Book Summary: Fit Soul, Fit Body; 9 Keys to a Healthier, Happier You
This was a very interesting book.
Mark Allen, 6 time Ironman winner, coauthors the book with his spiritual guide, Brant Secunda, of the Huichol Indian tradition of Mexico. Mark found his spiritual teacher, Brant, when Brant’s grandfather, Don Jose, came to him as a vision while racing the Ironman World Championships in Kona, Hawaii. Mark was struggling with ego, fear, failure and many other aspects of racing, particularly at the elite pro level. He won that race but then sought out the person he had seen while racing and met Brant in the process of that search. Mark started studying with Brant and was able to train his spirit as well as his body. He credits Brant for helping him reconnect with nature and the spiritual side of him that allowed him train as a whole person, not just his body. He fully believes that he would not have won his 6th Ironman at 37 years of age if he had not met and studied with Brant. Mark still studies with Brant and has written this book to try and help you reconnect with your “soul” or spiritual side of things, as well as, giving some sound advice for people of all ages, all fitness levels on how to train your body.
The first part of the book is about the Fit Soul. Exercises guide you through connecting to nature, quieting your mind, conquering stress, transforming fear, anger and jealousy and honoring yourself. I found the exercises to be very easy to follow and grounded in simple “taking care of yourself” methods. There is a lot of visualizing of how you are connected to everything around you and how to feel and cultivate this connection to all things and all people, especially Nature.
As it says in the title, has 9 keys:
Key #1: Balance Your responses to the Six Types of Stress
This chapter discusses the Emotional, Sleep Deprivation Induced, Dietary, Physical, Chemical, and Inflammation Induced Stress. How each are different and gives solid advice on how to reduce these different kinds of stress.
Key #2: Quiet the Mind
Using laughter to quiet the mind was the most significant guidance given here. A good laugh really can do wonders.
Key #3: Transform Fear, Anger, and Jealousy
All of these negative emotions really sap your energy. Discussion about how to turn these emotions, if you are struggling with them, into positive, forward momentum.
Key #4: Reconnect with the Natural World
All things are connected. The more you can connect with Nature, whether it is in your back yard, or down the shore, or in the mountains, the more you can honor this connection and draw strength from it.
Key #5: Honor Yourself
This was a good chapter. Many times athletes come at exercise from almost a punishment, no pain-no gain, point of view. This was a very good chapter in how to listen to yourself, and your body when you might need to rest or even to challenge yourself but above all, to do everything from the place of honor rather than self-hate or dislike.
Key #6: Know and Set the Quest
You have to have a goal. Whether it is a weight loss goal, a completion of a race goal. You have to know what you are working towards. This chapter reinforced something that I have always held. If I don’t have something I am excited about and working towards, my motivation flags and I stop doing things. Having a goal, reasonable yet challenging, is something everyone needs.
Key #7: Live What You Ask For
If you are asking for a healthier weight, do not eat doughnuts. Make choices that are in line with your goals. You cannot complete a race by not ever having trained. It does seem obvious but many people feel their lives and choices are beyond their control. This chapter was about how you can set your intention, identify that you have control over your choices and how to make the right choices.
Key #8: Slow Down to Get Faster
This is a concept that I have done a lot of thinking about especially as it relates to aerobic fitness. If you train slowly, do you just get slow or are you building a good foundation? There is a fine balance between complacency and good fitness for sure. But if you are always going hard, you are tearing your body and mind down and are probably not exercising from the stand point of Honor as was discussed earlier. And ultimately, your body only gets stronger in its recovery. You have to stress your body appropriately and then allow it to get stronger by resting.
Key #9: Invite Your Inner Cave Man to the Table
This chapter was about how corn, beans, rice and vegetables can provide you with almost everything you need for a healthy diet. It is always good to remember that more complex diets or fad diets really are not grounded in anything healthy - they are just marketing. Getting back to simple foods is very satisfying. You need a lot less than you think you. So as I think about everything I have eaten over the holidays, it is nice to think about simple salsa, corn and rice on some greens!!
The later part of the book is the Fit Body part. Exercises are pictured and described. Different levels of exercise plans are outlined for the week. If you are just getting into exercise, there are descriptions and a plan to follow. And there are plans to follow for increased fitness and performance fitness increases. There aren’t any huge surprises here so if anyone is looking for the key to winning an Ironman, it isn’t here. But if your parents are having trouble getting back outside, there is sound advice to help them get out there and not get injured. I always learn something by looking at different training plans so you might come up with a new way of looking at things.
Everything in the book is nicely tied together, Fit Soul, Fit Body. Good mental exercises. Simple, almost common sense advice about how to reduce stress, eat healthier, live simply and workout as hard as you are ready to.
I enjoyed this book; it is different and as such, very refreshing to not read the same stress reduction techniques and to have a “spiritual” guidance backed up with scientific facts in the same paragraph. I liked that everything was consistent and tied together with the same kind of message, even up to the Performance Fitness plans. I think in today’s society, it took a lot of courage to write a book like this - definitely not main stream exercise physiology or thought process. So for some, it may just be too “out there.” But maybe not, and maybe you know someone that is tired of the same rhetoric and might be open to some different mind-body exercises. This book is definitely not for everyone but it is a good book for those that are looking for a different kind of message.