Become Conscious In Your Training for Fast Results

The definition for Consciousness from Wikipedia.com is referenced below.

"Consciousness is variously defined as subjective experience, awareness, the ability to experience "feeling", wakefulness, the understanding of the concept "self", or the executive control system of the mind.[1] It is an umbrella term that may refer to a variety of mental phenomena.[2] Although humans realize what everyday experiences are, consciousness refuses to be defined, philosophers note (e.g. John Searle in The Oxford Companion to Philosophy):[3]

"Anything that we are aware of at a given moment forms part of our consciousness, making conscious experience at once the most familiar and most mysterious aspect of our lives." -Schneider and Velmans, 2007[4]"

How can being conscious help you in reaching your health and fitness goals? The definition states: "Anything that we are aware of at any given moment..." I would like to draw your attention to this part of the definition because I believe that the majority of a person's failure to reach a goal has more to do with what they do unconsciously then their body type, experience, or desire. For every conscious decision we make there are hundreds of unconscious ones made. Like if we put sweetener in our coffee, where we park, what we do when we are stressed or under pressure. When it comes to a conscious choice we may decide to go to the gym but how much of our workout is conscious? Are we really paying attention to every rep, trying to push ourselves farther than our last workout? Or are we getting on the treadmill, setting it and walking or running till it stops only to head over for a few reps on some machines and then to the showers? Unfortunately, over ninety percent of the gym members I've seen are doing just that and some of the trainers I've seen have even encouraged it! It seems to be the biggest discouragement for people to start working out, lose some weight and then plateau. This doesn't have to be you.

The same thing that causes you to plateau is the same thing that allows you to get results. It is called the S.A.I.D. principle. It stands for, "Specific Adaptation to Imposed Demands". In other words, the body will adapt to whatever stress you put it under, which is both a blessing and a curse. You will change, its guaranteed, but that change will stop unless you put more stress on your body. There aren't any magical workouts out there because of the principle that "everything works, nothing works forever". Your body will adapt to whatever you're doing, then you need to make it harder to make continued progress. This is where being conscious comes into play and the easiest way to do that is to keep a log where you write down everything you did. By thoroughly planning your work and then working your plan you will always be able to make an improvement on your last workout session.

Learning how these principles work and how to stay conscious in your daily activity can sometimes feel like a daunting task. In that case I recommend that you find someone to help you stay accountable. There are several options for doing that. You could get a workout partner with similar goals, you could hire a local trainer, or you could take advantage of online personal training which is usually a less expensive way to go if you don't need individual instruction for every single rep. By being conscious of what your outcome goal is, you will perform better and create a solution to help you reach it as quickly as possible. My next article will focus on how to write an outcome goal, how to word it positively, and what to do with it when once you've written it down because the first step in conscious training is having a clear vision of what you want.

I am a Corrective Exercise Specialist and a Specialist in Fitness Nutrition in Seattle WA. My purpose is to educate and teach others about how to incorporate health and fitness into their daily lives in a safe and effective way. I show that their is fitness everywhere we look, not just in a "gym" and it is about the conscious and, more importantly, the unconscious choices we make everyday. As a lifelong sufferer of back pain I live what I teach others. For more info: http://www.cfmcorrectivefitness.com

Warrior Training 101 - Consciousness + Living Mindfully

Warrior training begins with developing awareness.

The key to mindful living is consciousness; consciousness of how we are oriented by habit-patterns. Without training, our behavior is a string of learned reactions and associations that are then cemented through years of unconscious repetition.

Consider this example: when you get home after work, it's become a habit to open the fridge and have a munch. You're so conditioned that the before-before-dinner snack is now part of your routine--it has nothing to do with hunger anymore.

Mindfulness involves inserting purpose into all aspects of life, especially where facets that we normally run on autopilot. The key is to disrupt our natural reflexes in which we frequently reproduce patterns that are counter-productive to our conscious priorities. Think of the previous example. Snacking out of habit is hardly an effective weight-control strategy.

There are many techniques for cultivating awareness. Meditation and simply paying more attention are two possibilities. Otherwise, I happened onto another interesting idea the other day:

Ascetic Yogi Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev, says

"Why ascetic paths were set is simply because of this: you start doing things that are naturally not comfortable for you. Once you start doing such activity that is uncomfortable for you, you do it, but you don't like it. If you have to do something that you do not like, you can only do it consciously; there is no other way to do it. Yes? Things that you like, you can do compulsively; but things that you don't like, you can only do consciously. That is why the ascetic path. You start doing everything consciously. There is no other way to be."

The ascetic strategy for cultivating awareness is to work with what is unpleasant. By doing uncomfortable things necessarily keep us conscious. Thinking of ascetics automatically calls up images of hair shirts and massively long finger-nails, but this doesn't have to become a lifestyle. Perhaps it's enough just to become conscious of how it feels to do something unpleasant but necessary. At any rate--food for thought.

The challenge of consciousness is the taks of a lifetime. Consciousness is literally a massive task: most of our waking time takes place in an unconscious, reactive trance. As we begin to build zones of awareness, these spread outwards, becoming seedlings for radical change.

Terrie Schauer
http://warriorqueenproject.blogspot.com/

Writer, kick-boxer, peaceful warrior.

Warrior Training 101 - Consciousness + Living Mindfully

Warrior training begins with developing awareness.

The key to mindful living is consciousness; consciousness of how we are oriented by habit-patterns. Without training, our behavior is a string of learned reactions and associations that are then cemented through years of unconscious repetition.

Consider this example: when you get home after work, it's become a habit to open the fridge and have a munch. You're so conditioned that the before-before-dinner snack is now part of your routine--it has nothing to do with hunger anymore.

Mindfulness involves inserting purpose into all aspects of life, especially where facets that we normally run on autopilot. The key is to disrupt our natural reflexes in which we frequently reproduce patterns that are counter-productive to our conscious priorities. Think of the previous example. Snacking out of habit is hardly an effective weight-control strategy.

There are many techniques for cultivating awareness. Meditation and simply paying more attention are two possibilities. Otherwise, I happened onto another interesting idea the other day:

Ascetic Yogi Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev, says

"Why ascetic paths were set is simply because of this: you start doing things that are naturally not comfortable for you. Once you start doing such activity that is uncomfortable for you, you do it, but you don't like it. If you have to do something that you do not like, you can only do it consciously; there is no other way to do it. Yes? Things that you like, you can do compulsively; but things that you don't like, you can only do consciously. That is why the ascetic path. You start doing everything consciously. There is no other way to be."

The ascetic strategy for cultivating awareness is to work with what is unpleasant. By doing uncomfortable things necessarily keep us conscious. Thinking of ascetics automatically calls up images of hair shirts and massively long finger-nails, but this doesn't have to become a lifestyle. Perhaps it's enough just to become conscious of how it feels to do something unpleasant but necessary. At any rate--food for thought.

The challenge of consciousness is the taks of a lifetime. Consciousness is literally a massive task: most of our waking time takes place in an unconscious, reactive trance. As we begin to build zones of awareness, these spread outwards, becoming seedlings for radical change.

Terrie Schauer
http://warriorqueenproject.blogspot.com/

Writer, kick-boxer, peaceful warrior.