Holistic health reaches beyond the physical body, encompassing emotional, mental, social, spiritual, environmental, occupational, and intellectual health. A holistically healthy outlook views and supports each human body as a brilliantly designed integrated system. Fortunately, our fitness industry now formally recognizes this as a veritable need.
A Novel Approach to Health
Holistic fitness addresses one’s whole being, not simply the body in which it is housed. It aims to launch the client towards wellness, achieving fitness through various mental, spiritual, and environmental avenues.
Holistic coaches/trainers weave fitness, nutrition, appropriate rest, environmental awareness and mindfulness into their programs. Such an integrative approach holds the potential to elevate one’s body to an overall healthier level.
The basis of holistic health upholds the ideal of sustainability rather than merely transformation. This approach means acknowledging and attending to the myriad of factors that affect one’s overall wellness: diet, exercise, environment, spiritual and emotional health. Once these needs are met and merged with daily lifestyles, clients often report an increase in energy coupled with an improved mental outlook.
Consider each of these tenets as an integrated unit:
- Physical health: refers to your body’s overall physical condition and includes fitness, nutrition, and energy.
- Spiritual health: ability to discover purpose, value, and meaning in life; engaging in activities that align with core values
- Intellectual health: mental acuity, curiosity, and commitment to lifelong learning; keeping the mind engaged and active
- Social health: encompasses interactions with others, fostering meaningful relationships, and actively contributing to the community
- Emotional health: understanding/respecting one’s feelings, values, and attitudes while also appreciating those of others.
Connecting With Oneself
A strong mind-body connection can make a significant difference in one’s approach overall health. By striving to connect mindfulness of surroundings and bodily awareness, clients experience a newfound ability and commitment to their strength and training practices.
Functioning within a holistic approach encourages one to embrace nature and illness prevention; over time and with dedication, one often discovers that by centering on what we need for our minds and bodies to thrive, and not so much on wants and desires, what emerges reflects a more minimalistic approach to living.
Engaging with One’s Meals
Mindful food consumption helps individuals gain control their eating habits, which almost always paves the way for healthier bodies. Some of the fundamental aspects of mindful eating include:
- Removing/tuning our distractions during meals
- Recognizing/paying attention to physical hunger cues
- Learning the differences between true hunger and food triggers
- Coping strategies for eliminating food-related guilt/shame/anxiety
- Eating appropriately to fuel activities and serve overall health while also appreciating food flavors
- Noticing any links between feelings and food
Emotional/Spiritual Health and the Environment
Emotional health, of equal importance to our physical health, affects everything from one’s decision NOT to hit the snooze button to food choices and physical energy. It also facilitates our ability to manage stress more effectively, thereby eliminating many disease risks.
Spiritual wellness defines and strengthens the connection between mind and body, often incorporating belief in a higher power too. As a result, living a spiritual life at any level leads to a healthy body.
Here are some key attributes of spiritual wellness:
- Carving out some “alone time”
- Journaling
- Having clarity in regard to outlook, morals and life values/purpose to one’s life
- Advocating for the welfare of others
- Pursuing personal tenets of a sustainable healthy lifestyle
Every day, we recognize that a positive work environment can foster creativity and productivity. Of equal importance, our natural surroundings –clean water, healthful food sources, unpolluted fresh air – also contribute to overall wellness and a clear-headed, positive approach to life.
Holistic Gym Time
Having a plan is the difference between “exercising” and “training.” Holistic fitness, therefore, involves a significant amount of forethought, followed by a willingness to train all the different parts of the muscle cell. No single mode of training can adequately force adaptive developments in all parts of the muscle cell. For example, in order to maximize the size of muscle tissue/cells, one must incorporate and challenge the body with a variety of “stressors”, as addressed in the overload principle. Holistic training, therefore, takes into account the entirety of a muscle cell rather than just parts of it. We can think of this as a microcosm of treating the entire human body and not merely the musculoskeletal system.
To bring this notion into perspective, think about purely hypertrophy-driven training sessions, involving 4 sets of 12 repetitions. If we only train in this manner, we effectively neglect other aspects of the cell (building endurance, explosive training, fast-twitch and slow-twitch muscle fibers, etc.). A prudent holistic trainer designs a program to include high and low repetitions, heavy and light weights, slow repetitions and explosive sets.
Such a training paradigm will lead to a more complete and ultimately stronger cellular makeover; however, doing such an in-depth and varied workout tends to feel extremely high in intensity. For this reason, holistic trainers suggest performing such workouts only once every 7-10 days. The workout proceeds from exercise to exercise in one “giant set” consisting of 10-12 sets, with no rest intervals. Upon completion, the client then rests 3-5 minutes before engaging in the entire giant set once more.
How to Select a Holistic Coach
A holistic health practitioner/coach/trainer helps clients achieve a better sense of well-being by considering all aspects that contribute to their health. They grasp how the aforementioned tenets interact with each other to contribute to an overall sense of well-being.
Such individuals typically undergo specialized training in any of the following holistic healing modalities:
- Acupuncture
- Aromatherapy/ Ayurveda
- Biofeedback therapy
- Chiropractic
- Herbalism
- Holistic nutrition/medicine
- Massage therapy
- Reiki (energy movement)
- Tai Chi/Qigong/yoga/Pilates
Holistic Health and Fitness (H2F) System
The applications of holistic health have found a place within the United States Military as well. The Holistic Health and Fitness (H2F) System reflects the army’s new approach, after addressing major issues arising from years of wars/casualties. By empowering soldiers to care for themselves in a variety of holistic realms, the Military hopes to shift from a culture of reaction into one of prevention. This in turn enables soldiers to stay ahead of/thwart health problems and avoid illness/injury on the battlefields.
Points To Ponder
We recognize that the concept of “wellness” lacks a cookie-cutter definition. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), “Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social wellbeing and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.”
Here are some simple ways to improve your daily mental outlook/ emotional health:
- Positive self-talk can reduce stress and improve the immune system.
- As we age, our brains naturally increase in rigidity. Learning about /participating in new and challenging experiences encourages neuroplasticity, which fights dementia.
- By reframing a challenging situation and allowing oneself to see life in a more positive light, gratitude naturally follows. Instead of seeing the challenge as a setback, try welcoming the opportunity to grow.
- Slow down and live in the present moment.
Holistically healthy individuals need not achieve a 100% harmonious balance between all five dimensions at any given time. Rather, this concept encourages one to strive for an authentic and individual “happy place”.
References:
https://www.healthylife.com.au/learn/5-dimensions-of-health-and-wellbeing#
Cathleen Kronemer is an NFPT CEC writer and a member of the NFPT Certification Council Board. Cathleen is an AFAA-Certified Group Exercise Instructor, NSCA-Certified Personal Trainer, ACE-Certified Health Coach, former competitive bodybuilder and freelance writer. She is employed at the Jewish Community Center in St. Louis, MO. Cathleen has been involved in the fitness industry for over three decades. Feel free to contact her at trainhard@kronemer.com. She welcomes your feedback and your comments!
