Exercise vs. Innercise

Fitness is Exercise. It is about the external world and how your body moves in it. The muscles, tendons and bones may be on the inside of your body, the vital signs used to measure exercise effectiveness may be acquired by measuring internal happenings but the ultimate measure of improvement is about what movements the body can accomplish in space.

There is an inner world you must manage too. Health is Innercise. The inner workings of your mind is the foundation for the outside world and require awareness and concentration to manipulate. There are inner parts of your body under your mental control that you can access through willpower and concentration.

Innercise includes your diet discipline because it influences blood quality and body composition. In this program we will focus on your diaphragm, which influences breathing capacity, chest mobility, the nervous system and digestion.

Your mobility, recovery and posture are improved as you practice the shapes of the spine and your deep core strength skills are only improved through concentration. 

Your body’s recovery (and therefore its transformation) is achieved through systematic relaxation and high quality sleep. Your Innercise practice helps you improve your skills in both of these areas. This is a subtle example of how Innercise accelerates your results.

Once you recognize the difference between health and fitness, you’ll start to see where your potential gaps are. Once you are aware of the need to balance your training between getting better at moving externally and getting better at managing your inner world, you’ll see why alternating Exercise and Innercise is wise.

The following chart helps you distinguish the different characteristics of Exercise vs. Innercise. Of course, there is some overlap. All movement activities are truly mind-body experiences. Nevertheless, every system of movement has an entry point. Some are very physical and others require greater mental focus. 

Our objective is to practice a blend of inner and outer work so that your training (and our mind body) is balanced through harmony. Strength requires mobility; turning your anaerobic endurance into lower body fat requires (or develops) patient persistence; learning to move with better posture everyday builds strength and awareness. 

A great health and fitness program should check all these boxes

	Exercise	Innercise
Movement Element	Strength	Diet, blood and organ health
	Endurance	Breathing and posture
	Athleticism, body control	Mobility and shapes, recovery
Measures of Success	V02, vertical strength, evolutionary movement skills, endurance, tendon and joint strength	Blood health, Pain-free Posture, good breathing, mental clarity, emotional peace, versatile and graceful movement
	Body composition (movement influence)	Body composition (diet influence)

When you emphasize only one side of the matrix you leave gaps, gaps that cause pain, stiffness and injury. The logical solution is to make sure your movement regime includes:

• The most important shapes
• The most impactful skill
• A harmonious Exercise to Innercise approach

The question we all must ask ourselves is; which Exercise and which Innercise modalities work best for me?

The honest answer to that question depends on who is asking. But, if we are in agreement so far about movement being a vital sign, the importance of evolutionary movement and the need to balance Exercise and Innercise, then maybe you’ll trust my suggestions on what to do next.