Episode 260: Exercising for Energy
In this episode, you’ll hear:
A listener questions how to shift their workouts to align with their Human Design
How Human Design has influenced my evolving relationship with exercise
Practical ways to incorporate movement and exercise into your daily routine and my favorite resource for workouts
Listen to the Episode:
“Exercise can be fun! My big thing now is to make exercise feel like play. This mindset shift instantly changes the tone of the experience, and how we think about moving impacts our nervous system and how our body processes movement. ”
Read the Transcript:
Hello there, my friend, and welcome to The Live Fab Life Podcast. I'm your host, Naomi Nakamura.
The last episode, Episode 259, was about eating for energy.
Today I'm answering a listener's question about exercising, so consider this a conversation on exercising for energy - a follow-up to eating for energy.
A listener asked:
“Before I embodied my “Projector-ness,” I used to do a lot of sports like running, which I was always exhausted from. Since I now live a slower lifestyle and do gentler exercises, I've gained a lot of weight and wondering if other Projectors experienced this as well. Also, which exercises work best for projectors?”
I have a lot of thoughts on this.
My first response is to ask, “What is the goal of exercising? There’s no right or wrong answer here - and goals evolve and change over time. Thinking back to my own story, before 2004, there wasn’t a single thing about my lifestyle that was healthy in any way, shape, or form. Exercising wasn’t even on my radar, nor was it something I enjoyed in my formative years.
But a new gym opened up in my community, and so I joined and worked with a personal trainer with the goal of “get healthier,” which, at that time to me, meant losing weight. This was what my perception of “being healthy” was.
Of course, now that I know what I know, we know that weight isn’t the only indicator of good or ill health. This reminds me of a conversation I had with a functional nutritionist I worked with in the past, who, to be honest, wasn't very good, but she once said something to me that has stuck with me over the years. She said that weight can be a protector, and what are our bodies protecting us from?
But, back to my point, when I joined a gym in 2004, that was my first effort to live a healthy lifestyle with my goal to lose weight.
I held that goal for a few years, but eventually my goal shifted to athletic performance when I got into long-distance endurance training for 5ks, half-marathons, and marathons before I knew it. My exercise goals became entirely performance-focused until I overtrained.
So, my exercise goals had to shift again to find a balance between healing from everything my body was suffering from and trying to maintain the exercise I had been doing during athletic training.
This was actually the genesis for Live FAB Life. The FAB stands for fit and balanced
But after a lot of effort, I realized that it was impossible to heal from adrenal dysfunction and maintain the same level of training that put me in that state. Something had to give because if nothing changes, nothing changes.
It was a hard pill to swallow because so much of my identity, social community, friends, and daily life were tied to that lifestyle - marathon training is an entire lifestyle.
And for someone with Gate 5 in my design, which is the gift of timing the rhythm and rituals of life (Episode 247), it was a significant change that I was forced to make.
Since then, it was a trial-and-error process of what my body could tolerate while healing.
Through that experimental process came a lot of guilt and disappointment because I constantly compared my present self to my past self. I’d think, “Wow, I can't even run a mile when I used to run 26.2 miles.” It was a lot to deal with.
Eventually, Human Design entered my life, and learning that I was Projector and what it meant to be a Projector - well, suddenly, everything made so much sense to me —
Why my body never cooperated during training cycles? I was always hurt. I was always injured. It was as if my body couldn’t withstand the rigors of training. I used to beat myself up a lot about it. I’d compare myself to others and wonder why they could make it through a training cycle without any injuries or why, despite feeling like I trained so hard, I wasn't fast too.
It felt like I had to work harder for everything, and my body couldn't withstand it. I was self-conscious about it, and I felt that I was less of an athlete and, ultimately, less of a person because, as I said, my identity and life were tied to this lifestyle.
It has that much of an effect on my self-esteem and self-worth.
So, that’s a long way of asking the question - “What’s the goal of your training?”
So, let’s get back to answering this question.
While this question is specifically about Projectors, it also applies to all non-Sacrals, aka those with Undefined Sacral centers, because the undefined Sacral center is really why Projectors need to prioritize rest.
