Why I Am Not A Personal Trainer

Who would have thought that the knowledge about the body learnt after thousands of hours spent in the Dojo training for Karate competitions and teaching will be the foundations of my coaching today.

Everything from breathing, posture and meditation to developing a strong, flexible and healthy body as well as knowledge about bones, tendons and muscles were ingrained in me from an early age. All I needed to do is fill in the gaps through studying and experimenting on myself and form a complete system: The Merisoiu Technique.

So why am I not a Personal Trainer?

I was a PT for the beginning of my career in the health and fitness industry. As a PT I used to help my clients lose weight, tone up, get fit, gain muscle mass as well as nutritional advice.

I loved it. I loved it until I realized that I had so much more to give my clients. And I wasn’t. I couldn’t give what I wanted and the way I wanted. I wanted to transform my clients’ lives by addressing the foundations and personal development.

Now as a Coach I not only help my clients with their physical appearance and wellbeing but change the way they live their lives.

I don’t coach my clients to get fit and healthy for the summer, I coach them to be fit and healthy for the rest of their lives. And we do it by addressing the root cause of their imbalances and slowly changing habits, starting with the smallest ones.

My clients leave my programs with a lot of knowledge about their bodies and how they function. They receive intrinsic knowledge which they cannot learn from a book. This comes from years and years of experience. In essence it’s a Personal Development journey.

I wanted to introduce my clients to a new way of living life. So I transitioned from Personal Training to Transformational Coaching…outdoors

[tweetthis]I wanted to introduce my clients to a new way of living life.[/tweetthis]

The roots of The Merisoiu Technique

So when I created the system, The Merisoiu Technique, it was because my clients wanted to get fit, strong and powerful. However they also needed to understand how their bodies function, how to move soft and fluid and how to prevent injury as much as possible. And it was essential not to sacrifice the later for the former.

It was imperative for them to understand the difference between tension and relaxation, intentional movement, posture and balance and counterbalance. The Mindful Control component is where my clients learn to bring together or to align body, breath, and mind. And then to catapult their results we brought in the physical and psychological benefits and the freedom of training outdoors all year round. Benefits such as strength and emotional balance. And of course the nutrition and healthy habits part.

Finally, it became clear that my clients needed to have access to a complete system which would offer them the foundations they needed to live a healthy and fit life for the rest of their lives. Once you understand the basics of movement, posture, breathing, nutrition and Mindful Control then you actually become in control of your own life, for the rest of your life.

All in all The Merisoiu Technique involves coordinated movement, breath, and awareness, building a strong and fit body and learning how to implement healthy habits and nutrition. It’s about building the foundations of a healthy lifestyle and reclaiming your nature.

The principles of The Merisoiu Technique

The Technique covers five main areas of health and wellness:

Earthing

It is no coincidence that The Merisoiu Technique is an outdoors system of Personal Development which takes place all year round, be it hot, cold, freezing or rain.

I believe nature is the most powerful force. And when you train with natures elements you become as powerful as the elements. Well…almost as powerful. It’s perfection to strive for. However they do make your stronger than you have ever thought you could be.

One of the elements of The Technique that many are afraid of is rain and winter training. What many don’t realize is that this is your challenge, this is what shows how dedicated you are to the way, the path you chose.

And this is when you strengthen your body and mind, more than in any other season. Winter is the season of breakthroughs for all my clients. You make it through winter training with me, you make it through almost anything else.

Natural Movement

Natural movement was created by Movnat Founder Erwan LeCorre. It’s training and conditioning the body through movement such as lifting, throwing, hanging, crawling, balancing, running, walking. So you will find natural movement element in this system as well.

Fluid Movement

I have personally development a range of fluid movement sequences based on my experience in Martial Arts. Imagine Tai Chi but different.

Fluid movement can be done very slow, slow, fast or very fast, it can still flow. The Merisoiu Technique fluid movement sequences covers all.

Mindful Control

Here we pay close attention to posture awareness, breathing mastery, attention and focus, technique and discipline.

This component also includes mindfulness and meditation practices.

There is a touch of Alexander Principles in the Mindful Control component

Habits Transformation

This component addresses any habits in your life that keep you from getting fit and healthy for life.

