That rhymes (well, kind of), how awesome.
Random things aside, the first and second week now have gone by so fast and much, much learning and working has been going on :) It’s been quite long days (getting there at 8am, and leaving some days at 6 or 7pm), but I’m really enjoying the experience on the whole.
The first week was working in housekeeping. Like I said above, some days were quite long, but I’ve enjoyed it a lot - I got to meet all of the Shanti Som staff and love every one of them (and hope they like me back, but I’m pretty sure they just think I’m ‘loco’)! :=)
Apart from the personal trainer Javier (from Spain), the nutritionist Vicky (from the Netherlands), and the yoga teachers Sarah (Spanish/English) and Natalie (also Dutch), and the receptionists (so basically anyone who is employed to interact with the guests), the rest of the staff (the whole kitchen team, the cleaners, the gardener José, the handy dandy repair/DIY man - I don’t know what his official job title is :P) only speak Spanish. It was a very interesting and challenging week for me in terms of linguistical communication! Using my hands a lot helped. Also nodding and smiling despite not understanding a word and saying “entiendo, entiendo”.
From the perspective of hotel maintenance and cleaning, the Shanti Som has a live-in couple from Romania - Alina, and her husband, who are like the guardians and chef cleaners. Daniela is the accomplice cleaner who comes in 5 days a week, and I was given the role as her side-kick :=)
Before I got my bike a few days ago, Daniela was kind enough to pick me up and drop me off on her way to work. She lives in Coin, and so thankfully Monda is on the way, but I would meet her just at the entrance of Monda. To get there from my little village villa required a 30 minute continuous uphill walk, and on the 2nd day I found a little shortcut down into this derelict sloping pasture space behind the village’s dump, which increased the gradient significantly but also the distance. So every morning before daybreak (and many mornings in the rain), I would find myself scrambling up this rocky, grassy hillside to reach the top of the village where Daniela would pick me up to drive the remaining 7 minutes to Shanti Som (literally, no more than 7 minutes, but to walk would take at least 45). I actually really enjoyed it, and imagined myself as a Lara Croft on a mission...or something like that ;).
I participated in one private pilates class with Javier and a client (who is lovely and always asks if I’m joining his classes haha), and also watched one session with the same client where Javier used the Reformer machine, which is this piece of pilates equipment that either looks like a torturing device, or just a very kinky piece of equipment straight from 50 Shades of Grey (it has fluffy handcuffs), depending on what kind of perspective you have.
Anyways, I’m not here to bore you to death describing my adventures in getting to work in the Andalusian mountains when you don’t have a car (ah, though I do have a funny story involving my brand new mountain bike, involving accidentally biking down the entire mountain…).
Most of my tasks during the first week were cleaning and maintenance of the 13 bedrooms, cleaning the reception area, and cleaning the staff area. The spa area also turned into a focus as they recently had to close it for reconstruction (apparently the actual ceiling of the Turkish bath was caving in and nearly collapsing! “that’s Spanish workers for you”, quote from the manager), and it was just finished a few days ago, so we had to move all of the equipment in, clear up the construction mess, and even clean the plants that had gotten all dusty. My phone has decided to stop working, so I can’t access my photos of all the exciting cleaning stuff I did, unfortunately :=(
Despite my planned role to just do housekeeping the first week, I ended up doing quite a few other things too… like giving 2 personal training sessions on Sunday to two English women who had come to Shanti Som together to do the Weight Loss Retreat, going for a hike with a client, and discussing and answering questions with the nutritionist.
Reception had mixed up something, so Javier said that he thought I was “more than capable” of doing the personal training (probably more motivated by the fact he wanted a day off?! haha). So I planned 2 sessions based on their fitness level, and also a different focus than Friday’s pilates class they had with Javier, and Saturdays Circuit Interval Training they had with Sarah. I choose to focus on the the glute muscles, as well as core stability due to their personal muscle weaknesses and imbalances (I expand on the reasoning behind this a bit more below). The sessions went really well based on the feedback they gave at the end. From a didactical perspective, it was a new experience teaching one-to-one physical activity. I also had to think on my toes a little, as one of them experiences back pain in many exercise positions even when in proper form as she has chronic back issues, so had to keep swapping exercises (I nearly ran out of ideas by the end!).
Going on a hike with Sarah (of of the staff) and a guest named Vincent also ended up into a kind of health discussion, and coaching, which I found a really effective way to engage and educate while at the same time being active (kind of like hitting two birds thing one stone - theory and practice at the same time!) - if only I could drive, and I would propose to do this weekly. We also did around 10 minutes of meditation on top of the hike, led by Sarah, which was to let go of past and future thoughts to just be in the moment and appreciate the beautiful environment - super nice :=) I mean how can you not be in awe of such a view...
