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Imagine someone is reading this intro to you in a soothing voice. Take a deep breath in, then out. Now indulge us in some word association: mind-body fitness. What do you picture? A dimly lit Yogilates class, right? Indeed you do, and the room smells of earthy incense, yes? The instructor is reciting an inspiring mantra. Maybe even two. The point is, you’re feeling quite Zen right now. Very much in tune with your body. Well, SNAP OUT OF IT!!

Sorry for the all-caps outburst, but a greater power urged us to drop some real talk: Mind-body workouts are no longer bound by any one discipline. They can happen anywhere—at a yoga studio, in the weight room, on a foggy morning run. That’s one of the reasons we at WH prefer

calling the practice by its other, more grounded, name: integrative fitness. It’s taking a 360-degree approach that treats the whole you—physical, mental, and emotional. And more important, it’s an approach that works for life.

“People need fitness that will sustain them,” says Jill Miller, a fitness therapy expert and author of TheRoll Model. “Yoga is not a panacea. But high-intensity interval training won’t solve everything either. What we need is a more mindful integration.” That concept is now informing everyone from personal trainers to elite athletes, from workouts at big box gyms to niche boutiques.

It boils down to this: To reach your potential, you’ve got to pay attention to a lot more than your muscles (even that gluteus maximus).

Welcome to the new age of mind-body fitness. It’s not the least bit new-agey,

but it will score you plenty of bennies—less stress, more strength, better

sleep, buckets of energy... Oh, and the two perks we’re talking about up top.

B Y A N D R E A B A R T Z

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year, per a 2015 survey from the American Psychological Association. “Stress in and of itself isn’t bad for your health,” says Brandon Marcello, Ph.D., a high-performance sports specialist. “The problem is being stuck in that state 24/7.”

A little lesson for those who fell asleep in biology class: Your nervous system controls unconscious bodily functions, like breathing and digestion, and has two switches. Sympathetic (a.k.a. the fight-or-flight response that jacks up your heart rate and adrenaline) and parasympathetic (the rest-and-digest counterpart that tells your muscles, mind, and blood pressure to chill the eff out!). Alas, we live in a world that has zero chill. Or as Marcello puts it: “We live in a sympathetic-dominant world, and most of our health issues are due to excessive sympathetic activation. Our sympathetic nervous system is overactive and can’t get back to a resting state.”

Workouts alone won’t grant us good health or a hotter body. “People are putting in the time at the gym,” says Will Torres, personal trainer and founder of Willspace Training Studio in New York City. “But without the ability to link why they’re doing something or what their body really needs, they’ll never progress. Because they’re not looking at the bigger picture.”

THE SERIOUSLY SIMPLE SOLUTIONOkay, we’re going to take that picture, blow it out, and frame it in a way that’ll change your perspective. But it takes some attitude readjustments. In this new age of training, you won’t earn rewards solely for the calories you crush, the buckets you sweat, or the classes you attend. An integrative approach means considering how all the dots connect; it means being intentional and mindful about your workout routine. Not to go all Lion King on you, but it’s

the circle of daily life: Integrative fitness looks at all the factors that exist in a delicate balance—things like how crappy or awesome your day was or how much shut-eye you got last night.

“Our increasing engagement in a holistic approach shows that we don’t want to just look better but actually be healthier,” says David Harris, vice president of health and human development at Equinox. “It’s the culture’s way of saying, ‘I’m reclaiming my life and I’m taking care of myself.’” And, oddly enough, when that shift happens, workouts can become more consistent and more productive—and results easier to achieve and maintain.

Best of all, it works into any active regimen, whether you’re training for a marathon, streaming a barre session at home, or just trying to sneak in more walking. And it’s easy, mostly because there’s no precise “right” or “wrong” way to do it. Think of it like owning a big box of crayons, says Marcello: “You have all the colors you could ever need, but you don’t need to use all of them every single time.” To keep the analogy going, it’s all about finding the right shades for the right scene. Maybe you were stuck in meetings all day—some gentle yoga and foam rolling will get the blood flowing and open you up, he suggests. Or perhaps you need to blow off steam with high-intensity intervals after a brutal Tuesday. Color that crap away, woman! The choice is yours.

