Use the Power of Nature to Add New Life to Your Workout Routine
Taking a cue from Mother Nature can awaken a new spirit in your physical fitness.
By Rory Lipsky, L.Ac.

If you’re exercising as often as you should be, you’re probably well aware how difficult it is not to let your workouts become a monotonous grind. Staying motivated despite the routine can be the hardest part -- even though you know how good it is for you. Using the extra power of the seasons could be just the inspiration you need to turn average exercise into awesome physical fitness. By following the patterns you see in nature, you can improve different aspects of your training program so that you balance not only your body, but also your mind and spirit.

Listening to the natural rhythm
The planet earth goes through an annual transformation from spring -- in which new life pushes its way up to the sun; to summer -- where fruit bursts from the trees; to autumn -- when life begins to transition inwards; and finally to winter -- where all of nature retreats to the introspective depths. With a little knowledge, you can learn how to integrate yourself into this yearly dance, and use your exercise for more than just physical fitness, but for your mental and emotional fitness as well.

The spring is for stretching and lengthening, the organ to focus on is your liver, and the emotions to cultivate are faith, perserverance, and optimism.
The summer is for cardiovascular, the organ to focus on is your heart, and the emotions to cultivate are joy, freedom and compassion.
The autumn is for strength training, the organ to focus on is your lungs, and the emotions to cultivate are forgiveness, letting go, and seeing other people’s point of view.

The winter is for deep power and sprinting, the organ to focus on is your kidney, and the emotions to cultivate are will power, self-knowledge and courage.
While a balanced workout contains all of these aspects, by adjusting the proportions of your workout so that you favor the trait of the season you are in, you will align yourself with the movement of seasonal energy. This will also help to keep you focused on your entire being, and not just your physical body, while allowing you access to the extra energy of each specific season.

A typical workout
Let’s say you have four parts to your workout: Stretching and warmups (spring), cardio (summer), and two styles of weight workouts: repetitions of 10 for overall strength and definition (autumn) and heavier weight with less repetitions for power (winter). The typical workout is structured something like this: 15 minutes of stretching and warmup, 20 minutes on the stairmaster or treadmill, and 30 minutes of weight training. Typically the various parts are repeated with only minor variations. Consider these alternatives.

The seasonal spice
In the spring, try combining a yoga class before everyother workout with 30 minutes of concentrated muscle lenthening stretching before the other workouts. You can use this extra period of stretching to concentrate on bringing more flexibility to key areas that are often overlooked, such as your psoas muscles. In addition, as you stretch, meditatae on ways you can enhance and strengthen your perserverance towards your goals – both personal and career.
In the summer, try combining two 20 minute cardio exercises -- with the first slightly easier and the second more difficult. For example, do the first session on the treadmill then switch to a nice long swim. Use the extra energy of summer to bring health to your heart while meditating on appreciating and experiencing the joy of your life.

The autumn workout employees a mixture of resistance exercises, but you should only perform 10 repetitions of each. Doing 10 repetitions makes you breathe deeply and it is the right balance of strength and definition training to harmonize with the energy of autumn. Spend 40 minutes on a balance of exercises that work your muscles to a mid range burn. As you are pumping out those reps, think of forgiving people you feel have harmed you and use the emotional release to power you to breathe through those last tough reps.
The winter workout is all about power. Make sure you do exercises in which you have great form. It will do you no good to rush through your weight lifting if your form is sloppy. Learn each exercise well before you do it, and keep these things in mind: relax your neck and shoulders, make sure your feet are open and ready for action, take deep steady breathes and most of all keep your body in alignment. If you are using weights to work this energy do only five repetitions, where as if you are running or swimming do short burst sprints with only a short recovery time between sets. As you build your power, meditate on using it to have the courage to pursue your dreams.

As you begin to adjust your workout you may notice yourself going through different phases. It may be summer but you are really into stretching, or it may be winter but you really feel like doing extra cardio – that’s fine. The ultimate goal of working out with the seasons is to bring you into a deeper state of connectedness with your self and with nature. As you begin to be more in tune, allow yourself the freedom to adjust your workout program as you see fit – keeping ever mindful of the different energies of the changing seasons.