Workout Principles for Fluid Strength

Published in Trager Talk, 2019

From time to time in my many years of being a Trager® Practitioner, I have had the idea that it would increase my energy and sharpen my focus if I went to a gym for some basic over-all muscle training. To be honest, I also harbored the hope that working out would give me a better shape on the outside even as my inner shape was getting more integrated and stronger.

Although doing Trager sessions all day involves moving my client’s body around on the table, my daily work with clients requires very little muscle effort. In my training, I had learned to make every movement as easy and smooth as possible—a recipe for sustaining a body full of long, thin, loose muscles. I understood the health value of this, but still…why not add some sexy muscles, too?

Once at a gym, however, I would discover that the personal trainers were not well grounded in principles of coordinated movement--principles I took for granted. Most of them were intent on helping folks bulk up. I would find myself spending a lot of time explaining how I wanted to work my body, both to keep from injuring my highly sensitized system and to make sure I came out of each workout energized for the next day’s sessions.

With enough repetitions of this cycle, I decided to write out my understanding of what I wanted to do. I printed out the first drafts, consulted a Physical Therapist, my yoga teacher, and several other Somatic Educators I respected, and ran it by a few of the more senior trainers at the gym. The following list of principles integrates their suggestions.

When I moved to Charlottesville, and wanted to again join a gym to use their equipment for my own workouts, I took this list with me to my opening consultation. It paved the way to a much more fruitful relationship with the trainers and staff there. Please let me know if these principles help you get more out of working with weights and resistance machines.

1. Begin every movement with the breath. The exhale gives power to the movement, the inhale gives power to the form. A strong, integrated diaphragm action is key to fluid movement, and reduces the need for effort elsewhere.

2. Every movement should feel good. If it doesn't, slow down and make adjustments until it does. Work until the movement feels pleasurable and fluid. Stop before you feel tired.

3. Focus on the feeling, not the doing. Stay present in the sensation while you workout. Keep returning your attention to the feeling in your body (not the doing of the exercise, or the way it looks, or how many you've done, or on unrelated conversations or thoughts.) The body's natural intelligence will emerge if you listen to your body sensations and let them guide your workout.

4. Relaxing the outside muscles while you workout helps the body focus its effort on the intrinsic muscle system. As the inner muscle layers get stronger, longer and more coordinated, movement flows more smoothly.

5. Find the feeling of balance from your feet. Pressure receptors on the bottoms of your feet are designed to inform you of your internal weight distribution. Drop in to the sensation at the bottoms of the feet to ballast you.

6. Make it feel beautiful. Beauty is inherent in fluid, functional movement. Practicing beautiful movement increases function.

7. Let any machines you use help you lengthen and open. Release fully into the pull of the machines with each movement, especially as you inhale.

8. Natural movement in the body happens in arcs, spirals and waves. Practicing these movement directions increases naturalness and gracefulness in your functional habit patterns. Short linear movements increase bulk and choppiness.

9. Practice integration not isolation. Don’t work only one muscle or group. Focus your work on the area designated by the machine you are using, but support every movement from the whole body and the depth of your breath.

10. Release tension, increase attention. Tension is a parasite that robs you of your life energy. Attention on what you are doing while you are doing it brings unity of body and mind, and allows for more conscious choice.

11. Success helps your body. The body likes to feel successful in the face of challenging exercises. Do only as many, as big, as heavy, or as fast as you can feel successful. Work deeply but without struggling and without compensation patterns kicking in. (Practicing exercises that you have to struggle with only teaches your body to struggle.)

12. Pause frequently during your workout time, and for at least 5 minutes at the end, to return to sensing your body at rest. Cultivate the ability to remain quiet and attentive in an energized, aware, transparent, and fully embodied state. Prepare yourself to operate from this hooked-up state throughout your day.

F RojasFebruary 18, 2023