So to briefly reflect on week 1: I’m really grateful to have done a week in the house cleaning sector - first, because I got to know staff (Daniella and Alina, the two cleaning superstars) at a level I probably wouldn’t have if I went straight into working with the personal trainer or nutritionist (where I would have been working straight in English). I don’t consider their work any lower on any measure (it’s bloody hard work!!!!!!!!), but because they are mostly “behind the scenes” as it were, and the fact they only speak Spanish, I don’t think I would have otherwise gotten to interact with them. So in this way, I really feel integrated and accepted by the whole team at Shanti Som, and kind of like as if I’ve “earned my place”, as it were. And they are the sweetest, too! Despite my AWFUL attempts at Spanish, we managed to laugh a lot, understand each other (mostly… and increasingly so as the week moved on and my Spanish vocabulary incrementally grew to more than one word), and get a heck of a lot of cleaning done.
This second week entailed shadowing the personal trainer, Javier, who I already started to work with last week, as well as making the fresh juices for those following the Weight Loss Retreat, giving my own personal training sessions, looking after the gym (making sure everything was in place, etc). There was also even a little drama that got stirred up from one of the guests that stayed (will detail below)... exciting stuff! ;D
After the week of observing over 12 hours of personal training sessions, I’ve noticed a few commonalities in terms of conditioned and problematic movement patterns and biomechanics that are important to address and be aware of when personal training. Most of guests, especially those who don’t have a history of regular exercise, have very weak core stability and abdominal muscle activation (no judgement here, just observation!!). This is often linked to spinal faults such as lumbar overextension or flexion where the lower back then overcompensates and take the load (that can cause tightness and pain), and this causes the abdominals to weaken.
I noticed “glute amnesia” in most of the clients I worked with and observed, which is an inability to fire the gluteus muscle group (gluteus maximus, medius and minimus), and they essentially go dormant. This is super common due to our sedentary “office job” lives as daily sitting for hours on end can shorten the hip flexors and so limits full hip extension and glute firing. Daily sitting, especially consecutively with no breaks (helloooo student life, haha!) also compresses the gluteus maximus, impairing blood flow and nutrition to the muscles, as well as interfere with neuromuscular power. Why is this important, I hear you ask?! Well, in short, weak glutes can be a cause of low back pain, knee pain, valgus collapse (where the knees cave in), spinal faults (of overextension and flexion), muscle imbalances (like quad dominance) and increased risk of injury in all areas of the body due to it’s muscular connection to the upper body, core, and lower body extremities. They play an integral role in overall functioning and wellness, but glute amnesia cause other muscles, like the low back, hamstrings and quads, to overcompensate.
Sorry, went on a bit of a tangent there, but needless to say having a strong arse, erm I mean glutes, is very important for everyday, pain-free, injury-free living!
I like Javier’s methodology in general (and LOVE his contagious enthusiasm and energy - he is even more bouncy around than me!!!), and especially his emphasis on proper alignment and posture, spinal health and mobility, and core activation. He has a background in pilates and aerobics as well as deep tissue massage, and in his sessions, he focuses on moving joints in their full range of motion, and especially in dynamic ways that our bodies have all but forgotten in our modern lifestyles! The first session he has with any client is also to demonstrate proper diaphragmatic breathing, and neutral spine and hip position, and to take a postural assessment to see if there are any biomechanical issues to be aware of and correct.
A few more comments on the overall set up: I really love the center, the atmosphere and the staff here, but I don’t completely agree with a couple of concepts they integrate from a health point of view... and, more recently, from a point of view of how the staff is treated and the staff facilities (another post). Their methods may work well for maximised weight loss, but some of the measures (lots of LISS cardio, severe calorie deficits, and juice detoxes) I think are not long-term sustainable, and could promote catabolism of muscle mass and a down regulation of the metabolism… and so create a “boomerang” effect once “normal life” resumes. Sometimes guests stay for a month or longer (some have stayed up to 6 months!!!). Education and awareness that these are SHORT-term interventions need to be made more clear to the client, in my opinion.
Another observation I’m noticing crop up is that many of the guests I have seen come and stay at the hotel over the short period of the past two weeks (so not saying this is conclusive or anything, but merely pointing out from my experience being here so far), is that many of them are dealing with medical conditions… but putting weight loss first, and OBSESSING about the number on the scale above all else. Shanti Som isn’t a clinic, and it does not provide the facilities to monitor severe health conditions, and the nutritionist and professionals here aren't doctors so I don’t expect that - but at the same time, it is a concern that has arisen due to the nature of the retreats they provide. As in, how the juicing (being on only juice), high levels of activity and specific nutrition given to each individual is based on loosing weight, and not necessarily with the implications of certain health conditions in mind… I realise I’m not explaining myself very well, so maybe I can provide you with one example of the past week to demonstrate my point.
