I highly recommend you read this article writen by Jenn Pattee, owner of Basic Training SF. I’m reposting it here in full to make it easy for you. This article gets to the core of why movement is so meaningful in life and why working out with a group has benefits that transcends calories, reps and form. Enjoy!
By Jenn Pattee
This week I found myself really struggling when people asked me to describe Basic Training. One person worked for a magazine, the other was a human resources director.
The magazine really wanted some kind of hook for the reader. A gimmick. Something new. The HR director was focused on the “what.” Tell me what you do, how is it different, how much does it cost, how do people sign up. I felt like I completely failed to get to the heart of what Basic Training is about in both conversations. What makes me leap out if bed to teach class every day. Why people like Elena Sanchez have been coming for three years. Why fifteen people showed up in the rain at 5:50 am this morning to roll around in puddles and sand. I called Jeff Riddle (who is making his second appearance in the Basic Training blog). Jeff, help. What do I say? He said, “Well, Jenn, it’s not about fitness.” Huh? “I can tell you what I got out of Basic Training, why I went. The way I see it, Basic Training is about community.” Jeff and I have talked about this before, but I always recoiled at the word “community.” Today the message finally hit home. As Jeff said, “You help people connect — it’s just who you are and what you do. You help them connect to each other. Connect with themselves. Connect with nature. Connect with place. You make community. You bring people off their computers and back to humanity. Fitness just happens to be the vehicle.” Human beings are social, we need to feel a bond with those around us. In today’s world, we are running out of opportunities to connect with each other in a meaningful way. We clump together in the city, but what do we do? Do we talk, listen, look or interact with each other? No, we put on our iPods when we sit side by side on the bus. We stare into our phones when we’re in line at the coffee shop. Coworkers sit in separate cubbies at work, and instead of walking over to talk to each other we text or iChat. Then we go home, log on to match.com, and try to find love. Or we sit on the couch next to our sweetheart and watch a game, “American Idol” or better yet, “The Biggest Loser.” Our technology is stunning, but it’s cost us a lot. People also desperately need to connect with themselves. To find balance. To find their center. In our work as trainers we encounter a lot of people who feel a little lost in their life, or thrown off course. We also see a lot of people who are out of touch with even the most primitive human impulses. Like a sense for when they’re hungry, or what they are hungry for. They can’t get to sleep and they don’t know why. As a population, our systems are chronically dry and dehydrated. But instead of drinking eight glasses of water, we’re drinking coffee and applying Burt’s Bees lip balm all day. A lot of people are also in constant pain. Chronic soreness in the neck, shoulders, or low back. Or there are injuries that just never went away. Knees that don’t bend all the way. Shoulders that don’t fully rotate. People start to think being healthy means staying out of the hospital. Being healthy means being able to do everything we were designed to do. So we connect people with themselves. To us, that starts with movement. Our bodies are meant to move and when we move them, things start to open up. We start to “be” in our bodies again. Once we start to move, we start to breathe and feel good. We also start to hear things. Maybe it’s a voice inside our head telling us to go faster. Maybe it’s “slow down.” Maybe it’s “hey, this is your shoulder talking. Remember I’m still torn and inflamed? Yeah, from last year. I’m still not ok. I’d love it if you got me worked on a little. In the meantime, no way are you doing any pushups.” This is why we are so adamant about helping people resolve old injuries when they crop up again during our workouts. When people start to move around with others every day, they start to get a sense of what they’re capable of and what they’re built for. We help them set the bar for their potential, and they discover they are capable of more than they ever imagined. This knowledge builds self esteem, confidence, and power. We believe people who feel good about themselves, who feel strong, empowered, and connected — those are the people who lead purpose-driven lives. They know who they are and where they are going. They aren’t afraid to take the risks necessary to change the world. Running around like crocodiles in the sand may be the how. But building a group of people who all feel strong, empowered, connected, and free — that’s what brings me joy. That’s the why.