Nimble Blog

It takes energy to change!

January 19, 2012 by admin  
Filed under Daniel Lucas, Eat Healthy, Nimble Blog, Nimble Team

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by Daniel Lucas

Cultivating energy starts with our relationship to the food and fluids we consume. What, how and when we eat affects our digestion, which in turn affects how much nutrition we receive from our food and how well we metabolize it. Every cell in our body regenerates from what we consume–there is no substitute for quality nutrition and a positive relationship with food. Examine how you feel after you eat. Do you have a nice sense of well-being and satisfaction? Do you feel solid energy for the next 4 or 5 hours? Conversely, does the food you’re eating make you sleepy, leave you craving sugar or disrupt your digestion? If it does, than it’s clear that your eating habits need to change. Releasing body fat and eating well is not as challenging as people make it–what is truly challenging for people is creating the habits to support positive, conscious, healthy food choices. Take action now and use food to get a leaner, younger body.

Take the start of this year to become more aware of what you are eating, how you are eating and when you are eating and then assess the effect your food is having on you. Remember, food is our medicine!

Namaste,
Daniel

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The Art of Recoveryn training

October 3, 2011 by admin  
Filed under Daniel Lucas, Mind & Body, Nimble Blog, Nimble Team

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by Daniel Lucas

Here is an overview of some keys to success when it comes to the art of recovery. At its core, recovery is part of the discipline, patience and commitment it takes to perform at your highest level.

Whether you’re training for the New York City marathon, as I am, or just want to get stronger, all the magic happens in adaptation. We stress our bodies to new levels of fatigue, and our bodies repay us by becoming stronger, faster and more powerful. Muscle fibers shift and grow from these stresses over time. An effective, progressive program will include disciplined recovery periods, with the ultimate goal of being prepared and healthy on race day.

Here’s some tips for effective recovery:

1. Study! A little research goes a long way! Run with this list of tips and use the information you find to make needed changes in your program. If you find some more information that gives you a big YES in your mind, you can probably use it to your advantage.

2. Awareness. All the study in the world will not take care of you better than you. Be aware of everything when it comes to your recovery. Here’s a quick list to get you started: overall energy, mood, joint range of motion, muscle symmetry, aches and pains, bowel movements, sleep quality, caffeine and alcohol consumption.

3. Hydration. Pre, during, and post. We have all heard this song and dance before, but why do so many people compete dehydrated? Habits, addiction, and lack of consistency are the biggest culprits. My quick take on it is this: know your body, pee clear for a couple days before big events, use sea-salt in your water before a race, drink water between meals, limit beverages that dehydrate you.  On the other hand, over hydrating can be a problem too.  Hydrating prior (several days before) an event and using salt tablets for long runs is also something to consider.  Maintaining proper electrolyte balance can make or break your performance.

4. Nutrition. All of the above are important keys to success, but the food you put in your body is what your cells use to regenerate. So, give every training session the fuel you need to perform, and the nutrition you need to recover. This equation will be different for all of us—so be very aware of how your nutrition is serving you.

5. Anti-Oxidants. The waste created in our bodies from intense prolonged exercise creates free radicals, so consuming some high quality anti-oxidants can help balance that equation. Examples would be fruits like pomegranates or berries, and other vegetables rich in anti-oxidants.

6. Sleep. Getting high quality sleep allows your body to heal most of all! The important work of repairing tissue happens when you’re in deep sleep. The basic secrets to great sleep are: a consistent early bedtime, knowing what time you need to eat to sleep well, cutting caffeine later in the day, making sure your bedroom is dark and quiet.

7. Symmetry and Tissue Hydration. Flexibility is a big key to performing at your best. It’s a big part of maintaining symmetry from limb to limb, and being able to re-set tight, tired muscles. Also, hydrating muscles and connective tissue with myo-fascial release tools or massage is important. So you have a choice: Force another tight, challenging run or take care of yourself on a higher level?

8. Functional Exercises. Exercises that target postural muscles that are prone to weakness are an important part of any successful program.  Study up on corrective strategies, and include compound exercises that really improve your balance and integrated power.

Namaste,

Daniel

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What is a healthy Breakfast?

