Appendix 3: Sample Plans

The following case studies are examples of how exercise goals can be aligned with career or personal development goals. These are real scenarios, but the names have been changed.

Dina

• A 40-year-old woman - slightly overweight - 5’ 7”, 150 lbs
• Profession – Image Consultant
• Mother of one child - 15 years old
• Has intermittent back pain
• Involved with live-in boyfriend, but marriage, while desired by Dina is not forthcoming due to his reluctance and fear of commitment.

Physically she has a high degree of body sensitivity, and a fear of pushing her body too hard. Highly emotionally charged. Uses food and chocolate as means to avoid unpleasant emotional issues. Childhood imprinting of not feeling good about her body has created a negative association. She is a very interactive, highly intellectual, but is also a shy person who has a great deal of warmth and empathy. Her skills are listening to her clients’ needs, goals and desires and providing the best and most tasteful arrangement of colors, wardrobe and makeover suggestions suited towards each client’s individuality. She is highly creative but lacks motivation, direction and stamina to make her dreams come true.

Vision 

• Physical Goals - to lose weight, feel good and have more energy
• Career Goals – wants to be on TV with her own style show

Physical Picture

• Tight upper neck muscles
• Tightness between shoulder blades
• Weak core
• Weak lower body
• Tight hamstrings

Requirements for Physical Goals

• Increase her bodies calorie-burning efficiency
• Decrease emotional/bored eating habits
• Stretching of hamstrings, upper neck, and upper back with
• Core and lower body strengthening increase her ability to support herself

Requirements for Career Goals

• Commitment – following through for her health and career goals
• Increase self comfort levels – for her own health and being on TV
• Integrity – to help her hold her body/mind together during trying times
• Courage – to face herself, the camera, and the audience
• Remaining calm – for all aspects of life
• Confidence – to help her realize she can achieve what she wants and that she is worthy of success
• Perseverance/Endurance – Maintaining her course

Dina’s Prescribed Plan

• Help her feel safe and comfortable in her body/mind.
• Provide her with an experiential process to realize for herself her potential through progressive strengthening exercises while pushing her comfort zone
• Provide her with coping mechanisms/tools during moments of emotional need to empower her personal choice of healthy eating.
• Progressive endurance training program

Specifics

• Commit to a specific number of sessions per week
• Increase self comfort levels:
• Intentional relaxation
• Stretching
• Listening to her body
• Creating her vision 
• Melting tension
• Discernment - Help her get on track with her eating and provide her with the tools to discern between true hunger and emotional eating.
• Integrity – Encourage her to perform each exercise with the utmost honesty and commitment to form and the completion of the movement
• Courage – to attempt new movements, weights and reach for higher goals
• Remaining calm – Apply relaxation to the parts of her body that do not need to work while maintaining an inner calm
• Confidence – Have her experientially know she can perform exercises she previously thought she could not do
• Perseverance/Endurance – Focus on picking a time and pace and sticking with it until it is finished

Exercises to be Utilized

• Lower body – Only perform standing poses to encourage self supportive behaviors
• Squats, leg lunges, held squatting positions, walking lunges,
• Core
• Stabilization poses, Swiss ball exercises
• Treadmill
• Interval Training
• Walking progressive incline
• Upper body movements
• Light weights to promote upper body mobility
• Have her create her own movement patterns which feel good for her

Steve

• 35-year-old man - 6’ 0” - 160 lbs
• Married with two toddlers
• Runs his own successful real estate business
• In good shape – athletic, but no longer has time
• Overly mental
• Poor body awareness
• Endures a degree of daily pain

Steve is under a great deal of stress running his business and providing for his family. He is very driven and intelligent. Has had a lot of experiencing working out, but his body is starting to breakdown.

His vision is to have his body back to a physical comfort level that promotes his active lifestyle, provides him with enough energy to run his business and have enough left over to be with his children and wife.

Good disposition, but can be overly aggressive and unforgiving.

Physical Picture

• Tightness
• Upper neck muscles
• Upper and lower back
• Hips
• Thighs are taunt and unrelenting in their grip
• Good core strength, but these muscles are always on to brace against lower back pain
• Lower body strong, but also tight to avoid pain
• Super tight hamstrings and quads

Requirements for Physical Goals

• Decrease/eliminate his pain
• Educate self-relief and self-healing techniques
• Stretching of hamstrings, upper neck, and upper back
• Teach focused relaxation techniques to release the stomach
• Teach proper core usage techniques
• Teach mental calming and clearing techniques 

Requirements for Life Goals

• Intimacy and self-awareness
• Self comfort level and self-connection
• Remaining calm
• Grounding

Steve’s Prescribed Plan

• Help him calm his mind and body.
• Provide him with experiential awareness and coping tools to begin practicing stress and tension releasing techniques during his day.
• Provide stress releasing/strengthening exercises 

Specifics

• Increase self comfort levels – Steps 2 - 4
• Remaining calm – Apply relaxation to the parts of his body that do not need to work and maintain an inner calm.
• Progressive intense complex strengthening program designed to increase his ability to focus along with his ability to exert

Exercises to be Utilized

• Relaxation/meditation
• Stretches lower and upper body
• Lower leg exercises with a focus on explosive power movements to release the built up tension locked within
• Combine these explosive movements with stretching and calming techniques
• Squats
• Jumps/Forward bend
• Lunges
• One legged leaps/hamstring stretch
• Cable column
• Straight legged hip flexion performed fast to expel accumulated stored energy/stand, ground and breath
• Upper body
• Chest press/chest stretch
• Slow back exercises to generate deeper body awareness, performed with mindful intensity