MISSING THE BIGGER PICTURE By all accounts, we should be fitter and healthier than ever. We have a riot of fitness methods at our disposal—strength training, CrossFit, Pilates, every spectrum of dance, boot camp, and beyond. No surprise that health-club memberships shot up 64.9 percent between 2000 and 2014, and participation continues to surge. At the same time, 20.4 million adults now practice yoga. When news hit that no amount of exercise at the gym could counteract our increasingly sedentary lives, the fitness-tracker industry exploded to help us track our daily step totals as if playing an IRL version of Mario Kart.

Problem is, none of the above has brought us any closer to solving America’s health crisis. We’re burning more than 100 fewer calories a day than we did 50 years ago. Plus, 27.7 percent of adults are considered obese, and about half of all adults suffer from some form of chronic illness. Everyday mobility issues are mushrooming for the general public, and because of all this, the physical therapy job market is projected to grow 34 percent from 2014 to 2024, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. “People are breaking down with more frequency,” says Miller. “We have more conveniences than ever, but they’ve inconvenienced us structurally.” (Are you seeing the same doomsday word cloud as us? Tech neck, carpal tunnel syndrome, back pain, BOO!)

But perhaps nothing sucks harder than chronic stress—which, as you may have heard, is linked with risks for anxiety, depression, heart disease, sleep problems, and even cancer. Forty-two percent of adults say they aren’t sure they’re doing enough to ebb their levels, and more than a third of millennials say their stress has increased in the past

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Holistic Fitness—in Action“Odds are, one of these techniques will jump out at you because it’s something you know your program is missing, or it’s something you’ve been wanting to try,” says Marcello. “That’s where I’d begin.”

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STATE OF READINESSThis strategy is about measuring “how much charge is in your battery,” says physical therapist Charlie Weingroff, D.P.T. “It’s the awareness of what the ‘cost,’ so to speak, of training will be that day.” Understanding that makes you smarter at giving your body what it needs, so your time at the gym is more productive. Weingroff helps clients calculate their readiness with a mix of queries and drills, but even asking yourself simple Qs—like how are you feeling on a scale of 1 to 10? How sore are you from your last workout?—can help you gauge if you’re currently below your normal baseline (if so, see Column A) or on full charge (for you, Column B).

Column A (low state of readiness)Lower intensity: Follow original

plan, but don’t go as hard (i.e., lighter weight, fewer reps).

Decrease time: Maintain intensity, but cut duration 50 percent.

Change the plan: Take a rest day, or switch to a lighter activity, like gentle yoga, easy swimming, or foam rolling.

Column B (high state of readiness)Raise intensity: Follow original

plan, but push yourself harder (i.e., more weight, more intervals).

Increase time: Maintain intensity, but up duration 25 percent.

Change the plan: Bookend your planned workout with sprints, or upgrade to a tougher workout.

BREATH AWARENESSYou’ve probably heard this phrase a bajillion times, but we’re talking about controlling those involuntary (mostly unconscious) inhales and exhales. Doing so = better focus, stress relief, and mindfulness. Use it to…

Pump up energy: Slogging before a workout? Mouth closed, inhale and exhale through your nose rapidly (about three breath cycles per second) for up to 15 seconds.

Get stronger: Guarantee core stability while lifting with a slow, controlled exhale after every weight-lifting rep.

Fall asleep faster: And recover better from tough routines. Do four cycles of 4-7-8 breaths: Inhale for 4, hold for 7, and exhale for 8.L

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Set Your Intention. Before every workout, decide what the purpose of that time is. No, no, not just to see flat abs one day—but what instant benefit do you want to gain from the half-hour you spend sweating? Sometimes it might be performance related (say, hitting steady eight-minute splits every mile you run); other times it may be mental (like, to feel more empowered after a tough lift). Whatever your mini goal, creating an intention will help you stay present and focused when boredom, fatigue, or that damn “monkey mind” hits mid-session.

Say It Again. “We know from research that it’s not so much the stress that bothers you—it’s how you respond to it,” says Torres. “What you say to yourself is the key to how you’ll handle the challenge.” Research from Carnegie Mellon University suggests that self-affirmation can raise people’s ability to

solve problems under pressure—probably by delivering a dose of confidence right when you need it. Pick a mantra—a positive, encouraging word or phrase—and put that thing on repeat whenever your thoughts start to wander. “Even ‘I’ve got this’ can work really well,” Marcello says.