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by Daniel Lucas

While on vacation in Turkey, a client’s question kept popping into my head when I would sit down to eat in the morning: What can I eat for a healthy breakfast?  It’s a simple question, but I feel like the answer is sometimes tough to grasp.  In America, we often end up in a “breakfast box” and find ourselves eating the same foods over and over, day after day.  Since we should really rotate the foods we eat every 3 or 4 days, all of us could use some healthy breakfast options.

During this vacation to Turkey, my eyes and stomach rejoiced in the lovely breakfast they laid out at several of the hotels we stayed in.  They were simple and yummy, but nutritious.  Below is a list of new options that I found for breakfast.

Boiled Eggs (easy to take to work with you)
Olives
Figs
Walnuts
Almonds
Apples
Oranges (an all season fruit)
Sausages
Cheese (goat and feta for me)
Hummus
Potatoes
Yogurt
Tomatoes
Raw veggies
Greens
Spices
Spinach
Salmon
Beans
Snap Peas

These are all foods we are familiar with, so if you have a collection in your fridge, you can mix and match to create a healthy breakfast.  Shop at the farmer’s market whenever you get a chance to get fresh produce.  I purchased one of the multi-section containers to hold my food and it works really well.  Good luck with mixing up your breakfast options.  I’m sure I left out plenty of great choices that can be added to this list.  Feel free to get creative and enjoy the most important meal of the day!

Namaste
Daniel

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High-Stress Times or Growth Shifts?

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I’ve trained when I’m under the weather, exhausted, even with a broken arm before, but it wasn’t as challenging as my recent week of training was. The reason it was so challenging was because there were a multitude of stresses on my system. They added up over a week’s time:
1) My spine was incorrectly adjusted while on vacation in Turkey, and I ended up feeling like slow moving reptile.
2) The Nimble studio had a massive flood the day after I got back from vacation
3) I felt ill from the fumes of our studio demolition.

No, I’m not trying to complain (although if you trained with me during this week, you probably noticed my struggle) or looking for pity, just articulating some circumstances that eventually affect all of us in life.  Getting to the point–when stresses rise in your life, that is the time to be even more diligent with your healthy habits. Getting more rest, drinking more quality water, eating a healthy organic diet, limiting your alcohol/caffiene intake, and staying in touch with friends and loved ones. Many of us have been programmed to do the opposite; when stress goes up its a green light to drink more, use coffee to stay with the pace, eat less healthy or not at all. All of these habits add to your stress, which can become a kind of “comfort zone” to deal with life’s challenges. We now understand that feeling uncomfortable–getting out of old habits–is often associated with what I see as shifts in growth. Life happens, and you have to be prepared to handle stress at a high level, so it doesn’t take you out of your health zone. Staying healthy under stress also allows you to keep a clear head so that you can make accurate decisions on how to navigate.

If you don’t back yourself up with healthy habits, stressors can grow into much bigger problems, like disease. Make it your intention to live healthier, even as stress at home, work or life goes up, understanding that sometimes these stresses we face are there to facilitate a deeper shift of consciousness and self-awareness. This shift in intention will keep you lighter, healthier, happier and more energetic in the long run. Often life’s challenges are tests of your will and ability to be present and loving during such challenging times. Let right now be the moment you handle stress with love of self.
START TODAY!

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Wordology

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wordsWords have power! At Nimble Fitness we share with our clients the idea of Wordology. The non-conscious often does not know the difference between what you truly want and the words and ideas you are just playing around with. All of your thoughts get filed in the oneness of the non-conscious, so we ask clients to choose words that align with their life vision. Why not? Through what we have learned in our past, we often create habits or conditions that we live by that no longer serve us. These words we say over and over carry major energy and shape our perception. For example, I had a client that often stated “Every time I walk into the gym, I believe I’m moving forward in my journey to health,” and another that would often discount the work he did if it was not of a certain duration or intensity. He would often state that he could never do enough. Which client do you think progressed faster in his program? The point I would like to make is this: Are you setting yourself up for failure or success? Make the promise to yourself to use words that support you in success and believe it! Why not? Namaste

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Top 5 tips to loosen those traps!

June 8, 2011 by admin  
Filed under Daniel Lucas, Nimble Blog, Nimble Team

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by Daniel Lucas

Do you feel like your trapezius muscles will just not loosen up for you, no matter how many massages you get and stretches you try? The trapezius is a large, diamond-shaped muscle, located in your upper back, neck and shoulders. Its job is to both stabilize your shoulder girdle, neck and upper back and provide power for pulling and lifting motions. It’s probably needless to say, but this muscle does a lot of work for us and tends to accept a lot of stress.

