Salvere Blog: Holding Steady

by Salvere Health and Fitness

… Right where you are today. How many times do we take the time to simply be okay with how we exist in the present? Right here, that day, that moment.

Not trying to advance in a job,

not thinking I’ll do better tomorrow,

not feeling the need to lose weight,

not pressuring yourself that you should have done a harder workout,

not worrying if you did enough for others,

not planning to do more things during your day…

Take time to hold steady, simply be where you are at this moment and maybe, stay there for a few weeks. See how it feels to be A OK with being.

by Lisa Martin, owner and personal trainer at Salvere Health and Fitness. To contact, email lisa@SalvereHealthandFitness.com or call 410.707.0055.

We welcome your thoughts and ideas! Thank you for reading and staying the path to continuous growth opportunities and taking time for curiosity.

Salvere Blog: Yep, It’s Boring

by Salvere Health and Fitness

Ever felt the challenge to sticking to an exercise program because “it got boring”. As fitness professionals, we hear this frequently as to why someone stopped their regular program. Let’s take some time to peel this away as it’s got a few layers!

Rewind to a time when life presented more opportunities for movement all throughout the day. A time when the fitness profession did not even need to exist. Fast forward, fast forward to today when that movement exists but, for most, very little, we now “need” our workouts to actually move our bodies.
In a nutshell, we created an environment where instead of accumulating movement throughout the day, we now set aside time to move in a gym type environment and set parameters on what that “should” look like. Amount of cardio, strength, etc with artificial measurements of “progress” and “success”. Well, it was only a matter of time before that gets boring. Maybe not all of it but certainly some parts.

Stepping away from fitness for a moment, think about the process to learning something such as a new language, math, an instrument, or a sport. When you first start, how long do you spend on knowing the basics, building a solid foundation? Every time you add numbers, do you want to do it differently? Or kicking a soccer ball? Or speaking a new language?

Okay, now back to fitness. How often do you apply the same process to an exercise? As with any skill, there’s something to be said about spending a lot of time mastering the “basics” and then returning to them frequently. As professionals, how can we begin to teach fitness better, with this same philosophy?
Sometimes, in the name of making it “not boring”, we suggest exercises that are not appropriate. Sure, things might get repetitive, but how do we change our conversations and realize that doing same or similar movements matters?

How do we find “success” in taking time to build a solid foundation? Why do we expect something different from fitness then we do other things we learn in life? Maybe instead of “boring” it’s building a foundation? How do we find other ways such as connecting it with time spent with a group of friends or family members?

by Lisa Martin, owner and personal trainer at Salvere Health and Fitness. To contact, email lisa@SalvereHealthandFitness.com or call 410.707.0055.
We welcome your thoughts and ideas! Thank you for reading and staying the path to continuous growth opportunities and taking time for curiosity.

Salvere Blog: Growing Carrots

by Salvere Health and Fitness

Over the past year, more people picked up gardening as a hobby since it provided a safe environment and something to do outside the house. I happen to be one of those people who returned to gardening, something we did quite regularly growing up as a family. (Although I bet my parents wouldn’t say we did it happily or voluntarily!) This year, two of my nephews decided to join us and it started some interesting conversations surrounding growth and patience through their initial planting of carrots.

The planting of these carrot seeds took place in March and here we sit, the beginning of June, yet to actually eat a carrot. What a lesson in growth! From a seed in March to teeny tiny sprouts in April to very big stems in June with still more to go.

What if we learned from the way a carrot or any other plant goes through the life cycle? A planted seed needs to be watered and tended, a conscious paying attention to what it needs at various growth stages. What if it attracts a pest or fungus, something to impact growth? What would you do to give it proper care? No matter when you want the carrot to be ready, it will grow at its own pace. Regardless of how much you want the carrot, it will not magically appear.

What if we provided space for different attention needs at different times, awareness of various phases of growth of self and others as well as appropriate expectations? How do we learn to appreciate the rainy days, as we need those just as we need the sunshine?

How about being present in each phase of growth and not trying to be somewhere else.

Pondering …………………

by Lisa Martin, owner and personal trainer at Salvere Health and Fitness. To contact, email lisa@SalvereHealthandFitness.com or call 410.707.0055.

We welcome your thoughts and ideas! Thank you for reading and staying the path to continuous growth opportunities and taking time for curiosity.

Salvere Blog: What Makes it Social Media Worthy?

by Salvere Health and Fitness

Oh, social media! So many pieces and parts to the impact and role of Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and the like in our society today. How do you decide what makes the cut for a social media post? What impact do other posts have on you?