In general, with my client, we focus on nutrition, food discipline, individual training routines planned weekly and meditations.

So you see, this is a complete system. It pays close attention to every detail of your life. From breathing to posture and daily movement.

Your training never ends in the forest we train, it goes beyond. You take this knowledge home with you and you transform your life. What I was doing as a PT could not be taken home, it was left in the gym and it was changing your body but it didn’t go much further than that.

If this sounds like something you desire I invite you to book a FREE call with me to go over the struggles you are facing and see what are the best options for us to work together.

May 17, 2015

Why And How To Look After Your Feet

The Why

You are as strong as your weakest link.

How many times have you thought about your feet lately? And I don’t mean making your toenails look pretty. Sure you can do that as well.

You feet are your first contact with the ground. They are your foundations. Yet you never use them in your shoes. They are dormant and weak.

As with everything, if the foundations of a system are weak then the entire system is weakened and will collapse sooner or later.

In some cases they also the cause of many injuries, aches and pains throughout your body such as knees pain and shin splints.

Because when a weak link is put under repetitive pressure (while walking, standing, running etc) it will:

1. Weaken further until it breaks
2. Cause other links to take more pressure than normal and they will weaken as well

Makes sense right?

Here’s what Steve Bloor Musculoskeletal Podiatrist or “The Barefoot Podiatrist” says:

“Stiff, supportive shoes, acting like braces, cause muscle weakness & atrophy, along with joint stiffness. The evidence is showing that the plantar fascia & arch muscles need to be used in a repetitive stretch/shortening cycle in order to keep them strong & pliable. In essence, to keep the foot healthy it needs to function in the way it was evolved to function – naturally! Stiff supportive footwear don’t allow this.”

He wrote an article on barefoot lifestyle talking about feet here.

The How

Be different and look after your body starting with the foundations. Strong thighs will be of no use if your foot muscles are weak. The same goes for biceps and hands but that’s another story.

Choose one of the following to begin strengthening your foot muscles:

1. Pick up things with your feet.

One of my clients picks up the shampoo bottle with her foot. You can also pick up socks, pens, sticks, shoes, golf ball and so on.

2. Do what I do in this video alone of play with a partner

3. Go barefoot

You can do this in the house but it’s good to walk on many different surfaces and allow the feet to curl around objects so the muscles develop multilaterally.

With all of them you don’t necessarily have to feel a burn or ache the next day. That’s not the point. Your muscles are working

Remember you are as strong as your weakest link. Strengthen that link and bring more strength and stability to the system.

[tweetthis]You are as strong as your weakest link. Strengthen that link and bring more strength and stability to the system.[/tweetthis]

If you have any questions I can answer them and help you with the exercises, just jump on a free call with me.

May 12, 2015January 5, 2019

Strong Foundations For A Strong Pain Free Body

I think you agree with me when I say that if a building cannot stand without strong foundations, no matter how much iron rods and cement we put on every floor, a human body cannot be strong without a strong foundation no matter how strong the other floors may be.

For your body that foundation is your feet. If your feet are not strong, your weight properly balanced between your two feet and you do not use/move them in the correct way there is damage to be expected.

And that damage might not even be felt in the feet. No, no, it can be the knees, the hips , the lower back. But the source of your pain may very well be your feet.

Now I am not a doctor, a physio or podiatrist. But I study books such as The story of the human body , Alexander principles and I read articles by doctors, listen to interviews etc etc.

Today I realise how much the faulty use of my body and particularly of my feet contributed to pain and struggle.

As a teenager I used to literally walk on the outside of my feet, lifting my the arches as high as I could. Why did I do that !!!

I was also very, very heavy footed, stumping around like a dinosaur. Still am a little but that’s changing day by day.

And in the past I also used to take, rather force, long strides just because I was short and everyone was making fun of my short strides.

But things changed

I had the greatest luck to be coached by the amazing Michael Cohen, obstacle race coach and founder of Wild Forest Gym.

What he did was to open my eyes to the bad habits I developed through time. From there on I took over, I began to study and experiment on myself and boom!! my knowledge of the human body and movement exploded. And my body started to heal as well.

