Finding Balance in Your Physical Activity

Balance is about bringing things into harmony, whether that be related to the right amount of work and leisure, the right amount of exercise and rest, or our physical equilibrium allowing us to stay upright. At Studio in the Heights we aim to strike a balance through our 3 circles: fitness, fuel, and focus (or eat clean, train hard, and live true).

When we talk about finding balance in physical activity, this is an opportunity to consider your body’s needs and to incorporate a variety of different activity types.

If you are a runner, and ONLY focus on running long distances, you run the risk of stress fractures or other injuries. If you ONLY focus on lifting heavy weights, you miss out on cardiovascular benefits from endurance training. Even within yoga there are many different styles and intensities.

Whether you are an elite athlete or just trying to maintain your functional fitness, finding balance in your physical activity and listening to your body are important.

The upcoming week’s SPT program helps you find balance by incorporating heavy lifts, single-leg work, emphasis on often-neglected muscle groups such as the hip abductors (your outer thigh), and core stability and power training.

In this way, we train our bodies to be strong, resilient, functional, and balanced and we can then begin to understand how the muscles all work together within your body, also known as your kinetic chain, to produce movement.

A good balance to the SPT classes we offer at the Studio are our yoga classes. Yoga is a mindful movement practice that can help with our mind-body connection and support our overall well-being. The highlighted yoga posture of the week is tree pose also known as Vriksasana in the sanskrit language used in yoga.

This posture incorporates strength and balance components as well as hip opening. Tree pose can help cultivate a sense of groundedness while strengthening key muscle groups, supporting good posture, enhancing balance and stability, and shifting our mental focus.

Considerations for finding balance in your physical activity:

Listen to your body

Change it up: try a mix of strength training, cardio, and yoga classes. Also vary the intensity of your activities

Rest and recharge: incorporate rest days to allow your body to recover, and consider adding meditation into the mix. Mindset is huge!

Add balance exercises: increase stability and decrease fall risk

This week’s blog post was written by:
Coach Julia and Yoga Therapist Alison