Working In vs Working Out: The Hidden Gem for More Energy and Less Stress
We all know by know that working out is something that most people should be doing, as it increases our cardiovascular health, joint health, builds lean muscle mass, helps maintain a healthy body composition, and reduces the chances of developing serious health conditions like heart disease, diabetes,and cancer, as well as many other benefits.
However, many of us do not understand that exercise is a form of stress and when too much stress builds up, it can have a negative effect on our overall health and well-being. In this article, I will give a brief overview of how stress affects our body, the difference between working out and working-in, and when it might be better for your health to work-in. Let’s dive in.
As for most things in our life, the “it depends” response is appropriate, especially when it comes to exercise selection, type, frequency, etc. yet many of us are engaging in either too much or too little of it and not taking care to listen to our bodies response to the stressors we put it through. So let’s start with a little background on what stress is and how it affects our body.
When does Stress Become Too Much?
Below is a diagram that I use as a CHEK Professional to show how stress is summated in the body and how the amount of it dictates our response. Stress comes in six types:
Physical
Chemical
Electromagnetic
Psychic
Nutritional
Thermal
Each of these types, as indicated by the red and green arrows, can come as “good” and “bad” forms. As an example, gravity and resistance training is essential for our musculoskeletal system health and serves as a good form of stress that with adequate energy, nutrition and resources we can rebound from with a stronger body. But, when our knee isn't working correctly, for example, and we can place too much pressure on the inside aspect over and over again, we can get meniscal or ligamentous damage.
When we are continually exposed to too much stress or the wrong types, our control systems, as shown on the diaphragm, such as the visceral and nervous systems are tasked with returning us back to homeostasis or optimal functioning. When these are overloaded, we start to see signs and symptoms of fatigue, illness, and disease as the stress accumulates.
Practically, this helps us understand that if we can keep our body away from too many bad stressors like lack of sleep, processed foods, high EMF exposure, etc., we can handle the few stressors we place on it (exercise, due dates, digestion) and respond appropriately to them, coming back as stronger, smarter, and healthier beings.
Thus, it is helpful to assess your health and the amount of stress you're currently under to see where you can improve the most and if the type of exercise you're doing is helping you become healthier. As a CHEK Professional I offer in-person and online coaching to help with just that. Sign up here if you are interested in a free health and stress assessment. :)
Working-In vs Working Out.
So let’s get it to boys and gals! The highlight of this article, working-in, is a concept that Paul Chek created to describe movement, timed with deep breathing, that generates more energy in the body. This was created to be the opposite of working out, which uses up or takes out energy, nutrients, and other body resources and acts as a stressor, in hopes that our body can respond appropriately and come back stronger.
This type of exercise has been around for centuries in the form of tai chi, qi gong, and yin style yoga, and has numerous benefits such as reducing stress, improving energy and mood, improving sleep, etc.
Why We Work-In to Work-Out
Before we get into how to work-in, lets explore the benefits and the mechanisms behind them.
By engaging in deep breathing, we introduce highly positive charges from oxygen with the highly negative charges of water in our body (up to 75%) to create a work potential or energy in our body. Our heart then, after receiving fresh oxygenated blood from our lungs, produces a powerful electromagnetic charge (how it continuously beats) while also pumping blood, nutrients and waste products throughout our body. And finally, the muscles act as pumps when they contract and relax, helping with venous blood flow back to the heart, while also creating their own electromagnetic charge through movement called piezoelectric current.
All this considered, our breath, heart and muscles create a massive amount of potential energy that can be harnessed by the body, effectively generating more energy than we had to start. For people that are fatigued, drinking numerous cups of coffee a day, and sleeping every little, this can be a powerful practice to reduce stress, harmonize the systems of the body, and increase overall energy.
So what does this look like? Well it can have many different forms such as squats, alternating supermans, neck rolls, tai chi, etc, but they all have a few things in common:
Breathing Rate and Heart Rate should stay as low as possible.
Deep diaphragmatic breathing (learn how here) is the leader and the body's movements follow along.
Movement should be as slow as possible
Mouth should stay moist and digestion should improve
Following all of these for even a minute will guarantee more energy, better mental focus, and less perceived stress. As a general rule of thumb, when moving into more of a globally flexed, rounded, closed fetal position we exhale (think about the lungs collapsing and getting smaller) and inhaling when we open up, externally rotate and globally extended.
How and When Should We Work-In?
The wild, yet amazing, thing about this type of exercise is that it is beneficial for almost any time of day or circumstance! Need some morning movement to get the juices flowing? Work-In. Got a minute or two to spare at work? Work-In. Can’t seem to fall asleep at night? Try Working-In.
The body is incredibly smart. With proper intention, the life force energy or chi/prana we create, can energize us for a power hour grind at work or relax our body for bed. There truly is not a beneficial time for working-in. Wild, but the slower you move the more energy you create.
So what does working-in actually look like? I’ll give a few examples below from Paul Chek’s book, How To Eat Move and Be Healthy.
Essentially, any “work out” exercise can be turned into a work-in exercise by breathing deep, keeping the rate rate low, and moving slowly. Typically I recommend my clients starting with 1-3 minutes of a few different movements, letting them explore which feel best and get the best results. From there, set a time goal of 1-20 minutes and get movin’!
Hopefully you enjoyed this article and got some practical takeaways of how to start destressing and energizing your own mind and body through breath and movement. Until next time!