Balancing energy IN and Energy OUT

Movement - Balancing energy IN and Energy OUT to help manage our health and stress levels

"If we could give every individual the right amount of nourishment and exercise, not too little and not too much, we would have found the safest way to health". Hippocrates

Exercise is frigging awesome! It shifts energy, removes toxins, clears the mind, breaks down cells in our body to promote the growth of new stronger ones and it just FEELS good.

Unfortunately today we may not be prescribing ourselves the best kind of exercise or we may not be exercising at all.

If we were to compare our lifestyles from present day society to a hundred years ago, before heart disease, and other lifestyle related chronic illness, we might well be looking at two different species.

We are moving a lot less while at the same time we seem to be doing a lot more. Our society hardly permits the idea of play because we have no time for it. Most of us lack the energy to do anything for ourselves by the end of the day.

Apart from our lack of movement a lot of this energy deficit comes from stress. Stress effects our ability to exercise, it also has a big impact on what we look like in the mirror and how we feel inside. In reality exercise is another stress on our system. All stress in the body, whether it's physical stress (exercise) nutritional, chemical or emotional, culminates as one. Therefore if we think of our body's capacity to handle only so much, it might impact on our decision to choose exercise more appropriately.

If we apply our yin/yang philosophy to movement we should consider exercise in terms of: working in/working out

After a fairly full and stressful day more appropriate exercise might be Yin exercise (inwardly expressed)such as breathing exercises, going for a bush walk, yoga,tai chi, swimming or any exercise that returns energy to the body.
These activities can be called working in.

Conversely if I've had a great day, have eaten well and been kind to myself, appropriate exercise would be YANG exercise (outwardly expressed): Think beach sprints, strengthening exercises, boxing and other cardio challenges.
These activities can be called working out.

What is important with both yin and yang exercise is to stimulate our nervous system to keep it active, intelligent and challenged.

It may be interesting to note that our bodies are not getting stronger during exercise, that is when we are breaking tissue down. It is during rest when our bodies are actually repairing and regrowing.

If the body's resources can support the demands you put on it then go for it. If you want your body to WORKOUT effectively, then be make sure to give it all the love and care it needs so that you can make yourself stronger and healthier.

The go-to man for Holistic health, Paul CHEK identifies exercise like a drug and says this: "if you use the wrong type of exercise, you get the wrong type of high."

What any person on the quest for wellness seeks and gains with time is the ability to listen to his/her body's needs. This can be applied to any number of things including the food we eat, the people we bring into our lives and what we do every day to earn a living. The more in tune we become, the more we can access what our body really wants and honour ourselves.

It's this consciousness that will lead to health and vitality.

Nic Laidlaw : Owner of Balanced Studio Avalon NSW

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