This book will show you how to focus on your core as a powerhouse
of physical, emotional, and spiritual power. (p. 215)

Dr. Bohdanna Zazulak, while researching why so many women get injured in sports and everyday activities, encounters many findings aligned with multiple Academy Leadership workshops and influential leadership authors focused on holistic principles rather than everyday managerial techniques.

In short, this review answers the question why we should read Dr. Zazulak's work, assess ourselves, and apply our findings.

Alignment
Take a look at the Life's Compass Rose used in the Aligning and Accomplishing Goals workshop:

Notice how many of these sixteen points are not related to the workplace or career. When workshop participants self-evaluate relative satisfaction levels, one of the top improvement areas shared is physical. In the past few years, or during the Covid environment, open discussion of additional topics such as relationships and work/life balance have appeared more frequently.

Let's review another seminar, the Leader's Compass workshop. Energy is explicitly called out as the fundamental currency of high performance, and further that full engagement requires drawing on four separate but related dimensions of energy: physical, emotional, mental and spiritual. These four factors are likewise cited in Tony Schwartz's The Power of Full Engagement as essential.

Know Yourself

Chapters one through eight are similar to the first day of a Leadership Excellence Course, in that we must learn deeply about ourselves. Research has forced scientists and medical professionals to recognize the importance of the mind-body connection for optimal wellness and injury prevention (p. 10). Similar to an effective communication or feedback process, the first step is to connect with each of your core muscles by learning to find them as they work, since you cannot strengthen a muscle that your brain is not using (p. 14).

It's as though we've focused so much on modern systems, knowledge acquisition and productivity, we've forgotten about any adverse human effects. For example, our modern lifestyles often force us into a position where our necks are craned forward, our shoulders are shrugged up toward our ear, our backs are rounded, and our hands are out in front of us (p. 28).

Consider two useful terms: Static Posture = Position & Dynamic Alignment = Action (p. 46), especially if often sitting in front of a computer monitor. Focus less on maintaining rigid posture and more on dynamic core alignment to stabilize your body without compromising your breath or creating muscle tension and stiffness (p. 51). Dr Zazulak shares an interesting discovery (p. 59) that hormones may influence neuromuscular factors, such as proprioception, balance, and agility, and that these factors are the ones that predispose women to suffer more injuries (p. 59).

In Mark Crowley's Lead From the Heart, he posits Engagement is a Decision of the Heart. This isn't new age psychobabble, it's physiological. Zazulak finds the same. The vagus nerve, the key player in regulating heart rate, is the longest nerve in your body and it connects your brain to many other important organs (p. 89). She offers an insightful term: Vagal tone, which lowers the resting heart rate, regulates mood, provides relief from headaches, improves immune function, provides mental clarity, and creates an overall feeling of peace and happiness (p. 90).

Application | BASE

Chapters nine - thirteen are application-based on the following process:

Breathing deeply with dynamic stretches to align and awaken your inner core.
Awareness of your mind-core connection through meditation, kinetic learning, and nervous system training.
Stability of your core as the control center of your body.
Empowerment of your core through alternative philosophies and activities that will help you make core stability part of your lifestyle (pp. 7-8).

Think of awareness as keeping a leadership journal. The listed tables capture all of the recommended exercises:

Table 1       The Core Stretching 7            p. 143
Table 2       The Core Awareness 7          p. 162
Table 3       The Core Balance 7                p. 171
Table 4       The Core Med Ball Exercises   p. 176
Table 5       The Core Stability 7               p. 181
Table 6       The Core Plyometric 7           p. 186
Table 7       The Core Suspension 7         p. 191
Table 8       The Core Score                     p. 217

Summary

Interestingly, Dr. Zazulak expresses the value of gratitude at the end of her work. We may likewise share our findings in our Personal Leadership Philosophy as we progress through our self-discovery.

Breath training will increase the recruitment of core musculature,
improve functional biomechanics, and create new
neural connections throughout your brain and body,
all of which will protect and empower you (p. 124).

Jessica Sy kindly provided a copy of Dr. Zazulak's book for review.

JE | August 2022