Here are some tips from Nimble Fitness to help keep those traps feeling good:

1. Breath! Your breath is your ticket to de-stressing and releasing tight muscles, especially the trapezius. Here’s a simple breathing exercise: Sit up tall with two rolled towels tucked between your elbows and your ribs. Begin taking belly breaths that fill your entire stomach, ribs, and chest with oxygen. With every exhale, consciously relax your arms and traps, a little bit more each time. Imagery is great at helping the body to let go of stress, so visualize a warm waterfall running down the back of your neck and shoulders. Ahh, that feels nice!

2. Become more aware of your posture. Your posture is directly related to how you sit, walk, eat, think and move. Start to become conscious of faulty repetitive patterns in your workday, like slouching at the desk, hanging on the front of your hips while standing, or pinching your shoulders together while walking. Posture is a biggie, and we can’t cover everything that goes into creating better posture in this article, so I will give you one important thing to think about: head position. If you feel your head falling forward, or if you feel you have to “work” to keep your head up, you are definitely putting stress on your traps. Be tall through your torso and spine, and let your head float on top of your shoulders.

3. Leave your big bags at home! Loading your body down with bags tells the body to add more support to the muscles under stress. The body, being as intelligent as it is, reacts to the stress by adding collagen to muscles, making them firmer and more strap-like. The problem when muscles get stuck in these positions is that we get mis-aligned and often feel pain and stress as a result. Remember, everything is connected in our bodies, so our organs can be affected by this stress as well. I say leave the bag at home! Yes, this means the backpack too. Make duplicates of whatever you’re carrying, or transport your work digitally. It will free your traps and your soul as well.

4. Lengthen your abdominal muscles and pecs. Often where we feel pain is not the actual source of the pain. Lengthening your quadriceps, abdominal and pectoral muscles will give space to the front of your body. This will loosen the “tug” from these muscles on the muscles of the back, especially the trapezius.

5. Strengthen your core. And honestly, the rest of your body! Building strength in your torso will assist with having better posture and functional stability, whether you’re moving, standing or sitting. Torso support will keep your head on top of your body, which will take stress off of your trapezius. Train your postural muscles and move with poise!

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Cross Train to Help Prevent Running Injuries!

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by Daniel Lucas

Why are physical therapists seeing fewer tri-athletes with injuries in their office than runners? The answer, in a word, is cross training. The most common mistake we see with runners’ programs is that they do not change them up enough. This creates a scenario for injury. The secret to longevity in sport is to consistently change the stresses on your body so that it strengthens, heals and recovers.

Take this opportunity to look at your current training program and assess if you have been making the needed changes to progress effectively. Incorporating a focused strength, conditioning and flexibility program will add some spice to your running and keep you in the game for a very long time.

Here are 5 reasons cross-training is an essential part of your running/training program:

1) Cross-training creates better muscular balance in every part of your body.
2) Different stresses on the body create different stresses around the joints, which actually helps build longevity in your muscles and connective tissue.
3) Multi-planar training strengthens tissue in a more effective way, creating a greater opportunity for the body to load and un-load more efficiently while running.
4) Strength training helps the “assisting” muscles, i.e. the deeper postural muscles, to stabilize better while running.
5) “Rotating your tires” saves wear and tear. Variety in movement helps muscles and connective tissue stay pliable and strong.

Have a wonderful run today!

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Exercise Your Emotions

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By Daniel Lucas .

Have you ever had the sense that your old ideas and beliefs are not working for you? Do you feel like you need to let go of the energy that surrounds those old habits? You can start with your awareness—just being able to identify old ways or habits is freeing in itself. That self-awareness can help loosen the bond, especially if you’re able to trace your habits to their origin. Tracing these feelings back to their moment of purpose, and recognizing that the emotions you experienced there don’t define you, can be extremely liberating.

The big question is this: how do we let go? It can be compared to pulling a weed from a garden—if you don’t get the root, you know that weed will live and grow. If you do get to the root of old patterns in your life, you’ll create space that allows you to develop new intentions and beliefs that will empower you.

Here are some tips to consider when digging into to your old patterns and beliefs:

1. Awareness of your emotions, and how they align with your circumstances, helps a great deal. Is your emotion in a certain situation genuine and appropriate to what’s happening? If you’re over-emotional (or under-emotional), this is a sign that there might be a root belief that’s not serving you any longer. It might be time to go back and weed your garden a bit more.

