MINDFULNESS CAN TRANSFORM YOUR FITNESS TRAINING
Mindfulness has lately become a hot topic. Actually, though, it’s rooted in ancient traditions—it was originally conceived as a way to ease suffering and cultivate compassion. There are various descriptions of mindfulness, but in short, it’s living in the moment. It’s a conscious effort to be completely present—to take your attention away from the past or future and simply focus on what’s happening with you right now without interpretation or judgment. I’ll talk about mindfulness in general and then how we can use it in our fitness training.
The Mayo Clinic cites studies that mindfulness helps reduce stress and anxiety and can improve your mood. Mindfulness can also help manage chronic pain, cope with cancer, prevent depression relapse, maintain a healthy weight and alleviate sleep problems.
Mindfulness training is available at schools, hospitals and through parks & recreation classes. But you don’t need to go through formal training to practice mindfulness. Here are a few recommendations, again from the Mayo Clinic.
One of the key aspects of mindfulness is learning to place yourself fully in the present moment. You can start by paying close attention to the world around you. Use your senses, one at a time, to become aware of what’s going on in the space you’re occupying. Or when you’re engaged in a conversation, don’t let your mind wander—really pay attention to what the other person is saying.
Another important element of mindfulness is observing without judgment. Looking at others—and yourself—with appreciation and curiosity rather than criticism will help you from making premature evaluations or snap judgments that may prevent you from enjoying new experiences. Being mindful doesn’t mean you won’t feel angry or sad or annoyed. These feelings come up. But when they do, feel the emotion, observe it without judgment and let it flow through naturally.
When you find your mind wandering, a reliable way to bring yourself back to the present moment is to focus on your breath. Forget everything else for a moment and feel each breath as it moves in and out. By giving your mind just one thing to keep track of—your breath—you increase your powers of concentration, which can bring about deep calm and awareness.
The more you learn to experience, accept and appreciate each moment in your life for what it is—without longing for something else or something better—the deeper your calm and the more peaceful and joyful you will feel.
Using Mindfulness to Improve Your Workouts
Mindfulness and fitness training seem dissimilar—in one you’re cultivating physical and mental stillness and in the other you’re in a state of heightened physical and mental activity. But it’s possible to merge awareness and physical exercise together as one. This allows you to experience the present moment during your physical activity. Yoga comes immediately to mind as a practice that focuses specifically on mind-body integration. But top trainers and fitness professionals agree that the same inward focus that’s central to yoga can also help increase the effectiveness of strength training and cardiovascular activities.
The following tips come from integrating articles by Cam Speck of Fitplan (www.fitplanapp.com), Greg Presto of the Sonima Foundation (www.sonima.com) and Adam Brady of the Chopra Center (www.chopra.com). I believe these practices are especially relevant to us seniors who wish to keep at their fitness training with maximum satisfaction and minimum pain and injury for many years to come.
Feel Your Body This sounds obvious, but many people approach exercise at full force and don’t slow down long enough to truly feel what’s going on in their bodies. Being conscious of your energy level, aches and pains and overall physical condition provides a gauge for your current status and protects your body from injury. Being well attuned to the body improves form, aligns movements with breath and increases spatial awareness. Being mindful, reminds you to use correct posture and create the optimal neutral spinal alignment for any physical activity.
Holding the bottom of a squat, for instance, you can concentrate on placing the weight of your body in your heels, feeling your knees press slightly outward, and the feeling of keeping your chest lifted—much as you would with a yoga pose. Another example: I used to just jump into a long run and was surprised when I kept developing sprains and strains. Now, when I begin a run and continually throughout my run, I concentrate on loosening my knees, pushing my shoulders back and my neck up to form a straight line from my head down to my feet. I then consciously lean forward and work to land with a mid-foot strike. I’m not only enjoying my runs more but also having far fewer injuries. (See my Run For Joy–Longer & Injury Free post for more information)
Stay on Target As you move through your workout, your mind will wander and your awareness will drift. This is a natural part of training. Distractions—be it sweat in the eyes, burn in the muscles, ache in the lungs or feelings of inadequacy—all pull us away from our activity goal. And if the focus goes, so might the resolve to finish the workout. The advice is to treat your distractions as scenery and let them pass you by from one moment to the next. Emotions only last for a minute or two before disappearing. Outlast them and stay the course.
Notice Your Environment Expand the awareness you brought inward out to your environment. If you’re in a gym, your space should be diversion-free (as in turning off the TV) so as to help localize your attention on the exercises at hand. If you’re in motion outdoors, you’ll have to deal with distractions and maintain situational awareness. No matter what space you’re in, notice the temperature, lighting, odors and any additional sensory perceptions that may influence your experience. The point isn’t to become compulsive about your space; it’s meant to help you finely tune your awareness for the work you’re about to do.
Set Your Intention Before you begin to exercise, pause briefly to form a clear intention for what you are about to do—whether it’s running 3 miles, or increasing your squat reps to 100. Remind yourself of where you left off last time, what you’re trying to accomplish today and the long-term goals that brought you here. Clearly creating your intention has organizing power and lays the groundwork for its manifestation. Intention also focuses your mind on what you’re doing and thereby increases your chance of success.
Energize With Breath The key to creating a mindful practice is your breath. The repetitive inflow and outflow of your breath creates a rhythm that can help anchor you into the present moment. Strive to maintain breath awareness. Experiment to find a breathing cadence that best aligns with the exercise you’re doing. Notice how it changes between strength training, aerobic conditioning and rest periods.
You can use these mindful practices to improve the quality of your workouts. These are steps to take your exercise routine from the realm of the unconscious to the conscious and into the experience of higher awareness. With them you can transform your fitness training into a new state of achievement and satisfaction.