STOP Exercising! Do This Instead

Stop exercising and start Developing skills

Stop exercising and start Exploring yourself and the environment

Stop exercising and start Playing around so you enjoy life

Stop exercising and start Being Mindful of what you are feeling, seeing, hearing and doing

Stop exercising and start Listening to the life surrounding you

Stop exercising and start Discovering what your are actually capable of

Stop exercising and start Moving in ways you’ve never done before

Stop exercising and start Acknowledging the world around you

Stop exercising and start Paying Attention to how you move, live and breathe

Stop exercising and start Experimenting with new ideas and concepts

Stop exercising and start Being Creative with your body and mind

Stop exercising and start Learning & Growing

Stop exercising and start Feeling Alive for a change

Stop Being A Zombie.

For many exercising can become boring or feel like a chore. That’s because there is no passion in it. So many of us exercise just because it’s healthy and we have to because we were told we should.

Thus we end up doing it for the sake of it. There is no pleasure in what we do. And that for me is a waste of time and a waste of life.

[tweetthis]Learn, develop and be mindful and you will never ever have to workout a day in your life.[/tweetthis]

The Merisoiu Technique was created by bringing all the above elements together and more. The 15 elements above at the philosophy of the technique.

The Merisoiu Technique is not another fitness routine or bootcamp, it is based on technique, smart coaching, focus and creativity which enables women to push boundaries for physical, mental and spiritual growth and development.

So stop exercising and embrace The Merisoiu Technique philosophy right here at Urban Women Fitness. To find out how you can work with Founder and Coach Alexandra Merisoiu click here.

March 19, 2015March 19, 2015

How To Fall In Love With Your Training Routine

The other day I kept thinking why is it that so many people start a workout routine and then they either look very unhappy after a while, they don’t enjoy it or they just give up coming up with all sorts of excuses.

The thing is humans were built to move. Our bodies are made to move. So why is it that so many people don’t like it. Some go so far as saying they hate it, exercise that is. Why?

From personal experience as a sports woman, practicing many different sports, and as a coach to women and men as well, I believe the answer is simple. And you will learn what that is in this blog.

We, humans, are build to move, yes. But we are also programmed to grow, to learn, to develop, to make progress one way or another.

We are evolving all the time. And that makes us happy, thrilled, excited about that thing that we do.

Think about it this way. You are in the same line of work, doing the same thing day after day, nothing ever changes. You see the same buildings, roads, people, same process and routines. You are happy when you begin but how long does that happiness last?

I changed a few jobs and worked in a few different, unrelated industries and I remember every time I’d be very excited at the beginning and loved what I did. So I was making huge and fast progress.

That’s because it was something new for me and challenging. I was learning new skills, improving others and making progress in many different ways.

Now back to exercising

It’s the same thing with your workouts. If you keep the same workout for weeks and months you will end up doing it for the sake of it. Checking your phone, email and facebook likes. Because it’s BORING!!!

Now that does not mean that repeating the same techniques isn’t necessary. That’s very important for progress and fine tuning. I should know that, Karate is what I do and we repeat one techniques thousand of time to master it.

However within your regular routine you can bring other elements that you’d love to learn, that challenge you to think, to find solutions and alternatives.

Here are some things you can bring in your routine straight away to LOVE it more:

1. Change scenery. If you are indoors go outdoors. If you are outdoors find different places to do your run and workout. Take different routes. Changing the workout location will challenge you in a different way. I actually changes the way your body will move and function.

2. Be creative. Allow your body to flow and move freely. Be a little weird. It will enable you to create some really cool things. Stop thinking about what others might say if you start crawling around in your local park. Do it, be weird.

3. Fine tune. Pay attention to what you are doing and try to do it better and better. Think, think and think some more. This is also a form of being mindful and aware. Get your brain involved, that’s what it’s there for, it will love to get involved.

4. STOP. Chances are you are in a hurry all the time. When you workout you want those 30 min in and out. Now, forget about “gotta sweat and feel the burn” for a moment. Stop and look around, listen, feel, smell, see. Open up your senses. This small habit brings with it a feeling of calmness and peace leading to a better workout than otherwise.

