Meditation and Training: 3 Ways meditation can optimize your workouts

In recent years there has been a major shift towards acceptance of meditation in the fitness community and I wanted to break down a few ways that it has helped me personally with my training. Meditation can most definitely have carry over effects to all aspects of life, I simply want to point out some direct way a basic mindfulness practice can influence results from a physical training program. There are many ways to define meditation, for the purpose of this post I'm referring to a basic seated meditation where you sit still and focus on your breath for 5-20mins, This has been part of my daily routine for the last 6 years and I feel the benefits are extremely high compared to the effort/time invested.

#1 Work Harder/Smarter

A consistent meditative practice will allow you to push harder during training and also be more aware of when you may be pushing too hard and risking injury. Being able to push yourself harder in the context of your own training program will always lead to better result, this could mean more output, higher intensity, better form, fluidity of movement, etc.. There are a variety of possible mechanisms as to why meditation allows one to push past limits that may have previously felt impassible, In my opinion it most likely comes down to the ability to calm the mind, eliminate distractions(internal or external), and focus on task at hand. Meditation allows you to optimize the mental side of training.

#2 Food Choices

Practicing mindfulness is very conducive in making decisions that align with your true purpose and this can have major effect of food selection. Simply put meditation over time leads to better self control through increased awareness of why you are making decisions. This will inevitably lead to better choices regarding nutrition, the decisions made in the kitchen can often make or break a training program, and can definitely optimize the results.

#3 Recovery

Meditation has been consistently shown to improve sleep quality. In general a consistent meditation practice will lead to decreased time to fall asleep, deeper sleep, and an easier time waking up. Quality sleep cannot and should not be overlooked in any well designed training program and meditation is one way to optimize rest, and better recovery often=better gains.

Meditation is very similar to physical training in that it needs to be done consistently to achieve results. My recommendation is to start with 5mins of seated meditation in the morning where you simply sit, relax, and focus on your breath. Nothing should be forced(posture or breath) and when your mind wanders simply refocus on your breath. Increase one minute each week until you have reached 20mins of daily meditation and enjoy those gains in training and life!

Cheers
Luke