Does mindfulness have a place in exercise?
Fill up your mind with some mindfulness.
The goal of many competitive workout or bootcamp style programs and classes is to get through as fast as possible. The workout is viewed as a task: an onerous burden that can only be lifted by completion. The advent of "underground" gyms and exercise programs like CrossFit and powerlifting hasn't, surprisingly, improved this perception, but merely shifted it from long, plodding workouts of low intensity to fast-paced sprints to the finish.
The goal is still the endpoint, which perpetuates the widespread preoccupation with results in fitness. There is nothing wrong with goals: they are effective motivators and essential to progress. They have value, undoubtedly, but a shift from constantly rushing headlong towards the finish line can facilitate a deeper mind-body connection and more fulfilling exercise programs.
One of the most effective ways to make exercise more fulfilling is to implement a mindfulness practice when moving. If you're familiar with yoga, the word might be familiar, but it is not often discussed in terms of higher intensity exercise.
Mindfulness is the practice of awareness, most often discussed in terms of spirituality and presence in the moment. That's great, and I strongly recommend it, but we're going to talk about mindfulness as it relates to movement (in particular max effort challenges), and how we can use it to enhance our exercise experience.
How to Incorporate Mindfulness into Your Program
Initially the concept of being mindful while doing challenging exercise may seem foreign—awkward, distracting and slow. Normally we approach exercise-based movement with the intention of completing it as fast and painlessly as possible. To suggest that the movement should be slowed, each rep elongated and considered, is almost agonizing for many people.
Start gradually by injecting some mindfulness into your warm-up: take a movement you've done a million times—say a squat—and spend a few moments thinking about all of its different components: foot position, back position, hip hinge, depth, etc. Reflect on the feeling of the movement: pushing through the ground with your feet, contracting your hamstrings and glutes, discovering points of tension and relief throughout the movement.
Even spent a few moments focusing on your neck and head as you squat: where are your eyes pointed? Is your face tense or relaxed? If you're comfortable with it, try doing the movement with your eyes closed. Removing the visual component forces us to rely on other cues which we might not normally consider.
Now try it with other positions: plank, standing on one foot, lunge, lying down— anything is fair game!
Then start to move around: a squat, for example, doesn't have to look just one way or happen the same way every time. As long as you're operating within your existing capacity (not too much load, too high of an intensity that you're uncontrolled), you can play around as much as you want.
Once you've developed a solid vocabulary of mindful movements, you can experiment with what I call the intuitive warm-up: it's made up of, well, anything. Begin standing, eyes closed, and spend a few moments considering aches and pains, points of tension, daily stresses, recent workouts, and the workout to come.
I like to do this warm-up in a flow, transitioning from one movement to the next, letting my body dictate the pace, intensity and direction I move.
This style of warm-up isn't for everybody: some people aren’t comfortable spending this much time in their bodies, or don’t have familiarity with a wide variety of movements. Start simple, with a couple movements you know well. Play with those for awhile, and see where it takes you.
Wiggle around in your movements, find their edges, see how your body feels in different positions. In yoga it’s common practice to use movements and positions as check-ins with your body and how it is feeling. Exercise doesn’t have to be different.
Use your warm-up as an evaluative process and see what it tells you about your body and what it needs in that moment. And then explore some simple movements to see how you can provide that.
See what happens when you give your body a little space. You might be surprised at what you're capable of doing!