Whether you’re lost in a frenzy of summer activities or in the midst of off-season doldrums, it’s a good time to take a little time to focus on yourself.  And focusing on YOU is at the very heart of the ME System.

ME stands for Motion Empowered, a system for making everyday activities a workout.  But it also reflects the intensely individualized approach to your balance, strength and fitness that you’ll experience at Designer Fitness.

Many people ask why they can’t just start in one of the small group classes, instead of the individual sessions required of every new Designer Fitness client.  The answer: Because we both have work to do that requires our uninterrupted concentration and attention!

I’m working hard in your first few sessions, observing your every movement.  It’s a discovery process.  I need to see how your muscles move and in what order, concentrating on what are your dominant areas and where your muscles are weak, looking for the effects of injury or your everyday life habits – good or bad – on your muscles, movement patterns and spine.  I pay special attention to your spine, which is so crucial to your health and well-being.

And every new client needs to focus on learning the ME System!  Most people, whether you exercise or not, are not “connected” – muscles, tendons, joints all operate in bits and pieces.  Our goal is to make sure everything works in unison, by creating coherent movement patterns.

For someone who has not been exercising regularly, the slow movements in the initial balancing and unwinding sequence can be quite a workout by themselves, and it may take the whole first hour just to go through them.

New clients who do exercise regularly sometimes feel challenged by the ME System’s requirement to maintain focus on balance and to move slowly, staying within a range of motion that doesn’t recruit strong muscles to compensate for weak ones.  And they might feel frustrated, because they are used to the adrenaline rush of a strenuous workout.

At the end of the first session, some clients may feel they didn’t do that much.  Trust me, we both worked hard!

Once the body is calibrated and you know the system, you develop an awareness of the signs and signals that will keep you within your own range of motion – and you’ll be ready to move into small group sessions.

Every body is different, so even in groups, you will be doing your exercises in a way that addresses your own issues – chronic or new.  I’m always asking, “Where are you feeling it?” so I can monitor any problems and adjust the exercise to fit your current needs.

And every body changes.  Are you sitting at your computer more, traveling or lifting heavier objects?  Your body will be different the next time I see you.

Sometimes after a change, illness or injury, clients like to schedule a few individual sessions to really focus on what’s going on with them now.  And some clients stay with individual sessions every time they come to Designer Fitness – which can be for years and years!

There’s a huge difference between being fit and being balanced.  People who are getting back into exercising and say they used to be fit tell me about all they could do previously, but people who are balanced are still doing it.

The ME System helps you achieve and maintain balance and fitness – keys to a longer and happier life.

TaDa! Hope to see you soon.

Darla