High intensity training is not only one of the most physically demanding activities a person can perform, it also requires considerable mental effort. In addition to focusing on intensely contracting the target musculature throughout each exercise, one must concentrate on using proper body mechanics, correct breathing, a controlled speed of movement, etc., all while experiencing rapidly intensifying physical discomfort. It can be difficult to focus on one thing, much less two or three or more, when your muscles are burning, you’re breathing hard and your heart is pounding through your chest.
Those who work out in commercial gyms must also deal with various external sources of distraction which make concentration even more difficult. Scheduling workouts during non-peak hours helps, but may not be practical for everyone. Home gyms can be designed to provide an environment more conducive to concentration, but often have their own sources of distraction, especially if young children are present. Even personal training centers which strive to provide an ideal exercise environment – private or semi-private and devoid of music, mirrors, windows, and other distractions – are not always perfect.
Although the physical discomfort associated with productive exercise is unavoidable and it is impossible to completely eliminate distractions from the training environment, the ability to focus during exercise can be greatly improved through concentrative meditation. During concentrative meditation one trains their mind to be able to focus their attention more completely and to be more resistant to distraction and wandering. In his article How to Meditate, Joshua Zader writes,
“Through meditation, many people find they can make their attention more stable, strong, and wieldy. You do this by learning to isolate awareness from its alternatives—just as you would isolate one muscle from another—and then exercising it.”
A friend introduced me to Vipassana meditation, a Buddhist system of meditation that uses the breath as the object of focus. He claimed it improved his concentration and his overall sense of well-being, and suggested I try it. Although I do not practice it as regularly as recommended, I have experienced a considerable improvement in focus during my workouts. I am able to concentrate better on the target musculature during each exercise, and on avoiding form discrepancies I have had trouble with such as tensing of the neck and facial muscles.
More recently, I have been experimenting with shorter meditation sessions performed immediately prior to my workouts. While my regular meditation sessions are performed to strengthen my ability to focus, these pre-workout sessions are performed only long enough to relax slightly and quiet my mind, clearing it of distracting thoughts and allowing me to mentally prepare for the workout. After a few minutes of concentrative meditation during which I focus on breathing, I mentally rehearse the workout, visualizing the performance of each exercise in perfect form. In addition to further improving my ability to focus during workouts, I have also found the visualization portion of the pre-workout meditation to be highly motivating.
In addition to enabling one to train in a safer and more productive manner by improving focus during workouts, regular meditation may also contribute to improved recovery between workouts since it reduces stress. A study on the effects of Buddhist meditation found that it significantly reduced serum cortisol levels as well as blood pressure and heart rate. Various other studies have also shown reduced cortisol levels with different types of meditation. Reducing the level of cortisol, a major catabolic hormone, creates a state more favorable to muscle growth.
Based on my experiences, discussions and reading on the subject I believe that regular meditation practice provides valuable benefits to those performing high intensity training, and would like to see more research done in this area.
For instructions on basic meditation practice, I recommend reading How to Meditate, by Joshua Zader.
For a more detailed text on Vipassana meditation, I recommend reading Mindfullness in Plain English by Henepola Gunaratana, available for free online at vipassana.com
References:
Sudsuang R, Chentanez V, Veluvan K. Effect of Buddhist meditation on serum cortisol and total protein levels, blood pressure, pulse rate, lung volume and reaction time. Physiol Behav. 1991 Sep;50(3):543-8.
Jevning R, Wilson AF, Davidson JM. Adrenocortical activity during meditation. Horm Behav. 1978 Feb;10(1):54-60.
Carlson LE, Speca M, Patel KD, Goodey E. Mindfulness-based stress reduction in relation to quality of life, mood, symptoms of stress and levels of cortisol, dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate (DHEAS) and melatonin in breast and prostate cancer outpatients. Psychoneuroendocrinology. 2004 May;29(4):448-74.
MacLean CR, Walton KG, Wenneberg SR, Levitsky DK, Mandarino JP, Waziri R, Hillis SL, Schneider RH. Effects of the Transcendental Meditation program on adaptive mechanisms: changes in hormone levels and responses to stress after 4 months of practice. Psychoneuroendocrinology. 1997 May;22(4):277-95.
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Hi Drew,
I’ve recently discovered your website and philosophy/methodology and have started doing HIT. I enjoyed this article and would suggest, if you want further information on the benefits of emotion, that you look up video lectures by Mattieu Ricard and Richard Davidson. They’ve done some extremely interesting research into the physiology of meditation.
On a different note, I’ve been looking through your archives and have not found anything that explains how to determine one’s specific rest requirements between training sessions. How do I figure out exactly how much rest I, personally, need between sessions?
Aaron,
Thanks for the recommendations, I will check out Ricard and Davidson’s video lectures.
You can determine your recovery needs by keeping accurate records of workout performance. Assuming everything else is in order, such as rest and diet, you should be able to improve in either weight or repetitions on a workout to workout basis if your body is able to adequately recover between workouts. If you fail to improve on at least most of the exercises in your workout for two or three workouts in a row, take a short break from training to allow complete recovery – about twice your normal recovery time – then resume either with an extra day of recovery in between or by dividing the exercises between more workouts so each workout involves fewer exercises.
I cover this in detail in the upcoming book, and will be posting excerpts here in the next couple weeks.