Wholistic Fitness

Coach Steve Ilg’s 5 Tips To Becoming A Stronger Athlete

To my ears, the term, “stronger athlete” equates to a wholistically balanced being capable of high performance in all physiologic areas;  strength, endurance (short, mid and ultra), suppleness/agility, mental fitness, and a mastery of nutrition.   That, to me, monuments a “stronger athlete” and that is precisely how i train those who knock upon my humble, powerful Temple Door of Wholistic Fitness®…

#1) Know Your Highest Podium:  Train  Your Weaknesses
Enlightenment is the highest podium available to the Human “Race” and in that highest of all ‘races’ it’s only Wholeness that get’s us even near the arena of Enlightenment.  Most fitness warriors run out of gumption to workout within a couple of decades, if not much less.  That’s because of a lack of a misunderstanding of spiritual intent and wholistic nutrition.  You’ve heard the saying, “We’re only as strong as our weakest link,” right? It’s true. There is only spiritual stagnation, not elevation, in remaining addicted to doing what we are ‘good’ at.  We live in what the yogis know as “Kali Yuga” – the spiritual dark age.  Predictably,  the Unawakened warriors today simply compete in and do what they are ‘good’ at.   Only a comparative few Warriors are willing to train their weaknesses toward the Noble Podium of Wholeness.  So WHAT if you can run 36 marathons in a row each weekend!?!  That is like asking a drunk to drink a six-pack each weekend!  No Big Deal!  Instead?  Ask the runner to open his or her hips into Padmasana (Full Lotus) and still be able to Bench Press 1.5x his or her bodyweight!   Such genuine athletic diversity is just the beginning tip of the wholistic ice berg!  Whatever you suck at? Begin there, for that is the Starting Gate toward Wholeness.  It’s extremely humbling to be a wholistic athlete, because we remain an endless Beginner.   It’s ego-enhancing to be a sport-specific athlete!  In the long run however?  Prioritizing the training of our weakest physiologic links all-Ways leads to a healthier, more injury/disease-free body/mind/spirit.  Remember,  specialization is for insects,  wholeness is for Awakened Humans.

#2) Mind First, Body Second; Meditate!
Most, still to this day, have it backward.   Most will ‘do’ their cardio, ‘do’ their weights (oh what a linguistic travesty to the Iron Temple!), ‘do’ their yoga classes and they just keep doing, doing, doing without ever BEING!  It’s like everybody exercises like exercise is just another errand to run on their daily list of Things-To-Get-Done!   Why the loss of Sacredness to our Sweat?  Why the loss of Sacredness to the Silence inherent to training (think of all the iPod-addicted athletes!).  Why?  Because of a loss of Dharma Teachers within our Warrior Athlete c(om)munity!   No one re-Minds us of the exquisite Medicine Power inherent to training solo,  without music, without fanfare or fancy attire.  Without Mediation?   Our bodies have no astral floor plan, no pranic blueprint to follow.  It’s our minds that create how our bodies look like, function, and feel!  Our bodies are merely, as Swami Rami said, “a reflection of our mind.”   Our sport performances therefore are mere ripples emanating from our mental fitness.   Train the mind first, and the body shall follow.  If you are prioritizing your busy day?    Well, hate to tell you,  but Meditation trumps sweat.

#3) Train The Core,  Trust The Breath; Pranayama
90%  of my training is devoted to training the Whole, the Core, the Breath.  My High Performance Yoga® PROP Workout® DVD is a perfect example of my approach to training from the inner toward the outer.  I have always focused my training on the core/functional fitness movements which then allows me to enjoy watching sport specifics take care of themselves.  I dance among so many sports all year long, I never even come close to experiencing being ‘burned out’ or specifically injured.  On the other hand, conventional athletes remain addicted to sport specific training and then if they find themselves in my yoga class or some other sport,  there is so much imbalance in their bodies that it’s too much for them and they often, sadly, slink right back to being addicted at whatever they are good at, while their wholeness remains ignored…until an injury or an Awakening occurs in their Journey.  Think proximal to distal in your training.  What is the most deepest, unifying, powerful aspect of an athlete?  Breath.  For the Breath brings Prana or “life force” into our cellular and etheric bodies which is tantamount to a higher ‘vibrational fitness,’ keeping us healthy, injury-free, and blissfully capable of performance in all sorts of sports and fitness disciplines.  Every athlete should consider a Pranayama (yogic breathing) Coach for without ongoing development and conditioning of our most powerful, cosmic forces within us,  we remain addicted to the archaic muscle-and-oxgyen system instead of the much more effective, pranic system.

#4) Embrace The Spirit Of Repetition
The other day I was nordic skiing with my 6 year-old daughter, Dewachen.  Nordic skiing is not easy.  Not for adults.  Not for teens.  Not for 6 year-olds.  It’s cold and snowing and nearly March.   Dewa had only one more weekend before earning her Nordic Snowburner certificate.  On this day, at the end of her 3-hour session, Dewa and i are skiing back to the Nordic Center and she is just trashed.  She looks up at me from beneath her Cat Eye cap, “Daddy?  I am sooooo tired.  I am over skiing.  I am ready for flowers.”  And you know what?   In those innocent words of repose from Dewa in that fatigued m(om)ent rang the Temple Bell from all the Ancient Masters of Enlightenment;  Get used to repetition.  Again, and again, and endlessly again.  Just keep beginning again.  Whoever you are?  Whatever you love to do?  Whatever sport you pursue?  Get used to the Spirit of Repetition.   I was nordic trained in biathlon by a 3x Olmpian biathlete, Don Neilsen who taught me his training principle:  “TTT” which stood for ‘Things Take Time’.   Take it to heart, for on the Way Higher;  Things Take Time!   Fall in love with the Spirit of Repetition!

#5) Practice!  Your Workout Is Everywhere!
At www.WholisticFitness.com you will find a link to my Pro Shop, there, you can find an audio teaching called, My Workout Is Everywhere.  It’s a classic Wholistic Fitness® Teaching and bec(om)ing more classic each day as our society moves ever downward toward the entropic decline of entertainment vs. inner-attainment.  Did you realize that you can train to become a stronger athlete by simply flicking on the switch of your lifestyle awareness?   For instance,  how is your posture right now?  Is your spine elegant or collapsed or propped?   Note the texture of your breath.  Are your toes (a huge energetic vent) soft or holding?  When you brushed your teeth this morning did you just mechanically go through the motions without appreciating the water, the 10,000 Beings which made the faucet, plumping, water delivery, reservoirs just so you can brush your teeth?   Why so addicted to standing up and brushing your teeth with your dominant hand anyway?  Why not drop into a yogi squat to open your hips/lower back and use your non-Dominant hand to enhance neruo-circuitry, endocrine balance, and coordination?!   You can become a stronger athlete by simply Listening to your lifestyle and making intuitive, wholistic adjustments to your way of being.

You see, Precious Friend Along The Path?  Sport Performance is easy…if you stay specific.  Yet sports?  Well, that is simply the Tinksha Bell from the Ancient Ones resonating from the eons reMinding you toward the Highest Podium of all;  Enlightenment.   And Enlightenment, my warrior friends?  Requires wholeness – true, strong athletics.

– coach steve ilg
author/Total Body Transformation

pic #1;  ilg and ice, while skating on Vallecito Lake recently. pic by Sandra Lee
pic #2; one more hill to ski, Dewa and Daddy at Durango Nordic Center recently. pic by Sandra Lee