Most people have no idea how good their body is designed to feel. And perform. And age. I’ve shifted my thinking from my younger days when I played competitive sports. The cleats and swim goggles are long gone but I’m still an athlete and I’m here to argue that you are too, regardless of what sport you played or play now. Even if you never before were an athlete. Our “sport” as humans is becoming a resilient 95-year-old (insert your ideal number). As an athlete trains for the goal of performing on game day in their sport, I consider arriving at being that resilient 95 year old our collective Super Bowl. In my work and with my 53 year old vantage point, I help people re-engineer backwards towards this goal.
Before I was a yoga teacher, in the late 1980’s, I worked for a sports magazine for the apparel and footwear industries. When a biography came out about Nike profiling their beginnings, it was required reading. In it, I was struck by a quote by one of the founders of Nike, Bill Bowerman: “IF YOU HAVE A BODY, YOU ARE AN ATHLETE.” That quote has stayed with me all these years, fueled by Nike and other brands creating marketing for athletic footwear and apparel that today is mostly worn as fashion rather than for sport.
When I was a kid and throughout high school, I was a competitive soccer player and then I gravitated towards the drill team. It was then I stopped identifying as a student athlete, even though joining the drill team opened up a new world of movement options that my deskbound body was craving. Spinning flags and flipping wooden rifles in the air was an upper body workout soccer never needed to foster. I then became an active adult during the fitness boom in the 80s, found my way into teaching fitness classes and later, teaching yoga.
I never really thought about Bill’s “everyone is an athlete” quote again until I was hired to teach my unique approach to yoga and mobility to some local sports teams. My contribution to these athletes was teaching them soft tissue self care, and together with their medical departments life-sized skeleton, taught them how the human body actually works and how this deeper level of self knowledge helps bulletproof athletes from injuries. Nurturing what it means to be a human also makes them perform better. Basically, sports performance is human performance.
You know, I didn’t realize this for many years, but one of the things I missed after I ended my relationship with playing sports, was having a coach. I’ve sought out many “coaches” over the years: yoga teachers, fitness trainers and mentors along the way, and still have them. They’ve helped me see myself more clearly. I’ve also amassed a large self care toolbox and life experiences and my work is somewhat like that of a coaches. I help clients by meeting them where they’re at, we solving problems together, focus on first principles and how the body actually is designed to work. Why sit on the bench of life (or for your sport) when you can live well NOW and into older age, pain free and awesome?
The bulk of my work is with private groups, corporate wellness, etc., however, each month I take on 3 motivated private clients for a 1-3 month “regeneration” series of sessions. The information you gain from working with me combined with your self study is an investment in your longevity. Your take-aways will be a new attitude towards your workouts and new tools and techniques for soft tissue care and to enhance your movement practices. If you’re new or returning to exercise, working with me will give you a body maintenance routine that you can use daily or in smaller snippets throughout your day/week.
Interested in learning more about my Self Care for The Long Game program? Read more about my process, my program and fill out the Student Intake Form to apply for one of these spots. Next, we’ll have a phone chat to see if we’re a good match to work together.
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