Don’t Just Work Out – Get High!

Ah life.  It keeps going and spinning whether you are flowing with it or not.

I had been training with a workaholic client for some time.  He made great strides in strength and cardiovascular ability, but his stress response was keeping fat on his frame.(Chronic stress keeps cortisol levels high leading to excess abdominal fat storage.)

His body was just waiting for that lion to leap out at him, bite into his fatty deposits and release him once realized this was not healthy prey.

On top of this,  his persona was protecting him from sharing and opening up about the feelings and emotions he had been experiencing.

I wanted to help.  The controlled stress of weight lifting was taking away life force from him and adding more to his stress bank.  Soooo….

I got him high!

I lit up the dutchie and passed it to the left hand side.  He breathed in and breathed out and released all that pent up stress.

Lawlz – if only.

Instead, I laid out the yoga mat.  I put the foam roller in front of him and had him proceed to break up any trigger points in his tight muscles.  (View this previous article/video if you have no clue what I’m talking about).

After releasing the muscles, we did light stretching and joint mobility.  All the while, making sure to breathe in and breathe out.

Finally, we ended with a 5 minute body scan meditation.

Starting on the awareness at the toes, we moved on up to the ankles, knees, and so on.

At first, his belly breaths were shallow and rapid.

When the awareness was brought to the belly and rib cage, I was instructing him to allow the belly to rise with the in-breath and fall back down with the out-breath.

By the end of the five minutes, his breath had normalized.  The rhythm of life had slowed and the belly was rising instead of predominately in the chest.

As I asked how he was, he responded back in a much deeper tone and smiled.

Fast forward to our next session, Stressy Pants had turned into Jokey Pants.  He was smiling, talking about the previous days, and overall had digressed from the loop of stress.

If you want a great work out, I can give you that.

If you want a great yoga session, I can help you with that.

And if you want to get high, I would gladly help you achieve that as well.

To your health,

Trey