2. Seeking to understand why you feel the way you do will help to know whether you’re acting in the present moment, or re-acting from an old blueprint.

3. Work on your ability to shift into the present moment and see the truth of each experience as it is. This is what we call consciousness!

4. Exercise! Researchers have found that there is a section of the brain that responds only to exercise. Moving your body will tap into your mind/body connection and assist you with letting go of old baggage. Recent research also indicates that the way we hold ourselves posturally is closely related to our moods and to our personalities. In other words, the way we move, or don’t move, is linked to the way we feel. Your body tomorrow reflects what you’re doing today.

5. Keep at it! You may not pull the whole weed at first, but being brave enough to look at your truth will eventually help you grow. Be your own best friend on this journey and allow your natural state of JOY to shine through.

Namaste

Daniel

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Creating Mind/Body Space

December 9, 2010 by admin  
Filed under Daniel Lucas, Nimble Blog, Nimble Team

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After working intimately with clients for over 15 years, one thing that’s become evident is that old emotions and beliefs take up space in our physical being. Negative or “stuck” energy in our bodies can become stagnant, resulting in lowered creative energy, limited self-awareness and an inability to be truly conscious. Start this New Year by asking yourself this: Is there anything you say to yourself that’s limiting or negative, that needs a shift? Is there is a habit or judgment handed down from a family member or friend that you have been carrying around for a long time? Maybe there’s a judgment or belief you hold which is taking up space, space that could be used for personal growth instead. Remember, today–and everyday–is your opportunity to LET GO of old, negative energies and create new space inside yourself!

Happy New Year & Namaste!

Daniel

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If you’re going to do it, love it!

December 2, 2010 by admin  
Filed under Daniel Lucas, Nimble Blog, Nimble Team

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Sometimes I hear new clients tell me they’re going to stop doing something they love. For example, I’ll hear “I’m never going to eat pasta again,” or “That’s the last desert I’ll ever have,” or even “No more wine for a year!” So often, the problem is not necessarily doing things that make us unhealthier or heavier, but ingesting things we love too much. This can shift our feelings when doing things to self-disappointment, shame or just being annoyed with oneself.

Ask yourself this: Am I acting in a way that I love what I do, the result of what I do, and myself? If the answer is no, maybe a shift is in order–maybe you eat pasta once a week, save the dessert for special occasions and the wine is cut down to a level that aligns with a feeling of genuine joy. The secret is to truly enjoy the wonderful pleasures of life; if we overdo it, we cross over into feelings of attachment or even addiction, which can affect one’s health. Change your perception, from denial to true enjoyment, and everything you partake in changes as well. If you’re going to do it, you might as well LOVE doing it!

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FIVE WAYS TO STAY YOUNG

October 7, 2010 by admin  
Filed under Daniel Lucas, Mind & Body, Nimble Blog, Nimble Team

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by Daniel Lucas

1. You are what you eat! Our food choices are some of the most important choices we make. Choosing quality food is vital to maintaining muscle tone, organs, your digestive system and overall body function. Whole, organic, nutrient-rich foods act as high-octane fuel for your body. Processed foods are calorie-rich and nutrient-poor—your digestive system will waste energy on trying to break down calories that it doesn’t recognize as food. Keep your digestive system young and running lean and clean.

2. Use it or lose it—but use it correctly! Modern life has all kinds of challenges. One of our biggest challenges is repetitive movement, whether it’s at a keyboard or on a treadmill. Be aware of how repetitive movement can overtax some muscle groups, making them tight and sore, while leaving other muscles underused and weak, eventually leading to misalignment. Add some variety to your movement and take breaks from repetitive movements to keep your muscles balanced. Too much repetitive motion in one direction results in stress and inflammation to the muscle tissue and joints. Speaking of stress…

3. Don’t hold on to stress—it’s unrelieved stress that makes us old. Very few people in this day and age can claim to have a stress-free life. It’s how we deal, or don’t deal, with stress that can either keep us young or take us out of balance. Not all stress is bad. When we ask our muscles to work, for example, we’re putting stress on the muscle tissue, tendons and ligaments to make them stronger. But we wouldn’t ask them to work 24/7! If you’re in the habit of internalizing stress and carrying it around, you’re making your system work overtime and decreasing your natural function. Develop the habit of reducing stress on a daily basis—exercising, taking breaks, moving your breath out of your shoulders and into your rib cage, drinking plenty of water—so you can be free of carrying stress around.