Process the various pictures and messages posted regarding exercise, fitness, and nutrition. What do you usually see people post about? How do you find yourself responding both internally and publicly with a comment or “like”?

I notice that I see posts more often of a sweaty workout, a challenging run or bike ride or exercise with friends then I see someone post a picture of themselves stretching (not doing yoga) or doing mobility or balance and stability work. It also seems to be more often posts “making progress” then when struggling with something on the journey where posts become less and less.

How do we start to create more balance in what gets shared to the world? How do we start to make all the components of movement equally post worthy??

Pondering …………………

by Lisa Martin, owner and personal trainer at Salvere Health and Fitness. To contact, email lisa@SalvereHealthandFitness.com or call 410.707.0055.
We welcome your thoughts and ideas! Thank you for reading and taking the steps to become a healthier YOU.

Salvere Blog: Participation Trophies

by Salvere Health and Fitness

Okay, stay with me on this one. There’s often random one liners thrown out to blame something in our society on “participation trophies” so I ask you to read this one with an open mind and take time for introspection/reflection and even some philosophical processing.

So, in nutshell, in more recent times society started giving mostly everyone something for simply participating in activities such as sports and the like instead of only rewarding the winners. I know there is more to it and I wanted to spend time on a mindset shift, not the nuances of a definition or the details here.

What if we talked about participation trophies differently? Thinking about life and what happens for many of us on a day-to-day basis. How many of you experience something massively different in your daily work/life tasks? Even if someone wins a sports championship, award or huge promotion, what led them to that? What happens the days and weeks following the “big win”? For the most part, it’s the small daily activities, showing up day after day and doing our best.

Sometimes the hardest workers never win the championship and conversely, sometimes the ones with natural ability who don’t work as hard find themselves winning time after time. Sometimes the hyperfocus on winning causes cheating and discourse, just look at the news regarding the sidelines of youth sports and rules placed on parents because of unkind behavior or even coaches that demoralize their players due to the overemphasis on winning.

Now, imagine if in our conversations with “participation trophies” we talked about the importance of the daily showing up to do the simple things that add up. What if we talked more about how to appreciate the day to day, the stitching together of small actions to build on each other from week to week, month to month and year to year?  Maybe “participation trophies” can be the key to developing a greater perspective on navigating life and appreciating more when it comes to the “little” things?

Pondering …………………

by Lisa Martin, owner and personal trainer at Salvere Health and Fitness. To contact, email lisa@SalvereHealthandFitness.com or call 410.707.0055.
We welcome your thoughts and ideas! Thank you for reading and taking the steps to become a healthier YOU.

Salvere Blog: Virtual World “Stretch” #4 – Hips and Hamstrings

by Salvere Health and Fitness

How’s everyone doing? What stretches and movements did you experiment with other the last few weeks? Hows your body feeling? Do a little check in each day to see how and what impacts your body. Email us if you feel something specific and we can work to include it in our series.

In this blog, we will start to investigate the hips and hamstrings. Sitting creates many different opportunities for our body to be in awkward positions. Typically the hips and knees bend in close to a 90 degree angle. This causes the hamstrings (on the back of the leg) and hip flexors (on the front of the hips) to hang out in a shortened position. Then add in crossing the legs, wearing a wallet in the back pocket or the feet not touching the floor and other alignment issues appear.

For this week, lets keep things simple. Take time every hour or two to simply stand up. Think of what a give this gives those hips and hamstrings! When you stand up, take a few minutes to swing the legs back and forth, one at a time, march in place and maybe even a few circles of the leg out to the sides. This will help to loosen the muscles and give them a chance to stretch out.

As various parts of your body start to “feel” pay attention. Give them some TLC and you will do wonders for keeping your alignment going in a positive direction.

by Lisa Martin, owner and personal trainer at Salvere Health and Fitness. To contact, email lisa@SalvereHealthandFitness.com or call 410.707.0055.
We welcome your thoughts and ideas! Thank you for reading and taking the steps to become a healthier YOU.

Salvere Blog: Identity and Labels

by Salvere Health and Fitness

How do you identify yourself and how many labels do you use to define what makes you, you? Society comes with so many – mother, father, sister, brother, aunt, uncle, cousin, niece, nephew, male, female, compassionate, friendly, introvert, reader, quilter, cis, nonbinary, Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, Democrat, Republican, athletic, biker, dancer, walker, gay, straight … And the list goes on.

If you think of all the various identities and labels, which do you focus on within yourself? Who gave you those labels? How much does society impact how important or unimportant each becomes? Do some get more attention and focus then others?

Thinking about how often one piece of the many things that make us each unique gets lots of attention, both internally and externally, while others stay in the background. How often do we hyperfocus on some external and more superficial (either with ourselves or with others) label/identity while the core of what makes us beautifully, complex humans stays hidden?

