for example, - with dismay as a "egoic" activity or simply cannot comprehend a more profound reasoning than the superficial or simply lack a reasonable motivation, must realize that there are underlying processes that are substantially more profound than the wish to get big or look good.
In truth, there is even more to exercise than what you could ever imagine.
When you push boundaries, really push them - through pain, blood and sweat - the ego has no choice but to let go.
When you are in the middle of a 6 mile swim, is there a thought? Or is there pure action?
When you are at the bottom of a 200kg Squat, I can promise you that there is nothing but the present moment.
When you push beyond that which you have stated to be your limit, what happens?
The ego has put down a barrier saying "noo, no I cannot do that" - and you destroy it. You annihilate it, and what you are in that moment is true being. There is nothing more than the action at hand.
"I died at the third rep" Is a favourite saying of mine as it rings truth, when the mind says no I push through destroying any attempt at giving up.
When you are in the middle of a hardcore choreograph, hitting every note of motion, Dancing with the music - There is only being.
When you have run the steepest of hills with all your effort, mouth tasting nothing but blood, there is only being.
When you climb the highest mountain, there is only being.
When boundaries are being pushed you are exercising not only your body, but also awareness. You are literally experiencing things you have not ever experienced before, shining conscious light upon it. Expanding experience itself.
Physical exercise becomes a powerful meditational activity, training both the physical and the non-physical.
That is the truth of exercise, and that is the truth of conscious exercise.

Furthermore it potentiates Personal Development, the energy input vs output breaks the physical laws.
You get more in return than what you provided with in the first place, a lot more.
This energy can be directed toward other conscious activities, developing your potential and passion in life ever further.
Therefore physical exercise is in fact a fundamental activity for profound growth, equal to that of meditation and should be included in all attempts at Personal Development. 


 

 

 

[Drum Teacher]

Interesting.  I've been running since June... more habitually since July and 4 of 7 days consistently since August. I ran a 5k last month and have one scheduled for Thanksgiving. My initial goal was to get myself back into shape and shed some pounds. Well, I've done that and then some, and now it has become an extension of my meditation practice, honestly.  I'm 14 days into a 31 day yoga challenge, too. So, when I started yoga a couple weeks back, that really got me being more aware of my body and my breath.  I have taken what I'm learning in yoga and putting it on the pavement and now it has become more of a physical meditation exercise rather than pounding out 3 miles.  Most importanty, I am really enjoying it all and strive to be in the moment with all of my physical exercises.  I find myself not looking at the finish line so much, but really in the power of now... as it should be.

[Dan Arnautu]

@Zeroh Very good post.

Though, I want to emphasize the fact that both exercise and diet need to be made enjoyable and simple, otherwise they won't stick.

I've coached quite a few people and the ones that had the best results were the ones that did intermittent fasting (which allowed them to eat fewer, but bigger meals) and whom trained for strength and density (low volume, high intensity, reverse pyramid style).

Fasting also allowed the guys to eat out and have a few drinks when partying while still shedding down bodyfat..

[Zeroh]

21 hours ago, Dan Arnautu said:

@Zeroh Very good post.

Though, I want to emphasize the fact that both exercise and diet need to be made enjoyable and simple, otherwise they won't stick.

I've coached quite a few people and the ones that had the best results were the ones that did intermittent fasting (which allowed them to eat fewer, but bigger meals) and whom trained for strength and density (low volume, high intensity, reverse pyramid style).

Fasting also allowed the guys to eat out and have a few drinks when partying while still shedding down bodyfat..

Indeed, I agree. 
If the whole process is entertaining and fun it will naturaly stick easier than the more advanced and demanding paths. 
As the title states however, we are talking about a conscious approach - therefore directed toward those already interested in personal development and whom I then presume already has the necessary energy requirements (i.e drive, focus and dicipline - etc) to construct a more advanced, strategic approach to exercise while still managing to keep it both entertaining and enjoyable simply by their state of being.
  
Most that I have coached are regular average Joe's and most without deeper understanding of reality. Here the easy, less demanding strategies give the best results, no question. This you have experienced yourself. But there has been a few with the drive and passion necessary to really delve into the depths and it is these people that have had the absolute best results imaginable, surpassing even accievements I have experienced on a few occasions. 
Which is also why this small post highlighting the basic in-depth essentials were made, so that maybe a few more with the correct potentials can get it going. Heck, even those who dont might find it illuminating enough to get at it. 

Now fasting is a great idea! And very healthy. Homo Sapiens are new to this modern diet of constantly having something to eat, we developed over thousands of years with longer stretches of no food due to the lack of resources. It is perfectly natural and highly beneficial for us to do fasting on a regular basis. 
 

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On 20.11.2017 at 3:48 AM, Drum Teacher said:

Interesting.  I've been running since June... more habitually since July and 4 of 7 days consistently since August. I ran a 5k last month and have one scheduled for Thanksgiving. My initial goal was to get myself back into shape and shed some pounds. Well, I've done that and then some, and now it has become an extension of my meditation practice, honestly.  I'm 14 days into a 31 day yoga challenge, too. So, when I started yoga a couple weeks back, that really got me being more aware of my body and my breath.  I have taken what I'm learning in yoga and putting it on the pavement and now it has become more of a physical meditation exercise rather than pounding out 3 miles.  Most importanty, I am really enjoying it all and strive to be in the moment with all of my physical exercises.  I find myself not looking at the finish line so much, but really in the power of now... as it should be.

Wonderful! From the superficial motivations and into the deeper understanding of exercise. 
Keep it going!