4. Play young! Go and do things that connect you to truly feeling young. Sometimes we all have to reach back to go forward. What activities make you feel young? Dancing, hiking, playing volleyball, riding a bicycle…all of these are responses our clients have given to this question. Ask yourself! And really try to embody that feeling of being young in your life each day.

5. Let go! Being young is being resilient. Consciously let go of the stressors in your life that you can’t control; let go of the negative language that accompanies those stressors and inhibits your abilities (“I’m too old for that”, “I’ll never get rid of my stress” etc). Let go of the illusion that you can’t feel young!

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CREATING SPACE

September 2, 2010 by admin  
Filed under Daniel Lucas, Mind & Body, Nimble Blog, Nimble Team

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I knew at some level that it was important to take my recent trip to Spain alone. I just didn’t know why. By the end of the first day in Ibiza, it had become obvious-there were old emotions about my father’s death that came right to the surface, and I had not yet had the opportunity to release them. I was still grieving emotionally and spiritually, even after all this time. The act of creating space for myself allowed this vital process to happen, along with giving me the space to feel immense appreciation for every friend, client, family member and living creature on the planet.

I understand that we all have many important people and obligations in our lives, but ask yourself this question: what can you do now to create space for yourself? Maybe you won’t have time for a trip to Ibiza, but take a long walk in the park, sit quietly on a bench or just take extra time to enjoy your meal. These small windows of time can give us an opportunity to let go of emotions or ideas that may be clouding our consciousness.

Namaste,
Daniel

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GET YOUR BODY ORGANIZED

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daniel-tribeca-headshot-70x70by Daniel Lucas

If you’re someone that runs, bikes, lifts weights, plays in a league, does any kind of consistent training, and lets not forget the non-sport of sitting at your desk you should think about having days in your exercise program dedicated to getting or keeping your body organized.  Whether it’s the repetitive nature of different sports or the destructive effect of sitting for prolonged periods of time, committing a little time to your structural alignment will pay major dividends.

What does it mean to have an organized body?

It’s when the structure of your bones, muscle, neuro-fascial tissue and organs are functioning in a balanced, energetic way. You feel strong and flexible, have natural poise and your movements feel light, not heavy or sluggish. It’s when your body and mind are functioning together at a high level—where you can run, jump, squat, lunge, push, pull, lift or twist with strength, power and flexibility through a full range of motion, without disruption or injury.  This organized scenario creates an optimal environment for joint health, organ health, muscular development and emotional flow/release.  So how do we get there?

Here are some Nimble tips for getting organized:

1.    Give yourself permission to have deeper body awareness! This takes a little bit
of courage, but bringing your awareness inside your body, to feel how your body is moving and holding itself together, is extremely valuable.  Assess yourself–no one knows how your body feels as well as you do! Identify where you’re tight, where you’re weak, where you’re strong, and then get to work. Use your “organization day” to focus on strengthening weaker muscles, opening up tight muscle tissue, and addressing imbalances in your system.

2.   Ask yourself this question: Is my exercise routine helping me with my posture or training me out of good posture?  I’ve watched people training for hours at a time with hunched shoulders, misaligned lower backs and strained necks. I’ve even seen people read a book while walking on the treadmill! Doing this hinders our natural gait and our functional lines across the body, which in this case run from the latissimus on one side to the gluteus on the other. Examine your own training habits—are you enhancing your posture with your exercises, or working into deeper imbalance and strain?

3.    Be open to how integrated and intelligent your body naturally is. Your body was designed to function harmoniously, whether moving or at rest. That harmony is your ultimate goal. To move towards that goal, you can start with isolated movements, but be sure to end in a fully integrated, functional way. For instance, you can train your postural stabilizers (the “core” muscles) first, and progress into the integrated compound movements. A simple example of this progression would be starting with the plank exercise, which engages the core stabilizers, and continuing on to the traditional squat.   Functional training prepares you for lifting your heavy bag of luggage, squatting to pick something up from the floor or simply giving someone a big loving hug.

