When the world changes, we must change
Spears Strong is evolving.
As a team, we’ve talked for the last year about changing Spears Strong from a fitness company to a Human Performance company. We’ll still have a heavy emphasis in fitness training. But as the world has been moving and changing ever faster, the amount of pressure to be as busy and successful as possible has edged the fitness industry toward a take-over by Wall Street investments and high end marketing messages of:“get more done in less time, look a certain way. Fitness in a box or on your screen has fit right in with our quick fix one-size-fits-all modern lifestyle. Analytics and tracking, whether it be heart rate, calories, steps, floors, waist size, miles ran, weight, likes on social, burpee pr, deeper yoga poses; has taken over to represent what fitness is and we have started to forget what being fit as humans really means.
COVID-19 has reminded us what being fit as humans really means.
That’s where our Human Performance Company comes in. Fitness is not obtained by reaching a stated and trackable goal. That’s just something that puts us into a motivational bubble.
At Spears Strong we believe that fitness and health goals should focus on learning rather than performance or achievement.
That’s where “Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee” comes back into this conversation. We all know what Muhammad Ali was talking about with that quote, but to a trainer it’s a really beautiful statement and truely a metaphor of how we should craft our self care (or exercise or training) habits around Ali’s brilliance.
As Ali was dancing in the ring, his goal was to be as relaxed and in the moment, no muscle tense, ready to react in any direction and take advantage with full force when his opponent shows an opening. If he was tense in the moment and thinking about zigging when he should have been zagging he would never have become one of, if not the greatest, boxers of all time.
But how does this apply to our life and our training?
We should model our self care or training program and our professional and family life around this philosophy.
In our home and professional life, we need routines and habits in place to guide us through our day to keep us calm and relaxed in the moment, ready to react and overcome any obstacle that comes, like dealing with work or figuring out what's for dinner.
When it comes to training and self care, we should first learn how to “float like a butterfly” before pursuing how to “sting like a bee.” We should start our physical training by getting our bodies functioning and feeling good, learning at the same time how to understand what signals our body is giving us to either move, breathe, or take a break. We need routines and habits in place to guide us through our day/week/month to rely upon to make sure we are “floating like a butterfly” even when a life event like a move, new job/responsibilities, or even a pandemic occurs.
About a year ago we launched the Spears Strong Training Process, an individual personal training program that helps you get routines and habits you need by following Life Strategies (rules) that support the following Life Principles:
Daily Physical Improvement
High Achievement Days
Recognize and Recover From Stress
Get Outdoors
We craft each of our clients’ daily routines and habits around what their home and professional lives require, giving them strategies that align with the Life Principles of the Training Process. Their assignments and training show them how to start their days on the right foot - physically and mentally, how to recognize and understand signals that their body needs to move (sore neck, sluggish in the afternoon) and how to create habits that support feeling good.
How does this help you? We’re taking a snapshot of how we help clients individually and adapting it for a group. Next week we’re launching the Spears Strong Foundation page, a chance for you to get guidance and help with what you need most right now: motivation and direction on how to move daily, relieve stress, eat well - and get some community.
We are living in such an uncertain world right now and our lives have been thrown into chaos. Sure, some might have essential jobs and have a somewhat normal schedule, but I’m sure everyone that is still working feels like their job’s routines and objectives are so uncertain right now. And if you are working right now, you might feel good during the day, distracted by the long list of to-dos and pivots and communications. But as soon as you come away from it all, maybe to eat dinner or watch TV, some anxiety, uneasiness, or stress starts to settle in, keeping you from truly recovering. Stress, especially the kind that lingers unresolved, weakens your immunity and increases your vulnerability to illness. Check back to this blog on Wednesday or a follow-up post on how stress affects the body and what we can do about it.
And for those on hold or abbreviated schedules from work, not having a ‘regular’ day can make every day feel unfulfilling, unproductive, and all smudged together with the other days.
While challenging, this disruption of life has also given us an opportunity to disrupt our daily habits from a few weeks ago and work on creating new habits now that support a healthier and stronger immune system, and that help you combat stress and stay calm in the moment.
Our new Spears Strong Foundation page will help you create those new routines and habits, giving you the guidance and support to stay on track.
“Notice that the stiffest tree is most easily cracked, while the bamboo or willow survives by bending with the wind.”
Our live streaming videos and regular updates are targeted to help you start to achieve the Life Principle of High Achievement Days, which includes daily focused movement, productive breaks, hydration, energy balance (no 2 pm dips) and more. The page also gets at our Principle of Recognize and Recover From Stress and Daily Physical Improvement. And if at any time during your day you decide to Get Outside, you’ve had a great day.
Monday through Friday the Spears Strong Foundation page will have you starting your day with a Morning Warm Up that includes doing mellow movement while laying on your back to wake you up, giving you time to put a game plan together on how to stay calm throughout the rest of your day. It ends with movements up on your feet to get you energized and awake. A Successful start to your day giving yourself time to get your mind and body started.
Interested in the Spears Strong Foundation page? Subscribe to our email list and follow us on social media for more information in the next few days on how you can join.