Manifestors and Reflectors also have undefined Sacral centers, so I want to include them too.
So, back to the question which I want to break down and answer piece-by-piece.
First:
“Since living a slower lifestyle and doing gentler exercises, I've gained much weight. I'm wondering if other non-Sacrals have experienced this as well.”
Let’s talk about the weight gain part of the question.
If weight gain is solely your why for exercise, then calories in /calories out matter, and you’ll probably want to look into making modifications to what you eat while also remembering that sleep, rest, and stress are also factors.
But yes, as my motivation for exercising shifted and I stopped running dozens and dozens of miles a week, I was no longer at a caloric deficit, and I did gain weight.
Now I’m not going to get into the details of that because it's a whole ‘nother conversation to have, and if you want me to, let me know, and we can have future episodes on this, but I will say that even though I gained weight, my body composition was very different than before when I had just started exercising, as I shared earlier.
With exercise, my mindset has shifted from weight loss and athletic training and performance to now - movement.
How can I move my body to feel good? How can I move my body to feel loose and limber?
Maybe it’s because I’m older; I feel aches and pains, but they are different than when I was training. I never used to have backaches, but almost every morning, I wake up with a stiff back.
So now my exercise goals have evolved again, from becoming healthy and losing weight to training and athletic performance and to keep moving my body to feel better.
Now, I want to share ideas for solutions. How do we move our bodies to feel better?
Well, first, movement doesn't have to be about exercise.
Take your dog for walks. I walk my dog, Coco Pop, three times a day. And even on days that she can’t walk much because she has arthritis, I have a little stroller for her, so we still get out and go for our walks. So, I'm still moving even if it’s a rest day.
Instead of driving to places, you can also walk or bike.
Exercise can also be fun, and my big thing now is to try to make exercise feel like play. Just this mindset shift instantly changes the tone of the experience, and exercise feels fun and joyful, whereas working out to exercise feels like work - it’s another chore to be done.
And this shift in mindset and how we think about moving impacts our nervous system and how our body processes movement.
Remember, exercise is a stressor on the body, and it’s up to us whether it’s positive or negative.
Okay, so one - movement doesn't have to be an exercise - go for walks, walk your dog, walk or bike instead of drive - make exercise about play.
Now, what about running?
Clients have asked me, ”Because I'm a non-Sacral, does this mean I can't run? Does this mean that I can't train for marathons?”
As I’ve said before, I don't believe that Human Design limits us.
So, if you're a Projector, Manifestor, Reflector with an undefined Cacral center, you can train for a marathon.
But it’s tricky.
You’ll need to release any perceptions on what training for a marathon should look like. I believe it’ll require an unconventional approach to training.
Unlike most people who typically train for races, it’ll take a highly customized training plan.
You’ll have to let go of the perception that not following your plan means you’re not ready for race day or won’t be able to perform your best on race day.
And training for a race is something that can't be done regularly.
I was always on a training plan, usually 16-week training cycles. Then I’d have the event I was training for and take 1-2 weeks rest - max - and then start another training cycle.
This isn’t sustainable. Endurance training can be done once a year or maybe even once every other year, but not constantly.
The most critical aspect of training will be managing your overall energy, which goes beyond your training plan. Managing your energy requires prioritizing rest and sleep, which are not the same things. It’d be about prioritizing eating for energy and caring for yourself by addressing energy leaks.
“Addressing energy leaks” are multiple episodes for another day, but what I mean by it is not wasting energy on unnecessary things.
For example, hate following and allowing yourself to consume content that irritates you. This is wasted energy. Unfollow these accounts, even if it's friends or relatives. This establishes a boundary for what you allow your brain to consume.
It's protecting your energy from things that drain it - addressing energy leaks.
All of this requires commitment which is also a fine balance because you can easily become obsessive about whether you’re maintaining the line. I know because I've been there myself.
But you know what? Most of you probably think, “Naomi, you're crazy; I don't want to run marathons. I just want to know what everyday exercise can look like, right? Practical approaches?
According to my acupuncturist, your heart rate still needs to be raised to keep your qi moving and prevent stagnation because, in Chinese medicine, stagnation causes health problems.