5. Learn new skills. As I said before, we are programmed to learn and always grow. Get a Coach and learn some new stuff. Then you can bring them into your routine.

Oh, and stop watching and “learning” from youtube videos. They have their place but not when you learn something new.

You can work with a coach face to face or virtual. You will learn and get more out of being coached than watching videos presented by someone who doesn’t see what you are doing, who has no idea who you are, what you like, what your passions are, how you function and where you’re heading.

So go try some or all of these things, come back to this post and comment below.

And if you want to have a chat about this type of coaching book a FREE call with me.

March 12, 2015March 12, 2015

Reclaim Your Nature

I was a lucky child. I was born and raised in a big city where I had almost everything a child wanted. But every summer holiday my parents would send me to the countryside to spend 3 months with my grandparents.

The little poor village had 2 small shops. There was no cinema, not many buses, the closest city was pretty far away. We didn’t have cell phone network and there was not internet and we didn’t have electricity or sewage system (my grandparents were building the house themselves).

However that place was a paradise for me and my friends. I used to forget about my shoes for days and days, going barefoot on the hills, through rivers and lakes, sand, stones and earth. Everywhere at any time in the day or night.

There were 2 activities I enjoyed the most though:

1. Building tunnels through thorny bushes and crawling through them

2. Climbing trees

Nowadays when I climb trees I do it a bit more elegant let’s say, refining my climbing technique through coaching.

The video below, Tree Scrambling, shows how we train and condition our body here at Urban Women Fitness through the Natural Movement Principle part of the six guiding principles of The Merisoiu Technique.

Benefits of tree scrambling

Among the benefits of tree scrambling you have core strength, arm and shoulder strength, coordination, agility, flexibility, mobility and even lower body strength depending on the tree and how you climb through it.

But you get more out of tree scrambling than physical benefits. These are:

Focus
Precision
Patience
Creativity
Self-confidence
Elegance
Learning new skills which makes training enjoyable and less monotonous and boring.

January 29, 2015January 29, 2015

Why your workouts are boring and 4 ways to make them exciting

I used to be a Personal Trainer in a gym. I loved it and I learnt a lot. However I could not help but noticing how many people would come to the gym and seem bored by what they were doing.

I used to talk to many of them, and although they had a good training program in place, one that got them results, and change it every 6-8 weeks to keep getting results, they were bored….bored of everything.

To be honest until I went to USA for my studies I never stepped into a gym. Really, why would I? I was practicing sports, Karate and others, 6 days a week, sometimes twice a day. And I had a purpose, I had variety, I had excitement. I never thought about health or weight loss, those came with the purpose and excitement.

I went to the gym in the USA and after a few years here in UK. Everything the beginning was exciting, new stuff, new things. But after a while no matter how I changed my routine it was still boring.

And I dare to believe that there are many of you who feel the same. So I wanted to give you the salt and pepper of efficient, always interesting and never boring training routine.

1. Purpose

I will begin by saying that health and weight loss are not part of your purpose. Sorry girls, but it’s not.

Health should be there all the time, we should not make of it a goal. Health is the foundation of success in business, life, career and whatever you want to excel at. Health is not a milestone.

Weight loss is something many of us want but we never consider that this is not one of those things you will have forever, it’s not there to stay for the rest of your life. You lose weight then at some point in your life you gain, then lose again, then gain.

I tell you this because I had many ups and down with my weight. But because I always had a purpose behind my training I never stressed to much about it.

Weight loss comes as a result of health. And health should always be there, you should not even have to think about it, it should be automatically part of your life. If should be your life for that matter.

So what’s the REAL purpose?

When I coach my students I give them a purpose. It can be a challenge to learn and master a technique, or a run, or any other event, or something they’ve always dreamt about doing or achieving but never could.

Training outdoors is a challenge for most so that itself can be a purpose for a while.

Personally, the purpose behind my training is to get really, really good at what I do. And the milestones are races and competitions.

For a while my purpose was to condition myself enough to train outdoors in the winter in shorts. Achieved this winter!!

But do you know why those are purposes and weight loss is not? One of the reasons is that when you master a technique, you cross a finish line or you get that medal no one ever can take that back from you.