Set a Timer. Sometimes focusing on counting reps can have a less-than-motivating effect, making you feel rushed (“Hurry up, let’s finish these!”) or anxious (“Shoot, I’m only at two and I have howmany left?!”). It also brings your mind away from your body—tasking it with counting numbers rather than zeroing in on the mechanics, feeling the engagement of different muscles. Stay tuned in by switching your measuring structure to time rather than reps: Set a timer on your phone for a minute, press start, then keep doing reps until it dings.

MINDFULNESS TRAINING

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Experts agree: Boosting your overall awareness is the top integrative method to incorporate into your routine. Here, four ways to get your mind focused on the now.

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6VISUALIZATIONPopular with top athletes, this involves picturing yourself doing a specific task. Experts back up its merits: “Your brain doesn’t know the difference between real and imagined action,” Marcello says. “If you close your eyes and imagine yourself typing, your brain reacts exactly as if you’re actually typing.” In fact, in one now-famous study, a group who thought about using a weight machine (but never lifted a finger) saw almost the exact same strength gains over two weeks as those who trained five times a week. Yes, seriously!

You don’t have to be a pro to benefit from it, and it’s so accessible (no cost! no equipment!), you really have zero excuse not to give it a shot. “If you’re working on specific movements or struggling with a goal, visualize yourself mastering it,” says Marcello.

Worried about “hitting the wall” on the last few miles of your first half-marathon? Practice seeing the opposite: looking gorg and breathing easy as you stride toward the finish line. Want to tackle heavier weights but overwhelmed by barbells? Watch yourself banging out flawless barbell squats. Think about every tactile detail, from your own perspective: Walking up to the squat rack, feeling the bar on your shoulders, your quads and glutes working hard to push you back up to standing with every rep. No sweat.

5/GLUTES lower-back pain; hip mobility; hamstring tightness; force production and body awareness of pelvis

1/HANDS pain and mobility in forearms, elbows, shoulder, and neck

6/QUADS hip mobility; lower-back pain; knee pain; hamstring function

2/CHEST wrist and hand pain; neck, shoulder, upper-back pain; posture; ease of breath

7/CALVES knee pain; shin splints; calf cramps; jump height and stride length

3/ABDOMEN bloating; lower-back pain; fatigue; immunity boost; breath capacity

8/FEET plantar fasciitis; foot pain from heels; ankle, knee, and hip mobility; overall posture

4/UPPER BACK neck strain; posture; shoulder stiffness; dynamic motion of ribs (for breathing); function of core bracing

MYOFASCIAL RELEASE You know the white stuff that divides an orange into segments? Fascia is kind of like that. It’s a singular weblike system of connective tissue that holds and separates all your muscles and organs from head to toe. Myofascial release involves manipulating specific sections of that fascia that are inflamed or restricted to help increase circulation and mobility. It doesn’t just feel good (think: that moment a massage therapist untangles a knot by your shoulder blade): “Fascia is loaded with sensory neurons, so it helps alleviate pain, can increase proprioception—your unconscious body awareness—and improve coordination,” says Miller.

Because it’s one big interconnected tissue, there’s a ripple effect, she adds. “While working on one spot, neighboring and even quite distant areas will benefit as well.” A specialist can give you a personalized treatment, or you can go the DIY route and use a foam roller, small ball (like tennis or lacrosse ball), or even a rolled towel and follow this body map of spots to pinpoint your various aches and pains.

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DEEP RELAXATIONThere’s a reason you feel so lovely after yoga class: savasana is a staple of every session. Deep relaxation refers to ending any type of exercise with dedicated wind-down time. Why it helps? “The body makes its biggest physical gains when it’s at rest, not when it’s active,” says Harris. “If you rush out of a workout, there’s no time for the body to recalibrate and enter that restorative phase.” After your workout, find a comfortable spot and lie down. (If you have a yoga block, place it under your hips. “Any position that puts the pelvis higher than the head instantly changes your physiology,” Miller says. “It’s like pressing the off button on a computer.”) Close your eyes, breathe deeply. Do nothing, soak in every second of it. (Minimum dose, three minutes. Maximum dose, 20 minutes.)

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