Your edge and activation
And what we mean by edge is that line that takes you to the point between I can and I can't. - Ericka Thomas
Transcript
Ericka Thomas 0:01
And welcome back to the work in the whole point of any fitness program is really to affect change. Typically, we think of that as some kind of physical change like weight loss or a change in physique or body size or maybe some other measurable health markers, like your blood sugar or blood pressure.
0:28
And most fitness professionals know that there are many, many aspects to making those kinds of goals and results happen. We can offer fitness protocols, dietary protocols, lifestyle changes, and all of those things can and do give results.
0:51
However, when clients are doing all of these things, right, and they're not getting the results I'm looking for, that's when even the professionals can kind of run up in against that brick wall. And the trickier the tricky part is that each and every one of us as human beings are pretty complicated animals. We don't always react the way the lab results say we're supposed to react. And so it can be a little bit frustrating for clients and for us when we are trying to help people get the kinds of results they're looking for.
1:35
But why does that happen? Right, why can you do everything right and still not get the same results?
1:46
Well, in my opinion, it has more to do with that subtle security system that we all have than anything else because everything we do everything we encounter all of our memories and activities and experiences. All of that comes to us through the filter of our nervous system. That nervous system has evolved to become this superior security system to keep us alive, to prevent us from dying, and in order to do that, it takes all of our history and our previous experiences and uses that stuff that we carry around with us. As a filter, and it filters all of our new activities and new experiences through the past through our past memories and decides whether or not it's going to relax and be engaged and challenged or if it's going to shut down and prevent you from hurting yourself. Now most fitness professionals along with their clients, and myself included, I would say live in some kind of state of hyper vigilance. Every day. And with good reason because we live in a stressed out society. We're trying to do a lot of things all at the same time. That particular state of our nervous system changes how the body responds at a cellular level. Excessive amounts of stress in any human being can cause physical changes in your digestion, your immune system response, your reproductive hormones, every other kind of hormone release your sleep patterns really pretty much every system in the body is affected by your nervous system, state, whatever that is. So it's pretty important that we understand what those nervous system states are and how to shift them we are going to discuss that in more detail with a very good friend of mine. Colleen Jorgensen. She's going to be a guest on the podcast in a couple of weeks. And so please tune in. She's got some really great stuff for you as far as understanding what those nervous system states are. But for today's episode today, I really wanted to focus on the good side of stress that activation side exercise and diet is one of those kinds of stresses that can be good, right? They can stress the system in a way that produces good adaptations. But they can also push us to the edge so and beyond that edge. So the challenge for fitness professionals and coaches is to understand that piece and then structure workouts, dietary protocols, nutrition plans, classes, whatever our thing is, we want to structure them in a way for the individual that makes that hard enough, challenging enough to trigger an adaptation without setting off one more internal alarm
5:48
in that nervous system, security, right. That is the sweet spot. The sweet spot is what we call the edge.
6:02
We have lots of edges, okay? It's not just the physical edge when we're talking about fitness where it's the physical edge of muscle failure or something like that. We also have emotion, emotional edges, mental edges.
6:22
And what we mean by Edge is that line that takes you to the point between I can and I can't. It's right up there where you feel safe enough to kind of flirt with that line that I can't do any more line where you're not sure if you can do this thing. But so far it's been okay. So let's just see what happens. Okay. And that is what we're talking about when we say edge. Now the draw the job of a trauma informed Coach is to help students learn how to approach their edge in a way that feels safe and effective for the participant for the students. And this sweet spot is where change happens physically in the body and also where resilience gets built. And that's why an integrated trauma informed approach with clients can be so helpful.
7:39
Now we've talked about the ABCs awareness, boundaries and connection for yourself as the fitness professional and then we went a little deeper. How to cultivate trauma informed and safe co regulation between yourself and your clients. Your students, your friends, neighbors, relationships, in the form of your own safe self regulation. And today we are going to take this a step further into trauma informed activation techniques and practices. That will hopefully raise your client's awareness of their own nervous system state and get them the results that they want without overwhelming their nervous system and blocking all of that good stuff that comes from movement and good nutrition. It's also where you as the coach are going to get to practice a whole lot of your communication skills because we need to communicate really clearly during this activation stage of our navigation. So let's dive in and talk about that word activation.
9:13
We see it on our stress curve on that polyvagal chart. The word activation, activation of any kind in the body requires some kind of stress. It technically is stress.