That’s an achievement for life, while a slim body (which you will get anyway because you train with purpose) with come and go throughout your life.

So train hard but train with purpose.

Photo Credit: Michael Cohen / Wild Forest Gym

2. Variety and creativity

This is one of the reason the outdoors are such a big part of my life. When you train outdoors you will never, ever experience 2 identical sessions.

Even if you try and replicate it going in the same places and doing the exact same exercises, it will always be different. And these are some of the reasons:

– weather will be different from day to day, even from hour to hour

– the earth will be different, muddy, frozen, dry or wet.

– the ground is never flat, you will go up and down, left and right and you will need to adapt

– if you get bored of one place you run 2k and you find something totally different. The difference can be from field to thick forest. This is what one of my students said to me once. And he was right.

In a gym environment the trick is to be very creative. When I was coaching in a gym it was difficult not to fall into monotony like others.

I was always coming up with new stuff and so my clients stayed with me for months and some of them are still with me now after 2 years.

One of the reasons they liked training with me was because I bring variety and creativity wherever I train. Outdoors is my most creative environment though.

So, no matter where you train, be creative and search for variety. Don’t fall into routine and monotony, it’s not exciting.

3. Experience every moment

No matter how much purpose and variety you have if you don’t experience the moment you will not love what you do.

This means to breath, feel, see, touch, smell. And so many times we don’t do it. But when we are outdoors the different aspects of nature automatically make us open up our sense.

Because everything is different all the time we suddenly need to become aware of what’s around us. There is no monotony.

No matter what you do don’t do it for the sake of it.

Have a purpose and experience the journey. Then the results, whatever they may be will soon follow.

Photo Credit: Michael Cohen / Wild Forest Gym

4. Learning

And finally whatever you do never stop learning, developing, evolving. We are humans and learning is part of our evolution. We are hardwired to continuously learn and develop.

Take you training routine as a personal development journey, because that’s what it actually is.

Stop being a little robot and use your cognitive skills to be creative, develop and learn something every time you do your training session.

Combining 20 years of sports, particularly Martial Arts, and bringing natural movement training and running as well yoga, in my coaching gives me the possibility to show my students so much about movement and make them enjoy every moment they spend with me and then working out alone.

This way they:

– always have variety

– always experience the moment

– always look forward to our sessions and…

– always have a purpose behind their training – learning more and more and getting better and better if we don’t have an event planned for them ;).

Hope this inspires you to take your training sessions to the next level and actually enjoy them if you aren’t already.

As always if you want to chat with me feel free to book a call with me or if you want to learn more about my philosophies read my free ebook The Merisoiu Technique

January 10, 2015January 10, 2015

What is a walking consultation and Why I do it

I am the kind of person who talks, out loud that is, on her way to the tube station, who laughs and writes while walking.

I am most creative when I walk. Many of my article outlines are created while I walk. Webinars, workshops, they are all created when I walk. My mind seems to work best when my body is active. A possible reason is the increased blood flow to the brain. I personally blame it on space and freedom of movement and consequently freedom of thinking and creativity.

But I am not the only one engaging in walking meetings. Some psychologists hold their therapy sessions while walking around. “Bringing a little bit of movement enriches the counselling session” says psychotherapist Clay Cockrell.

Kate Hays, PhD, is the author of Working It Out: Using Exercise in Psychotherapy and she first encountered the concept of movement and therapy in the early 1980s. The idea is that rhythmic exercise, such as walking, can be conducive to the process of self-discovery.

When I walk and talk to my clients or friends who accept my invitation for walk instead of sitting in a cafe we create a unique bond. We go on an adventure together and we are in sync with each other.

When we walk we don’t feel “under the microscope” . There is a feeling of freedom and a lessened sense of confrontation. One of Dr Cockrell’s patience says that “taking four walls out of the equation helped me open up and feel more comfortable”.

When we talk about life experiences, especially depression, it is sometimes difficult to make eye contact. Walking side by side makes it easier to open up and to allow yourself to receive advice and guidance.

If we go silent there is no awkward moment. We keep walking until we decide to talk again. In a cafe we feel we have to talk, to ask or comment

Walking is a form of meditation, it allows your mind to tune out from all the chatter.

