If you workout regularly, you probably can remember some times at the gym where—instead of focusing on your reps and form—your brain was focused elsewhere. Maybe it's a work problem. Or perhaps it's something that happened at home. You might think you need to grind even harder to let the pain drown out the noise. But there's another proven solution: mindful meditation.
It might sound counterintuitive: Meditation and high-intensity interval training are essentially polar opposites, right? But this kind of calm focus has actually been shown to improve your workout results. And combining them—specifically meditating before a workout—can amplify both benefits.
For decades, sport psychologists have developed diverse psychological training approaches, endeavoring to help athletes promote their competitive performance. And meditation has become more and more integral to an athlete's success: Phil Jackson famously led team meditations as the L.A. Lakers coach. According to ESPN, Pete Carroll employed similar meditations back in 2015 when his Seattle Seahawks won the Super Bowl; and U.S. Women's National Soccer Team members have credited meditation techniques for their success, too.
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And it's not just anecdotal. Tons of scientific research has found that focusing the mind can have serious effects on your physical performance. A study involving athletes in Norway found that after 12 weeks of consistent mindfulness practices, athletes had better focus, performance and recovery. Researchers working with long-distance runners doing a mindfulness regime found higher self-confidence and lower anxiety before a big race (PDF), which led to them all to posting better times.
After all, during intense training, having control over your breathing and pace is crucial, right? So by incorporating certain elements of meditation before your training sessions, you can improve your athletic performance and maximize those gains. Convinced? Here's how you can try it yourself:
Trainers suggest three to five minutes of focused breathing before exercise. Maintain the awareness on the breath through the warm-up and setting up for HIIT. Find a quiet corner of the gym, throw on noise-canceling headphones, and take a seat. A simple technique is square breathing: three-second inhale, three-second pause, three-second exhale, three-second pause. Or kneel in child's pose and take long, slow breaths for two minutes, which helps turn off the fight-or-flight mode you may have come in with. And it's not just helpful at the gym. You can do this before any intense endeavor—be it a work presentation or important call with a client.
Track & Time It
You want to make your meditation as easy and as comfortable as possible. Let a clever app be your guide.
This app has an insanely huge library of content: over 25,000 guided meditations from around 3,000 teachers on topics like stress, relationships, creativity and more.
This streamlined app is an extremely popular option (and the one I currently use). There's a variety of meditations, with the best guided sessions for beginners.
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