Wholistic Fitness

“Nothing matters, but everything counts.” – steve ilg, THE OUTDOOR ATHLETE (1985). Are you serious in your Practice or sincere? If you are ‘serious’ in your training, then everything matters, but nothing really counts in a spiritual growth sense.

People say to me, “Man, I can’t believe how SERIOUS you are about your training for all these years,” or something to that effect. “Seriously?” i don’t ever recall being ‘serious’ about training; to feeble ilg? training, practice, living consciously? that’s not serious stuff at all; it’s focused fun…i LOVE freewheelin’ around the 5 Fitness Disciplines of Wholistic Fitness® and her 4 Lifestyle Principles! my training is about balance, wholeness, sincerity and sacredness…not “seriousness.” then again? what doth feeble ilg know? nothing…so don’t take me seriously, that much is for sure!

After a period of time – for most of us that means a couple of decades – it’s vital to maintain Structure to our training.  we must remain diligent to patterns and weavings of the various fitness disciplines and practices, rituals within our weekly choreography.   Such allegiance to Structured Training is kinda like encouraging kids to school.   They may hate it or love it yet they still must go.   They may struggle to get “C’s” or whir through the curriculums pocketing “A’s” like no problem.   Yet the real Thing is not the C’s or the A’s or the hating or loving of school.   It’s about accountability.   Just showing up.  Doing the Work.

Same thing in personal training.  Some of us LOVE to workout…can’t even IMAGINE what type of Hell Realm we’d be tethered to if we did not have our Daily Sweat and/or Stillness.    Other’s despise the mere thought or sight of exercising.   For many,  when their intuitive wisdom to move, to breathe, to get out and do…when their inner urge to exercise arises?  they just patiently wait until it subsides.

That’s precisely why Structured Training is vital for all of us for a certain period of time.  It creates discipline and fortitude.  Tenacity.   Willingness.

After a time however?  Structured Training is like Mula Bandha – the yogic locking of the urogenital triangle which functions like an inner pranic reservoir dam within the subtle anatomy.   First learning Mula (you can order my Mula Bandha Meditation in our Pro Shop) we struggle to find and contract the appropriate physical anatomy.   Years of Practice and Awareness fall way to a graduated transition from the physical Mula to the etheral Mula.   What once was unconscious was made (through Structure/Discipline) conscious before becoming ‘unconscious’ again.

That analogy is the same for our wholistic training….we must spend long years in Structure before our Intuitive Wisdom can be relied upon to create and trust in the spontaneous flow of fitness training suitable for that day.

It’s really fun,  once you get the hang of it.  Spontaneous Fitness is not versus Structured Training.  Spontaneous Fitness training, my Noble Friends along the Path of Wholeness? Is a HARD EARNED training effect from Structured Fitness Training.

That is all,

head bowed,

spirit vowed,

your feeble teacher of nothing.