Research shows that after walking subjective perception of stress decreases significantly and may also bring about feeling uplifted. So after a consultation you can feel more energized and positive for the rest of the day.

Bottom line is that spending time in the outdoors scientifically proven makes you happier, more comfortable to talk and can be a process of self discovery.

So let’s go for a walk.

January 9, 2015May 3, 2015

11 habits to help you feel better in your own body

1. Turn off your devices when you sleep.

2. Sleep between 6 and 8 hours every night.

3. Don’t go to bed with your mind running around. Allow your mind to settle before you fall asleep for a quality rest.

4. For 1h before you go to bed avoid watching tv, checking facebook and emails or playing games on your phone. Instead read a book (a book with pages that is). You will wake up with more energy and avoid sore, dried eyes

5. Drink water throughout the day. The Earth is about 70% water, your body is around 75% water. We can conclude that water is life.

6. Move your body. After all that’s what it’s made for and we’ve been doing it for millions of years, it’s in our genes.

7. Smile. Science says that a smile will make you happier and it’s contagious, making people around you happier as well.

8. Reach for quality before quantity. Whether it is work related, personal growth or fitness strive for quality. This is help you be more productive, focused and appreciated for the work you do.

9. Breathe while focusing on your heart when you are anxious or panicked. It is the best cure. The beginning is more difficult but after 3-4 breathes it’s easier and you begin to calm down.

10. Socialize. I am probably the worst person at this, that’s until I go to an event, I meet wonderful people and then I enjoy it and feel happy for going. If you are not sociable, you could just be friendly. You may find interesting people to connect with and who knows you might even enjoy it.

11. Spend more time outdoors. Research shows that people who spend more time outdoors are happier.

If you’d like to learn more please download my free eBook “15 Healthy Habits For The Body” or book a free consultation with me.

January 7, 2015May 17, 2015

16 benefits of practicing deep breathing

1. Improves your cardiovascular system. Your heart is a muscle and, like any other muscle in your body, it can be developed through practice.

2. Removes stale air from your lungs.

3. Helps you heal faster by directing the breathe into areas of the body where there are injuries and illnesses.

4. Reduces your cardiovascular warm up at the start of your workout.

5. Reducing your recovery period after a workout.

6. Helps detoxify your body.

7. Helps you let go of tension in your body when you are tense, angry, scared or stressed, when your body constricts.

8. Relaxes the mind and brings clarity, focus, allows room for more creativity and productivity.

9. Relieves emotional struggles, calms you down in moments of panic and anxiety.

10. Strengthens the immune system. Oxygen travels through your bloodstream enriching your body to metabolise nutrients and vitamins.

11. Encourages good posture. When you slouch notice how your body closes up and your breathing becomes shallow. Then you take a deep breath, your chest comes out and your body naturally straightens.

12. Strengthens the lungs, they become healthy and powerful, a good tool to prevent respiratory problems.

13. Assists in weight control. More oxygen to your tissues burns up the excess fat more efficiently.

14. Boosts energy levels and improves stamina.

15. Improves cellular regeneration.

16. For runners, it helps you run faster, stronger and for longer

Here are 2 breathing exercises to get you started

Step 1. Make sure you breathe correctly, that means when you breathe in you make your stomach big, when you breathe out you pull your stomach in.

Step 2. Breathe in through your nose and out through your mouth

Step 3. The exercise. Let’s take 4 seconds as count for breathing in, out and holds. You can adjust them to fit your level:

Linear breathing technique

I use this as a warm up for the others.

– BREATHE IN through your nose on a count of 4
– BREATHE OUT through your nose on a count of 4.
– Repeat

Triangle breathing technique

Imagine an equilateral triangle. It has 3 equal sides

– BREATHE IN through your nose on a count of 4.
– HOLD on a count of 4.
– BREATHE OUT through your nose on a count of 4.
– No hold after this one. Repeat

Adjust the in breathe, out breathe and holds according to your level.

More advances breathing techniques are square, rectangle, therapeutic breathing.

If you’d like to learn more please download my free eBook “15 Healthy Habits For The Body” or book a free consultation with me.