Many Americans are now going to fitness centers over yoga studios to practice a new kind of mind-body workout known as Integral Strength Training. In his heady new book Strength to Awaken, performance coach Rob McNamara shows athletes and fitness enthusiasts how to use an integrative approach to strength training to transform working out into a spiritual practice like yoga, and experience major performance enhancements in all areas of life.

“Yoga is great for balancing body and mind, but it doesn’t do much for bone density and muscle mass,” shares Rob McNamara, author of Strength to Awaken. “Integral Strength Training teaches you how to build muscle while sharpening your mind and nourishing your soul at the same time.”

McNamara’s manual for spiritual cross-training encourages a type of total engagement that is designed to help strength trainers get every aspect of their lives in tip-top condition. Strength to Awaken teaches trainers how to maintain motivation, experience more pleasure and true happiness, build muscle mass faster, navigate injuries and accelerate recovery, and transform life obstacles into spiritual fuel. McNamara encourages his students to deeply engage with all areas of life, especially those that it would be easier to avoid, as a main means to access an untapped reservoir of personal potential.

The core concepts in Strength to Awaken are inspired by a uniquely postmodern paradigm known as Integral Theory, a perspective first advanced by brainiac bodybuilder Ken Wilber, the most widely translated academic writer in the United States. Integral is a “theory of everything” that synthesizes the world’s great knowledge traditions into a seamless understanding of the human experience, inner and outer.

McNamara’s application of Integral Theory to traditional strength training is designed to deliver massive and measurable results both in and out of the gym. Like yoga, Integral Strength Training invites those striving for the perfect physique and greater mental and emotional wellbeing to bring both their heart and mind to the workout. Strength to Awaken introduces integral weight training strategies that are scientifically proven open new neural pathways between the brain and body, and deliver multifaceted results for the same amount of sweat.

“Why focus only on just working out your body at the gym when you can develop your emotional, spiritual and mental strength at the same time” asks McNamara. “Because weight lifting is all about visible results, Integral Strength Training is as much about being prepared to easily handle crushing life circumstances as it is about how much you can deadlift.”

About Rob McNamara

Rob McNamara a skilled Psychotherapist, leading Performance Coach, Psychology Professor at Naropa University, and an Integral Zen Practitioner. He runs his private practice in Boulder Colorado serving performance-driven professionals, undergraduate and graduate students, and athletes ranging from high school students to Olympic champions to professional sports stars.