9:31
It's how we get out of bed in the morning. We have to be activated in some way to move. It's how we get things done. And in terms of movement and exercise. Activation triggers cortisol and adrenaline and raises dopamine levels. We want those things. We need those things. That's how we feel motivated and rewarded and challenged.
10:06
But we also need to keep those things in a particular container. It's when there's too much of those things or not enough of those things that we can kind of get into the weeds and push our people kind of out of their their safe self regulated happy ventral vagal state which again, be sure to tune in when I have Colleen on next we are going to talk all about ventral vagal and you do not want to miss that. So how do we do that? How do we create this particular container for activation? So we can get our our clients results so that we can feel like we are in the moment with our people and everybody is happy and excited to be there and getting what they need.
11:17
We do that with intentional design, right intentional class design. And before we dive in here, I know that for many fitness professionals, especially in the group fitness world, we have outsourced a lot of our class design to other entities, other companies that design the classes for us. You can still use these skills that I'm going to talk about today with those programs if they are pre choreographed for you. I don't want you to think that because somebody else pre choreographs your work that you cannot apply some of these trauma informed principles to them that is just false. All of this can be used across any format. It does not matter where it comes from, whether it comes from someone else or from your own amazing brain. So if we're talking about intentional design in any kind of designed workout movement class, nutrition plan, whatever it is, you're creating boundaries and some predictability or some patterning. Now we've talked about boundaries before in terms of your own personal and professional boundaries. But the people who come into your room or sitting across from you they need boundaries too. And part of your job is to help establish those. Maybe if you're one on one coach you are helping the individual create their boundaries and their patterns and the predictability of the program. Or if you are a group fitness instructor, maybe you are setting those boundaries and and setting people up to understand and expect certain things. He's just basically we are establishing expectations. So think about what type of workout this is what is the format, what type of classes it or what type of workout, what are you going to be doing? What is the list of movements that are going into this time with your client?
13:54
You are the Navigator. Okay, you are the one who is establishing the direction you're the guide, but they are the driver. And this is a big shift for moving from a directed kind of instruction to trauma informed the individual the student the client whoever's in front of you. They are the driver. You have to put them in the driver's seat. And this is where a lot of your communication and your education and patience is going to come in because it's their workout. But the reason that many people come to a class is so they don't have to think of what to do. And that's fine. You're telling them what to do. You're giving them the choices, but they're in the driver's seat. It's up to them to make this plan that you have created out of your incredible brain be what they need it to be. And so you're gonna give them some tools as a part of that trauma informed communication to customize it for themselves. Right. So some of the things that go into that intentional workout design class design is what we have time or structure, the type the format of the class. Many of you know, all of these things. Maybe it's a choreographed class. So you have to lead it, right. Maybe it's more of a bootcamp style. Maybe there's stations, maybe we are doing a hit, kind of thing with intervals, or perhaps it's a steady state, kind of a class with a spin. Like maybe a cycling class or something like that. All of those things come into play, but you can use these skills, these options in any format no matter how you structure your class. But the key is always very clear communication.
16:28
And this is really important for all anything trauma informed. So number one, you may want to face your class. And if you can't face your class, look them in the eye even in the mirror. Look at them. Part of your holdings space, is being able to watch the bodies moving and show your people that you are in this with them. Okay? The other piece to our communication is to share what to expect Now not every format lends itself to explaining what's going to happen in the class. And for some of us there's it's just too complicated to explain ahead. However, you do want to be able to at least count them down to the next set. Maybe say Okay, get ready. We're moving to bicep curls. Next 54321 Go. That is a much easier way for students to prepare themselves for the next thing, the next piece to the pattern then then trying to remember what was the thing that she said we were doing next, but she told me 10 minutes ago and now I can't remember any of that.
18:05
So that communication, you may need to practice a little bit to see what feels best what flows best for the room but it can really lower the stress level in the space. When you give that kind of foreshadowing in your planning.
18:28
And then along with that, prepare the options because we are giving our clients in trauma informed rooms all have the power to choose. So there are some styles in particular yoga, where they almost never tell anyone what to do. They just give lots and lots of options of things to do. In my mind, if I were coming into a yoga class, and the instructor just kept saying, Well, you could do this or you could do this or you could do this or this. Yes, that's all about choice.
19:15
I need a little bit more structure. I want to hear Hey, if you are coming into class today and you are looking for a little relaxation.