Think about how and what you “see” in yourself and others. Is there a something less obvious that you can get to know a little better? Back to that curiosity and being interested to learn more about someone, even if that someone is you!

by Lisa Martin, owner and personal trainer at Salvere Health and Fitness. To contact, email lisa@SalvereHealthandFitness.com or call 410.707.0055.
We welcome your thoughts and ideas! Thank you for reading and taking the steps to become a healthier YOU.

Salvere Blog: A Microscope

by Salvere Health and Fitness

We put an object under a microscope in order to examine a small segment by focusing on very tiny details. Sometimes we need to focus on the little details to understand how something works and/or to better understand the components. At what point do we take away the microscope and examine things as the bigger, whole?

In life, how often do things go under a microscope, focusing on the tiny details? Could be learning something new, fitness, raising children, a career, or a relationship.

How often do we take time to step back from the little details and examine the whole picture?

Take time to step away from the details and tasks to see the accomplishments and growth you make along the way.

by Lisa Martin, owner and personal trainer at Salvere Health and Fitness. To contact, email lisa@SalvereHealthandFitness.com or call 410.707.0055.

We welcome your thoughts and ideas! Thank you for reading and taking the steps to become a healthier YOU.

Salvere Blog: Not Knowing and Learning New Things

by Salvere Health and Fitness

When presented with an opportunity to do something new – do you feel excited or overwhelmed? Does it matter the topic of the new “thing”? Do you change your expectation of yourself depending on the topic? For example, if you start an education program or read on an unfamiliar topic, do you give yourself more patience to spend learning? What about a new skill?

In fitness, we present new skills and movements fairly regularly. We demonstrate and talk about the skill then expect that’s all we need to learn how it’s done. This could be something complex like the mountain climber or something simple such as the squat. As fitness professionals, we can approach teaching a new movement in the same way we teach math or learning a foreign language.

Breaking down the squat first. Feet hip width apart, keep your head up and sit back, don’t let your knees go over your toes. Sound somewhat familiar? Sometimes the knees do actually go over the toes and sometimes we need to address alignment from sitting, crossing the legs or even wearing a wallet in the back pocket. What if somewhere feels painful? What if it’s the first time doing them?

Now, after looking at the squat, imagine all we need to learn before we attempt the mountain climber. Starting with a high plank as the first step. Once you feel comfortable with a high plank, try lifting a leg or arm. Then build into a moving your knee in towards your elbow slowly. Can you do it without dropping into your lower back? This process might take a year or more to learn. (FWIW — As a trainer, I don’t include mountain climbers in my own workouts and I’ve been exercising for decades!)

Do you look at not knowing as something exciting or overwhelming or scary or something else? Lets experiment with applying curiosity to movement and giving yourself patience and grace to take the time to let your body guide you through progressions. Learning also can be through letting go.

by Lisa Martin, owner and personal trainer at Salvere Health and Fitness. To contact, email lisa@SalvereHealthandFitness.com or call 410.707.0055. We welcome your thoughts and ideas! Thank you for reading and taking the steps to become a healthier YOU.

Salvere Blog: Getting the Most Out of Fitness Videos

by Salvere Health and Fitness

Peloton, Beachbody or any other recorded workout (or even a live one with limited personalized guidance) or virtual workout provides a great resource for convenient exercise options. How do you know if the program fits your body, life and needs?

You take charge of your routine. Simply because the instructor says do it, you always hold on to the option to choose something else.

Listen to your body and be present throughout the workout. What feels like a stretch? What feels like a strength challenge? What feels like it gets your heart and lungs pumping? Does a movement feel not quite comfortable or cause pain?

Pick an option that fits what your inside body feels like that day and time. Framework with flexibility, remember? Take 5 quiet minutes prior to selecting your video to really tune into what feels. Work to suspend what you think you “should” do or what someone else told you to do.

Think through what kind of time you can set aside and what would balance out your movement from the days prior to the days ahead.

Finally, start to develop a sense of curiosity and playfulness with your movement time. What feels and where? Does your right leg feel different then your left? How about your hands, where do you notice the pressure?

Think about how to develop a child like sense of curiosity with movement. Pick something that you might not normally do. Challenge yourself to do something because you want to not because you think you “should” and get in touch with your intuition. Let us know how it goes!

by Lisa Martin, owner and personal trainer at Salvere Health and Fitness. To contact, email lisa@SalvereHealthandFitness.com or call 410.707.0055. We welcome your thoughts and ideas! Thank you for reading and taking the steps to become a healthier YOU.