Now I believe I am here to give back. To help you heal as well. And for this I bring in not only what I learnt from Michael but the extraordinary wisdom from Traditional Martial Arts. Together they form powerful tool for my clients.

Now although my clients come to me to get fit, reduce stress, even lose weight I also help them with pains throughout their bodies that come as a result of body misuse.

The moment they understand how to use their bodies everything, everything changes. And in some cases the changes come after 2-3 sessions as we address posture and balance. Things I also coach over skype from the comfort of their home.

Three elements for you to become aware of and practice:

If you manage to address these elements you are on your way to healing. Ignore them and probably nothing will change. Your choice…

3. WEIGHT DISTRIBUTION

When you walk become aware of which foot takes the most pressure. Then is there a foot that pushes off more aggressively than the other when you step?

Once you become aware of this imbalanced try to balance your weight evenly on your feet. This can solve so so so many problems as in knee pain, leg pain, hip pain, lower back pain. In some instances your pain comes from this faulty body weight distribution.

2. STABILITY MUSCLES

This is where we talk about strong foot muscles. The easiest and fastest way to strengthen them is to sand on one leg. Yes, balance exercises.

And you don’t need a stability ball, trust me. First you need to learn to balance properly without under or over pronating, distributing the weight of your body evenly on the ball of the foot and heel.

Then you learn how to use your toes to strengthen the muscles. Then you look at the knee position. Then your become aware of your core contribution. And so on.

Then there are loads of variations of balance exercises you can try home. You do not need a stability ball so stop wasting your money on gym equipment and start actually doing something.

Lack of equipment is just an excuse for not doing anything. Sorry, but in many cases that is the truth. I used that excuse many times as a teenager 😉

1. POSTURE

Although we are talking about feet I want you to know that your posture is the beginning of everything.

Your cannot balance properly to strengthen your foot muscles and the rest of the body if you cannot hold a nice, relaxed, elongated posture.

You MUST address your posture. I cannot stress this enough

Changing the way you move, breathe and live

I am putting together a virtual coaching program which will cover all these elements here as well as meditation, mindfulness and habits that lead to pain, discomfort, weight gain, lack of energy in the first place.

All designed to take you from stressed out, exhausted, in pain and feeling down to energetic, enthusiastic and pain free by transforming the way you move, breathe and live.

This program will also have the power and tools to enhance your body’s ability to heal itself.

If this sounds good to you please email me at alexandra@urbanwomenfitness.com and I will contact you with more information regarding the upcoming program.

January 25, 2015May 17, 2015

5 lessons I learnt from balancing exercises

For an athlete who has practiced many sports in the past 20 years, particularly martial arts, balancing is probably one of the most important lessons when it comes to fine tuning movement.

However balancing is not only for athletes and not only for the body. You see, if your mind is busy ere are good chances you will lose that balance.

But when your mind is calm, clear and focused balancing becomes easy. It’s really that simple….or is it?

So these are 5 lessons I learnt from balancing exercises:

1. Clearing the mind. As I said before, a busy mind leads to an imbalanced body. And the opposite is also true, a balanced body leads to a balanced, calmer mind.

2. Self-confidence. Nowadays this is particularly true when I balance at heights that are less comfortable for me. We all have our comfort zones even when we balance.

3. Relaxation. Relaxing the body is so important when balancing and results in a relaxed mind as well.

4. Fluidity. When I walk up and down branches, relaxed and focused, is a bliss, I am in another world.

5. Patience. When I began balancing as a part of my coached routine I used to get so frustrated because I could not make it to the end of that wobbly branch. But as times passed I became more and more relaxed, more aware, more under control and patient.

It really is a wonderful feeling when you reach a point where you know that in the past a certain event would have made you angry and lose patience and now you are calm and relaxed, no sign of negativity in sight. But alone this would have been a difficult task, I wouldn’t have had the patience to keep going with it.

Nowadays I take others through difficult and challenging moment either physical or psychological. I believe that once we learn or master something and we are good at it we should pass it to others, otherwise what’s the purpose if we keep everything for ourselves. That my opinion anyway.

Incorporate balancing in your life. But before you start balancing make sure you are safe, there is nothing for you to fall on and hurt yourself. It is important to be responsible and mindful of your actions and the consequences.