19:30
What if you walk into class and you really wanted to challenge I would like a choice that is maybe a little bit more challenging. For me maybe you want to offer a way for your your students to low impact or little higher impact. Or maybe we want to give people the option to to do upper body or no lower body, whatever it is like there's a million different ways to offer auctions where participants feel like they have all the power and it may take a while for your students to feel comfortable enough. Choosing something different than the group. That's okay. You just keep offering the permission over and over and over.
20:29
So we've covered quite a few things in that clear communication segment. And there's so much more to that communication piece. That's why we have an entire module on it. Inside kinetic grace. It's it's big. There's a lot to it and I'm sure you all can think of a lot more things that would be trauma informed. As far as communication.
21:00
But the biggest ones here two biggest takeaways are to really fall back into that connection and safe co regulation. So establishing that relationship and permission with your students. Those are really really big and important. So keep those things in mind.
21:27
And then we can dive into talking about intensity because I mentioned that we're looking to help our, our students get to their edge, right. And so a big piece of this is to be able to direct awareness to be able to watch the movements and ask questions in the moment. It doesn't have to be a lot of words, but just a little nudge to help people stay in their body and to cultivate some curiosity about what is happening for them. Right. So many people tend to work out and leave their body they're watching television, they're they've got earbuds and whatever it is that takes their mind out of their bodies so they can just get this thing over with but when we are working in a trauma informed way we are directing awareness in the body so that the participant can really learn what their intensity is.
22:59
And that might mean that you have to clearly explain, like how would someone judge intensity? Some people do like to 10 scale. Some people use more than 20 Some people use zones. It doesn't matter what you use. It just needs to be clear and the person you're talking to needs to understand that. So this will go back to what your purpose and your intention is for this creation this good class or workout that you've created. What is the intention for it?
23:41
And then encouraging your students to understand what their intention for it is because those may not be the same. And that's totally okay. You might design a hit workout that is designed to help strengthen hamstrings and your client may be there just to rest their brain after a hard day of work, right. Those are two different intentions but they can exist the same claim.
24:27
And this will bring us back again to that permission piece because all of our trauma informed work is loaded with permission. We are giving our clients the freedom through a strong structure and allowing them to practice control by offering enough choices. So we are directing awareness. We're directing their awareness through their body of their intensity, reminding them of what their intention is their own intention is for their their time with you and giving them the permission the freedom to make changes within that structure and the control to make different choices when they
25:31
now we can apply those kinds of things in any format in any style of class design.
25:45
At any time.
25:47
All right.
25:49
So we can make it a little bit easier on ourself. When we are creating our workouts and our classes and things like that.
26:01
To be able to offer lots of different options and changes and choices from you know, even on the fly. That's something that I really like to be able to do because you never know who's gonna walk into the room. And sometimes you have 20 people 30 people in the room sometimes you might only have one person and maybe you create a class that you think there's you know, for for a large group of people and then the one person that comes into the room to work out with you really need something different from that. And so to be able to change things on the fly that is a really great, great skill to have in your toolbox. So one of the ways I like to be prepared for things like that is by creating blocks of minutes. So you know, it's a series of block series that I can mix and match.
27:08
And they're repeatable. They're interchangeable, they become really it becomes really flexible way to create experiences for our classes. And and the other piece is that you can easily balance a workout, upper body, upper body block, lower body block, cardio block, high intensity block things like that. So it can be much quicker, simpler and and your clients and students will get something fresh every time.
27:48
Now, of course you know we're talking about this trauma informed work in the fitness industry, across any so the idea is to create this trauma informed filter
28:10
and do that with connection through being really authentic with ourself and, and then very, very present in the moment being not just there for them but aware of what's going on with yourself and listening that two way communication, so that you can build really strong relationships with your people. So I hope you found this helpful today. I feel like this activation piece is really something that a lot of us understand. I mean in the fitness industry, it's really like the the meat and potatoes of what we do.
29:07
Putting together a really great workout. But looking at it from the stance of the nervous system might be new to you. So I hope this was helpful. I really and truly believe that fitness professionals can have a profound impact on the world, not just physically but mentally as well. This mental health epidemic is it it is going to have a long lasting effect. And what you do is really important no matter what format you teach, you can really influence and make people's lives better. You
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
Hey there!
I’m your host Ericka Thomas. I'm a resilience coach and fit-preneur offering an authentic, actionable realistic approach to personal and professional balance for coaches in any format.
Savage Grace Coaching is all about bringing resilience and burnout recovery. Especially for overwhelmed entrepreneurs, creators and coaches in the fitness industry.
Schedule a free consulttation call to see if my brand of actionable accountability is right for you and your business.