Hey Warriors! I hope you are well. Mindfulness and its interplay with exercise and physical activity have been a hot topic for a bit now. But a lot of the chatter revolves around the mind-body benefits of particular types of exercise. Specifically yoga. What if you’ve tried yoga and it isn’t your jam? Or what if you’d just like to transfer the idea of mindfulness to other movement that you are engaged in? Well, I’m here to help you out!
“Mind-body” type workouts have long been lauded for the benefits that they can bring outside of the strictest definitions of exercise. Pilates has its focus on muscle control via concentrated effort. Tai chi has a focus on meditation. And yoga, breathwork. Each of these individual features have positive outcomes for Mental Health (i.e. increases in focus, concentration, memory, internal control, and calming effects) as well as Physical Health (i.e. increases in muscle activation and force production, coordination and reaction time, decreases in blood pressure, heart rate, and circulating stress chemicals).
But you don’t necessarily need to practice these specific types of exercise or movement to reap the rewards. You may just need to retool your current workout to let the mindfulness in.
Whether you are a pound the pavement runner or an iron-pumper, there are lots of different tweaks you can make to your routine du jour. First on the list, focus on the movement you want your body to create. If you are walking or running, really try to feel the ground meet your feet with each step. Feel the rhythmic quality of actually propelling your body forward. And concentrate on properly engaging your core and upper body. If you are strength training, take a moment during your set up to really zero in on the muscle(s) you will be using during a given lift. Acknowledge the weight in your hands at the start of a set. And really notice the resistance during each phase of the motion.
Second, try changing pace or tempo to keep you mind engaged. As anyone who has tried to practice meditation can tell you, part of the challenge is keeping your mind engaged and focused. Do the same with your workouts. Instead of slugging out the same 10 mile loop on your bike as you always do, change it up. A route with different scenery, or better still, different terrain will force you to re-engage your mind, even if the actual distance remains the same. Ditto for strength work. If you are a straight sets kinda lifter, switch it up once in awhile. Try some AMRAP, Tabata, or negatives to fire up the neurons.
There are other options to re-energize your mind during workouts, too. For instance, most of us always start with one side over the other. (Typically this has to do with handedness preferences.) But the brain and the body come to expect that, so if you always start with the right, change it up and go left next time. Another simple strength training shift is to change up grip or foot placement positions. This won’t necessarily change the larger complexities of the motion, but it does alter the various muscle inputs which forces your body to work harder and your brain to concentrate. And for you cardio stars, fartlek training is awesome. Fartlek comes from the Swedish for speed play and it basically just means random intervals. Random lengths and random speeds. Super fun and plenty engaging.
Lastly, bring attention to your breath during workouts. It isn’t hard and heaven knows we trainers preach it during strength work, but are we actually doing it? If not, make one set of each exercise a breath focus set. Really key in on the strong inhales and exhales during the proper movement phases. During cardio, find the breath rhythm that matches your pace. And if you feel silly, just remember that all that oxygen coming in lets your body work harder.
Just remember that you don’t need to spend money on a yoga studio, Pilates reformer, or self defense classes to get your mindfulness on during workouts!
Until next time, be well friends!
