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Morten

The teacher was very understanding of my level. She didn’t push me too hard and also tried to provide me guidance in a very comfortable manner, so that attracted me very much at first.

First of all, I do a lot of cardio-based exercises, but this kind of taught me that you don’t have to go and push yourself to the maximum every time. You can actually just do 80% or 85%, and that’s actually better than doing 100%. That was one of the learnings.

I also do meditation on a daily basis, and this was kind of a combination between doing exercise and also being in a meditative state. When you’re done, I’m not saying it’s similar to when you’re running because all the endorphins are just up, but you feel like you have a more free mind when you’re leaving here.

I know it sounds pretty simple, but it was blowing my mind. When we’re doing a stretch, the teacher was literally saying, “Don’t do 100% because we don’t want to release endorphins,” which I always thought was great to release because it has this impact on your brain. When we’re told, “Just do 85% because we don’t want to release your endorphins because we don’t want you to get injured,” that was one aspect. The other aspect was it was much more comfortable doing that. It felt like an easier flow and made me want to come back instead of just pushing yourself too hard.

When I did the practice at the gym, I was injured for like a week afterwards because they just kept pushing me and stretching me even though my body was not ready for it at all. It seems like a much more holistic approach, and it’s also longer sessions. When you have one and a half hours, you can have a proper warm-up and a proper warm-down, including the meditation practice in the end. It seems like a much better flow compared to what I was experiencing at the gym.

I would say the main impact was that I started stretching and taking better care of my body—thinking more long-term with my body rather than shorter. I think that was the biggest impact on my other practices. For instance, if you go to the gym and you do cardio, you feel great, you get your pulse up, you get sweaty. If you do the muscle training, you can feel it straight away, right? Whereas if you go here, it’s more something you need to do on a consistent basis in order to help and improve your body.

I started thinking more long-term, and also if you want to be able to be active at the age of 50 or 60 and upwards, you need to do this practice as a foundation for all the rest. I completely realized that through our conversations as well.

Whenever I had the consistency and I was able to come two times in a row, you can feel a massive difference. I would say flexibility, and then the second thing is we do a lot of breathing exercises. I also think that had an impact in terms of the capacity in your lungs. Obviously, if you do the breathing exercises just here, that doesn’t really impact too much, but if you also do it throughout the week, that’s definitely something that I was able to feel.

I could apply the breathing that I learned here to when I was out running. If you started doing it while running, you could actually keep a higher pace. I guess that is related to the capacity that you’re able to build, but also just the focus when you’re out running.

I was not able to apply the running breathing in here. The work that we do here in Baseworks helps build the capabilities in terms of getting into a meditative state, and the combination between body and mindset is very much connected, which I don’t think you have so much when you do cardio. I think that was the big difference for me.

It mostly traces back to the mindset that we build up here in Baseworks. It kind of just puts your mindset towards more long-term. An example could be when I’m at work, I would be focused on sometimes sitting on a yoga ball, sometimes standing up working. That’s how it kind of impacts indirectly.

In Baseworks, the teachers have a lot of focus on the physiological impact on how you’re supposed to be with your body and how that connects. Also, the language that is used—I would describe the Baseworks teachers as very pleasant, and I feel very comfortable being in a room with them.

For myself, I am very little flexible, having done a lot of sports throughout my life, and there was a clear understanding of helping me and giving me extra additional support, which I really appreciate. The guidance doesn’t just go into “you have to do this position this way,” but also why that is, why you have to do it in that way, which I really appreciate.

I played football at quite a high level and was exposed to a lot of the coaches there. Throughout my time here in Baseworks, it’s definitely been something I’ve been thinking about—what if I’d had a football coach with the same knowledge and approach as the Baseworks teachers? I think that would have helped me a lot when I was younger, simply to get a holistic approach to why you’re doing things and also the guidance in a much more understandable way.

The Baseworks teachers have integrity, are very knowledgeable, take their time to instruct you, and also take time afterwards to catch up on where you’re struggling and how you can overcome that with time. Again, I want to say, not pressuring it too much is just a key aspect of still learning.

At Baseworks, the key for me is just the way that they’re able to bind everything together that really makes a difference to me, and also opening up my mind to how you’re actually supposed to do it this way because of X and Y factors. I like it. It kind of feels to me like an open culture and an open approach that Baseworks is facilitating.

I think it makes a lot of sense to have the teachers also practicing. They feel like one of us. They speak to you at eye height, as we say in Denmark, which is really appealing—an appealing environment to tap into for an outsider like me, definitely. I like the human approach at Baseworks.

You become more comfortable being at your level as a beginner. It’s definitely something that is appealing that you have a lot of students here who have a super high level, and that can be a bit frightening when you come in. For me, I used to play football and I’d be one of the best, right? That’s always easy. But coming in and actually being the worst every time and feeling that—that can be tough. But when you have teachers who have an understanding of that and can help you throughout your journey, that’s an appealing environment.

I think there’s a lot of potential in Baseworks as a community and developing that further because it’s a nice place to be and it seems like everybody has a similar objective when they come here. I think there’s a lot there to develop, and it’s definitely something that I would tap into if there were further teachings or social arrangements, etc.

Everybody seems focused and they’re there because they want to be there, not just because they have to push through it. There’s a lot of different cultures, which is definitely important to me because that helps with the communication and taking part of the community. People are coming with the same objective. They’re very conscious of what they are there to achieve.

People are on time, always. Even though I’m coming two minutes before starting time, everybody’s ready. There’s usually a bit of chitchat, and especially the teachers will help with that, which is super awesome. Once we go into the practice, it’s focus—nobody is speaking or chitchatting. People are very thoughtful of each other. Even though it might be a lot of people in the same room because of the demand, people do take care of each other and make it work and make everybody’s time worth coming.

The mood of the room also changes. In the beginning, everybody’s getting into it, getting into the practice. Once the practice is going, everybody’s focused. Then once we go to the more calm part where it’s a meditative state, there’s complete silence and people are able to relax and try to get into this meditative state, which is great. Once you finish, you pack up your stuff and go, and maybe you can talk a little bit with folks before leaving.