The best way to raise my heart rate and keep my qi moving is doing HIIT workouts - high-intensity interval training, even for 10 minutes.
This is an actual HIIT workout with lots of jumping, kickboxing, rowing, and cardio for as short as 10 minutes, not for an hour. HIIT workouts are supposed to be short - high in intensity but short in intervals. It’s a very time-efficient way of exercising.
So if you’re used to running and miss that runner's high, try a 10-20 minute HIIT workout.
Another type of cardio that you can do is dancing.
Dancing is one of the ultimate ways of making exercise fun and about play!
I’m not a dancer, and you won’t catch me dancing in the presence of another human being, but in the comfort of my home, sure! Dance workouts are so much fun, especially when you have a playlist with love for all your favorite songs! It doesn't feel like exercise; your heart rate will spike up there!
So take long or short walks, do HIIT workouts, and dance!
If you want to run for fun, it is a longer-ish slow run while you take in the scenes around you. Hopefully, you’re running outside, or even if you’re indoors on a treadmill, I hope you’re watching a favorite show or listening to the most epic playlist. It’s about managing our stress - managing our energy, so why not bring some fun and play into your workout? I think can have a monumental impact on how you absorb the exercise.
And I’m sure you’re aware, but running can also be done HIIT workout style. Or if that’s not your cup of tea, then a tempo run - a 1-2 mile tempo run, at a 10-minute mile can be done in 20-min and can still give you a runner's high without leaving you exhausted.
Strength training is also great for non-Sacrals because you can structure a strength training workout to be slow or to have some cardio mixed in as well that’s not the focal point of the workout.
Swimming is the most perfect exercise because the water provides resistance training while raising your heart rate without any impact on your body, unlike pounding the pavement on a run.
If a perfect workout exists, it's swimming.
These days I really focus my exercise time on yoga and pilates.
For the first time in 18 years, I don’t have a gym membership. Instead, I subscribe to Apple Fitness Plus, which I’ve been a subscriber to since it launched in the early days of the pandemic.
I’m not affiliated with Apple Fitness Plus in any way other than as a subscriber who loves it.
It's an app you can download to your iPad, phone, or Apple TV.
There’s a team of Apple-employed trainers, and every week, new HIIT, kickboxing, dancing, core and strength training, rowing, cycling, treadmill running, yoga, Pilates, and even meditation workouts are uploaded to the app - every Sunday night!
The workouts vary from 5-45 minutes, depending on the modality, and iTunes power them, and of course, can be done anywhere - I do them in the comfort of my own home.
The playlists are awesome, and the trainers and coaches are the best - I follow many of them on Instagram, where they provide so much motivation and encouragement.
I went from paying $180/month for my gym that I went to 2-3 times a week, where I had to motivate myself and create my workouts, to paying $80/year and having a team of coaches to motivate me and take the thinking out it for me.
If you're someone who is trying to embody your design, if you have some health issues that require you to change how you exercise, or simply if you’re looking for fresh ideas or a different approach, Apple Fitness Plus has something for everyone, no matter your goals, fitness levels or motivations.
There's something for however your body is feeling on any given day. And if you don’t feel like exercising, you do a quick meditation to feel calm and grounded.
There's so much more we can go into just from this question alone. Still, I will end it here for today and encourage you to rethink your workouts and relationship with working out and reflect on why you exercise - what’s your goal right now because we’re allowed to have our goals shift, evolve and change.
There's a time and season for everything; wherever you are, there are options and solutions.
Thank you so much for listening, and I'll see you right back to you again next time. Bye for now!
Naomi Nakamura is a Health x Human Design coach who’s creating a healthier society through aligned energy.
She blends a bespoke mix of Functional Nutrition and Human Design to help others shift into alignment to leverage and correctly manage their energy to support their body, mind, and spirit.
She believes that when we embrace our authenticity and lean into our bio-individuality, we naturally live a life of freedom, empowerment, and optimal health.
Naomi resides in the San Francisco Bay Area and can often be found exploring the area with her puppy girl, Coco Pop!
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