4.    Identify where you are prone to tightness, and be consistent in stretching/resetting those muscles. We touched on this already, but stretching muscles helps to keep balance and symmetry in your body, and improves neural flow and oxygen delivery to your tissue. Be aware of the imbalances in your system and address those. If the right hamstring is a lot tighter than the left, for example, give it a little bit more time in your stretching. This will not only help you feel better, but help you function better.

sports_stretching_01

5.    Strengthen weaker muscles–the other side of flexibility. Activating weak muscles and strengthening them through a proper exercise progression will also lengthen opposing muscles and assist in proper joint function.

6.    Get some professional eyes on you!  The earlier statement we made that no knows your body better than you do is only partially true.  Working with a trainer/practitioner/coach will help you to understand your strengths, weaknesses and imbalances, and improve your program to achieve more.

A little bit of practice and dedication to these key points will pay major dividends.  Having an organized body is the path to longevity!  It’s your journey, so I encourage you to trust the guru within.

Namaste
Daniel

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WORKOUT ANYWHERE, ANYTIME

June 11, 2010 by admin  
Filed under Daniel Lucas, Nimble Blog, Nimble Team

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daniel-tribeca-headshot1

by Daniel Lucas

Here are some Nimble tips for effective training, whenever and wherever you are:

1) A workout doesn’t have to be an hour to be great! If you’re pressed for time, pick a couple of compound moves that use multiple muscle groups and get your heart rate going. *Tip: For example, try a squat to press, which works the entire body, or jumping rope.

2) Workout smarter, not just harder. Knowing a bit about how to manipulate variables in your workout program can give you a much bigger exercise toolbox to work with, and help keep your results flowing. *Tip: Changing the order of exercises in your program, changing the tempo, adding instability or cutting rest are all examples of how you can manipulate your program for greater intensity.

3) Know how to get it done anywhere. Prepare a bodyweight resistance/yoga routine that you can perform anywhere. The body resistance workouts can actually be your most challenging, and the combination of strength and yoga is great for your body. *Tip: Take a beginner’s yoga class or two and start to work on some of the basic poses. You can also pick up some great tools for exercising anywhere—resistance bands, a jump rope, etc.

4) Take it outside! Walking, running or hiking can be done absolutely anywhere and will definitely give you a high-intensity workout, plus a tour of the area you’re visiting.

5) Eat clean. With food, closer to nature is our golden rule. To train at your best and recover effectively, you need great, naturally produced food and proper hydration.

If you’re consistent with your workouts, you’ll gain more and more confidence to challenge yourself wherever you are!

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Law of gestation.

May 22, 2010 by admin  
Filed under Daniel Lucas, Nimble Blog, Nimble Team

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In prior newsletters, we’ve spoken about the universal law of setting your intention to produce the results that you want. The idea is that our reality is first created by thought, then by our actions. This month, I want to talk about another universal law – the law of gestation. This law states that for any vision or intention to be realized, a certain period of gestation and development is required. This gestation period could be a week or 10 years, depending on the scope of your vision. A child, for example, is conceived in an instant, but takes many, many years of growth and nourishment to reach their full potential. How do we apply the law of gestation in our own lives? The secret is to be consistent in your words and actions over time-to consciously follow through in your daily activities to manifest your personal vision. Believe and trust in your journey of conscious action, and the universe will deliver what you want.

Namaste
Daniel

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Do you speak to your soul?

April 23, 2010 by admin  
Filed under Daniel Lucas, Nimble Blog, Nimble Team

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Do you take the time to listen from within yourself for answers? Communicating with our soul is best achieved with a quiet mind. In order to hear the soul our minds need to be clear so that we can receive the answers, which often come in a much gentler way than the strong thoughts of the ego. For example: when you feel the answer to an important question without thinking about it. You just know in your heart it’s true. Quiet time, rest and meditation are vital to having this healthy connection.

Set aside time to allow yourself to stop thinking from the outside and you will have a greater opportunity to hear a deeper truth. Think of it this way: It’s not about working out, it’s about working in, meaning meditation, Tai Chi, a walk in nature or anything that you find empties your mind.

Namaste.
Daniel

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“I’m too busy!”

