Enter The 6 Pillars
Enter The 6 Pillars
I’ve been wanting to go deeper for a long time but couldn’t find the “voice” to do it. I needed to get out of my own way and start believing that what I feel, teach and see in my clients to be true. And the truth is that we need a deep connection. But going deeper is hard, it takes focus, concentration and grit. If you can’t connect, concentrate and tolerate discomfort then you can’t have this. “At least I’m doing something is not applicable here” I say this gently but that shit needs to get deleted from your internal vocabulary. It’s upsetting to scan get the current landscape and see disconnection and lack of awareness in so many of us.
After years of struggling how to verbalize and program something intuitive and subjective, I’ve come up with the 6 pillars of Independence Fitness Coaching:
Target - The focus of the movement
Purpose - Your “why” (strength, power, endurance, energy, muscle size, weight loss)
Position - The bodies position to best exploit the target
Presence - Mindset and deep connection
Ground - External stabilizer to leverage against (a bench, the floor)
Center - Internal stabilizer and joint centering (hips, shoulders)
These 6 Pillars are the foundation that the “work” is built on.
Internalizing these will help you create a personal program suited perfectly for you because you are the one that creates it. Your presence is required here. Be here now!
Right here, in this body and in this moment. If you’re ready to admit that when it comes to exercise that something isn’t quite right, then you’re in the right place.
If you’re ready to stop blaming the program, the diet, the gym, or the instructor and realize that the problem is you, then you’re ahead of the game. You’ve passed a threshold of awareness that opens up the opportunity take care of yourself physically, mentally and emotionally through the movement of your body. I prefer to use the term movement when referring to exercise because it feels more expansive.
Exercise tends to make me think one dimensionally. When I think of “movement” I think expansively and creatively. I imagine harnessing the flow of energy in me, and how that energy is malleable, sustaining, powerful and graceful.
Through this energetic connection we align our centering and grounding forces. When I say connection I don’t mean that as an Aries you know you’re stubborn. I mean that when you pick up that weight, push that bar, swing that KB, extend your yogic arms, punch that boxing mitt, that you know where your center is. You understand how to leverage your weight and your position. Y
You know your strengths and weaknesses enough to successfully manage these loaded movements efficiently. You learn from experience and attention what your individualized mechanically clean technique looks and feels like.
Well, how do we do that?!
WE LEARN TO TAKE OUR TIME. Not taking one’s time is the biggest challenge toward internalizing movements and roadblock to one’s connection. We take a moment to think, look inside ourselves and draw on the power the 6 Pillars are designed to instill physically, mentally, and emotionally.
You’re finding the power to own this shit. When you step up to a movements you’re able to inhabit a more aggressive and purposeful mindset based on awareness (Presence, Ground)).
Forget about how you think you look and get in touch with what you feel (Position). And while you’re feeling, connect to where the emphasis of the movement is and go there (Target).
If your arms are burning, but the instructor says you’re supposed to be feeling this movement in your abs, then recalibrate. (Purpose,Target, Center).
You need to re-organize mentally, figure this out in your body, make the adjustment, and emphasize that (Position). Resetting oneself constantly through the course of a set is mindful, holistic awareness and is the key to staying connected and avoiding injury (Center, Ground).
I suggest taking that really cool workout from the internet and cutting it in half or even in quarters. Slow it down, move methodically through the movements and work on feeling what you want to feel. Invest some time into doing some small connecting things to illuminate your targets, without over stressing injury prone areas like your neck and back. And like I mentioned, the key to doing this is just slowing down and thinking.
There are many steps here and a lot of messages about speed and connection but I want to get you to think. I want to increase your awareness to meet this challenge with a renewed perspective. I want to align myself with the vision I have for myself and take steps daily to realize it. Forgive me….. I snuck in a little affirmation there :-).
Stay tuned for more information about the 6 pillars and how to apply them through this blog, my IG (independence fit coach) and my YouTube channel (Hal Miller).