Let’s call this one client Susy (pseudo-name, of course, for that oh-so-important professional confidentiality ;). So, Susy is one of the ladies I’m following, and has Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis, which is an autoimmune thyroid condition that completely changes the rules of weight loss on a physiological level. The pathophysiology of hypothyroidism makes losing weight much harder due to the hormonal and metabolic changes that occur. Thyroid hormones have widespread effects on cellular metabolism directly, acting on receptors on the nucleus of cells that sends a message to DNA to increase metabolism and cellular respiration in the mitochondria. An under active thyroid usually increases insulin resistance and increases cortisol levels, as T3 (the active form of thyroxine) interacts with all other hormones in the body (everything is connected, after all!;), which puts the body in a sympathetic nervous system stress response, and Hashimoto’s is additionally an autoimmune condition (the immune system attacks body tissue), which also increases inflammation - and all of these factors make it hard to loose weight, no matter how little you are eating, and how little you are exercising.
So, her goals for coming to the centre is to lose weight rapidly for her upcoming wedding. Long story short, focusing on getting healthy and improving her thyroid through addressing any nutrient deficiencies (iodine, zinc, selenium, iron and B12 are essential for thyroid hormone production), improving gut lining integrity and the gut microbiome (increased intestinal permeability is an underlying driver of autoimmunity) would balance her hormones, and build her metabolism and so as a byproduct, the process of weight loss would then become much easier, instead of fighting an uphill battle with a body that is hormonally out of balance.
So while the intention is good, I think the mentality is counterproductive (certainly towards health, anyway).
So although losing weight in itself can in many cases help improve the symptoms of, say, metabolic syndrome, cardiovascular disease and other conditions, and improve blood lipid profile and inflammatory markers, I still would encourage a mentality where health comes first. What do you guys think?
So one thing I’ve been motivated to do is to talk with the guests around this subject.
Education around human metabolism, the role of nutrition and movement, the impact of mindset and mentality in the context of behaviour change, the importance of muscle mass and the benefit of SLOW, SUSTAINABLE fat loss over rapid weight loss using extreme methods. Later on, I will be giving health talks and discussions to the guests that touch upon this too, in a more formal setting.
“Susy”’s case is also the perfect segway into the little “drama” we had over here at Shanti Som this past week - the centre had an unpleasant experience with 2 guests (one in particular) who came to stay for 5 days. I wasn’t affected personally, as I got on decently well with them (despite objectively seeing the clashes), but long story short, they were quite obsessed about losing 3kg in the 5 days that they were here (which is already extreme, and misguided because weight lost this quickly will be water or muscle weight), but weren't so enthusiastic about doing the work to get there. Apparently paying a lot of money to stay at the hotel should automatically guarantee a 3kg weight loss ;=) Unfortunately money cannot replace hard work, and they demanded a refund on the nutritional consult and program they received from the nutricoach here (which was the first time that had happened), although they ended up loving the personal trainer and requesting him for home sessions… much to his disappointment haha.
It was interesting to see how the hotel dealt with such an issue, and they informed me that the manager decided that if they call up to book in the future, they will be kindly declined.
I’ve also got some homework from the nutritionist Vicky, and from Javier - to write up 12 sample P.T sessions based on beginner, intermediate and advanced fitness level, and for each retreat: Weight Loss and High Intensity. As well as write him a nutrition plan (and I actually don’t agree with prescription diets at ALL as I think everyone is so individual… so will talk to him about this!). A focus that is also coming up for me is getting the Shanti Som staff more involved in the whole wellbeing side of things, and seeing how I can improve the conditions for them. I have more comments I want to share on the staff facilities, but for now Javier has already requested if I could share my daily salads at lunch :=D This week I get to dip my toes more into the nutrition sector, so will be in more comfortable and familiar territory for me (I don’t feel I have much competence in personal training… but hopefully that will (and have no choice but to) grow through all the experience I’ll get when replacing Javier on his holiday! Yes, I am officially becoming THE personal trainer for 2 weeks at the end of March - scary or exciting? Haven't decided yet ;P
This morning (Tuesday) I gave 2 personal training sessions that I felt went really well, and got good feedback. I’m slightly sad as one of them was my fav guest (I know, I know having favourites is never good :P), and it was his last time as he is leaving today. He had great music taste, too, so we would have a blast dancing for our rest between exercises!
Right now I am working on material and writing a booklet to give clients to go home with, and also drafting a health talk I will be giving on Sunday! Then I have some menus to calculate the macros for, and tomorrow will be introduced to how the programs are presented to new guests, as I may be doing that this weekend... At least I have my own little office to work in this week :=)
Ok, there is so much more I could say, but I will stop here so this darn thing gets posted (and it’s already mammoth long), otherwise another week will go by... Adios amigos!