April 1, 2010 by admin  
Filed under Daniel Lucas, Nimble Blog, Nimble Team

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I’ve heard this line so many times…and when I hear it, I understand that you may actually have a million things to do. Well, join the club! What I’m also hearing when someone says, “I’m too busy!” – is that work and going out with friends is more important than your health. More important, that is, until you get sick! I probably don’t have to sell you on this idea: when you’re down for the count, nothing matters more than feeling good.

im-too-busyIt might be time to shift your intention! What if, instead of saying “I’m too busy to go looking for healthy food so I’ll eat what’s convenient.” you said, “I’m going to use nutritious food to give me better energy and get me through this busy day?” You think you’re too busy, when the reality is you’re stealing energy from yourself. When you’re really working hard, that is the best time to be dialed in to the essentials: being hydrated, eating nutritiously and fitting in some movement that will take you back into better posture.

That healthy movement can be as little as 30 seconds or a minute, anything that opens up your posture after sitting or doing something repetitive. It could be one functional exercise, a stretch, a tai chi movement or anything that releases stress from your system and adds chi (inner energy).

So, if you really want to make time and be successful in your busy life, stop using that old line of crap! You’re not too busy to stay healthy–shift your intention. Spend even a little bit of time creating new habits, segmenting your time and giving back to yourself, and that will open many healthy, joyful hours on the back end.

The gift of energy creates more time to live with joy.


Namaste
Daniel

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How strong is your FOUNDATION?

March 5, 2010 by admin  
Filed under Daniel Lucas, Nimble Blog, Nimble Team

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daniel-bio-1Sitting on my couch on a Sunday in February, I wept. Not because I worked 160 hours in the last two weeks, or that a flood ruined our new bamboo studio floor. I was watching images of Haiti on the morning show and they hit me hard, like they probably hit most of you.

These images made me think about many things; one thing that resonated with me and connects to our health was how important it is to have a strong foundation. The energy of a strong foundation resonates from one’s inner self and vibrates outward. This vibration is married to your values & beliefs, your friends & family, life cycles (sleep/food/movement), your soul and the health of your body’s system.

Our society is looking for the fountain of youth around every corner. In so many cases, people simply have a weak foundation to their health. If you’re getting stronger and more flexible, more organized structurally, gaining power and letting go of limiting ego thoughts, then you are continually building a strong foundation. Yes! There is much more I could add to this. Everyone is different, but we can all use the same building blocks for success.

Build your foundation and witness the new strength, power and flow of your mind, body and spirit.

Namaste,
Daniel

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HAVING A POWERFUL “WHY”

February 11, 2010 by admin  
Filed under Daniel Lucas, Mind & Body, Nimble Blog

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YellowSign 002One of the first questions we ask in Nimble is this: what’s your why? Why do you want to be stronger, lighter or more flexible? What is motivating you to take up an exercise program? We all get inundated with so much information about how to stay healthy that it can cloud our why, which ultimately slows the process of creating life-long healthy habits. Weight loss, for example, is a crucial reason for many people to exercise, but is losing weight the true inspiration? Or is losing weight a path to feeling better and more active in your own body?

Tapping into your true motivations will help fuel your success. Here are some other motivating whys that can help cause profound transformation:

*More Energy
*Confidence
*Body/Mind connection
*Overall Preventative Health Care
*Better Sex Drive/Better Sexual Health
*Clearer Skin *Being able to do what you want to do – whether it’s climbing those stairs or climbing a mountain.

Have a powerful why and it will help you take daily action towards your goals.  Here’s the way we describe that path at Nimble Fitness:

Movement is an opportunity for profound transformation, which stimulates self-discovery and energizes the spirit. The journey it offers is made by sensing, feeling and being. It’s unique to each person.

Namaste,
Daniel

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Time to grow.

November 4, 2009 by admin  
Filed under Daniel Lucas, Nimble Blog, Nimble Team

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It’s Wednesday, November 4, and Nimble Fitness is shifting in to a new level of being, one that elevates the size of our space, our services, and our potential to offer more to our community. We just signed the lease for our new studio space, located street level on east 12th between University and Broadway in New York City. Our current home has served us well, but now its time for us to grow personally, professionally and spiritually. This move is about more than our growth, however. We’re moving with the intention of changing the planet with the change in ourselves.

In many ways, our new studio has already been created, even though it is still under construction. Life has presented this opportunity to us, and many amazing people in our lives have rallied around us to help make it happen. Being fit is much more than just moving around- in essence, it’s an exploration of body, mind and soul. Work out with an intention of love for your body-mind-soul, and amazing things happen.

Join us in this new journey of self-exploration and personal development. We welcome you to be a part of our amazing community and invite you to visit the new space.

Namaste,
Daniel

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