Wholistic Fitness

CARDIO TRAINING….IT�S IN US

by steve ilg, founder/WHOLISTIC FITNESS Personal Training

I was naturally attracted to Cardio Training. So were you, whether you know it or not. Perhaps you�ve forgotten your initial love affair with Cardio, but it was there. As soon as you could crawl, what did you do? You tried to walk. Then, after walking, you tried to run. Then, oh man, remember your first tricycle?! Can you recall the rush of joy when you rode your �two wheeler� for the first time?! I am a State Champion in bicycle racing. I�ve spent hundreds of hours training on bicycles, but my simple love of riding a bicycle has never left me…riding bikes still exhilarates me!

It�s a natural activity is Cardio. If we sit for too long, we fidget. We need to run. We need to link breath with sustained, rhythmic movement. It�s in us. People that don�t move within the joy of their bodies become depressed and even suicidal. This has been proven in horrible experiments, but the point is principal. Our intuitive Wisdom pleads and prods us to please move and breath. Unfortunately the whirring of our over thinking mind too often drowns out the still, small voice of our inner Wisdom. Too much thinking imbalances hormones and negatively affects blood chemistry.

Our body/mind system pivots upon frequent stints of heart elevated exercise for composure. My own records clearly show depressed and suicidal clients are those who also did not consistently do Cardio exercise in their lives. Hell, if I never moved and breathed in my body I�d be depressed and suicidal too! You think I am kidding, but I am speaking of my family history. But, we don�t need to analyze it, we just feel the difference before and after just twenty minutes of Cardio activity like walking, running, cycling, or hiking! It is common sense to enjoy the rhythmic pulse of your heartbeat mixed with your breath! Those two things – heartbeat and breath – act like soothing metronymic balms for the body and soul once set in motion.

{SIDEBAR:

Depression and Cardio.

Eastern Masters such as Rinpoche Trungpa and the Dalai Lama concur with the Western psychology of Freud and Jung that depression comes from spending too much time in the mind. The mind dominates feelings and overrides the instinct to move and breath. The body grows tense, circulation becomes inhibited, and all that remains is a robotic, automatic body/mind system that is stuck in depression and can�t see a way out. �Treating� depression with drugs cannot work from a spiritual point, since pacification of symptoms misses entirely the karmic or energetic reasons for the depressed state.

Instead, getting back into the body is vital for treating depression. In my endurance races, the best way I grew more confident in my chances for winning came from passing other racers. In combating depression, the best way to rise out of it is to overcome an obstacle, no matter how small. In Wholistic Fitness therapy, this means moving the body and allowing breath (pran) to begin eroding the depression with life and light. Once movement and breath gets going, the nervous system relaxes, blood and oxygen and nutrient delivery to the tissues increases, the mind eases its clutching and life springs back into the spirit.}

I just read that the new guidelines from the National Academies� Institute of Medicine shows that getting 30 minutes of exercise per day is not enough for long-term health benefits. That figure needs to be doubled. Thus, the new standard for personal health is one hour of exercise per day.

Can you see where all these academics are leading us? Back to where our natural state of lifestyle exercise! Chop wood, carry water! Ride your bike to work or to the gym! Hike with your family or friends instead of washing the damn car or watching football on the weekends! MOVE!!!!! BREATHE!!!!

COMING NEXT IN DIRECT LINES: MASTERS WISDOMS, YOUR QUOTES, and MUCH MORE!