These are things I might do throughout the day:

1. Walking on tree roots I find in parks.

2. Standing on one leg when I wait for the bus or tube. Just stay at a good distance from the street or railway.

3. Standing on one leg while I brush your teeth. Again make sure there is nothing around you can fall on and injure yourself.

4. Stand on one leg when I read, watch a movie or tv. Yep…I do that quite often.

Don’t forget to alternate legs. Everything in balance.

Be creative and incorporate balancing in your daily routine, don’t save everything for the gym.

So if you’d like to know more about my philosophies and approaches please download my free ebook The Merisoiu Technique or book a free call with me and let’s chat.

August 3, 2014August 6, 2015

‘Engage your core’, what does that mean? Why should I do it?

‘Engage your core’, what does that mean? Why should I do?

crunch — Photo Credit: ShareHows.com via Compfight cc

‘Engage your core’, ‘suck your belly in’ or ‘squeeze your abs’ are terms repeatedly used by fitness professionals, including myself, but do we really think about what that means? Due to a limited time frame we never really delve into the benefits of building up a strong ‘core’ or how specifically to do it, in each training session.

So today I am drawing on my experiences as a gymnast, dancer and personal trainer to give you the low down on why you really should be engaging your core throughout exercise and how to do it.

Have you ever wondered how a particular dancer/gymnast/ice-skater effortlessly glides around the stage or floor? Well here is your answer in basic terms.

I have been taught from a young age in gymnastics and dance how to ‘shift my weight’, ‘stay on top of my supporting leg’, ‘find where my weight is’. All of these demands require you to connect your mind to your body. The individual tells their body to move a certain way and it responds correctly.

This is Mind-body connection is something innate to dancers and gymnasts. It is not, however, natural to everyone, which is why there is often difficulty when a non-dancer/gymnast is asked to engage his or her core.

So initially, I would suggest mindfulness as a useful tool for reconnecting the body to the mind, and incorporating breathing techniques into exercise.

girl — Photo Credit: martinak15 via Compfight cc

So once the individual manages to connect to their core, why should they focus their time on building strength in that area?

1. Keeps you graceful – It helps with your ability to control your movement, particularly when you come across a difficult exercise or you are starting to fatigue.

2. Back health – It is estimated that four out of every five adults (80%) will experience back pain at some stage in their life. Back pain is the number 2 reason for long – term sickness in much of the UK.(http://www.backcare.org.uk/factsandfigures).

The ‘Core’ is made up of a group of muscles that begin with your ‘abs’ and wrap right around to your back.

A strong core will support your back in times when it may be vulnerable to injury.

3. Power – A strong core is the starting point in powerful explosive movement, such as lifting and jumping.

4. Balance – Our bodies have the potential to do a lot more than we think. If ever in a situation where your stability is compromised a strong core will enable you or increase your chances of staying upright.

5. Light on your toes – If you ever start to feel fatigued and tired during exercise, your core is there to get you through and ensure that keep exercising effectively and efficiently.

But how do I do it?

I have found this to be the easiest way to activate connection to the core:
1. Start by lying or standing up

2. Place your hands on your stomach

3. Take a deep breath in allowing the stomach to balloon

4. Start breathing out feeling the abdominal muscles pushing the air out your lungs

5. Keep breathing out until your lungs are completely empty, to do this requires more effort then normal breathing and so you should feel your abdominals fully contract/tighten.

This exercise can be used as a core activation exercise or throughout your workout.

handstand1 — Photo Credit: Evil Erin via Compfight cc

What’s my ultimate core strength exercise?

It has to be pike handstands (influenced by my gymnastic days). I love playfulness of the movement, challenging your body’s ability to respond to the movement quickly and you feel like you are doing something really impressive.

For those still building up core strength an easier, but equally impressive, version can be done by using a Swiss Ball to support the legs.

About the author: Alice Bowmaker

Alice is an East London based, YMCA qualified personal trainer on a mission to inspire and motivate people to push themselves past their expectations and help them rediscover their love for the beauty and strength of their bodies.

She has a background in dance and gymnastics which he uses extensively in her training repertoire. She also holds memberships with REPs and NRPT.

You can contact Alice at www.alicepteast.com