3 Ways Meditation Improves Athletic Performance
There I was, in the middle of a grueling 20 minute aerobic capacity workout filled with Assault Bike Calories, Burpee Box Jump Overs & Ski Erg Calories. On the 4th round of the workout, moving up to the 4th round of 20 Calories on the Assault Bike, something in me clicked.
My default, reactionary way of being and performing during CrossFit when the workout gets tough is to struggle, moan and strain and give up so to speak. On the Assault Bike, when things get challenging, I immediately let go of the handles and pack it in.
In an instant during that workout, I remembered my meditation training, and realized that the urge to quit and give up are simply just fleeting thoughts. I took my attention off of quitting, and put my focus on keeping my hands on the bike and not letting my thoughts take me out (a new way of being).
Personal anecdote - the Assault Bike is the chink in my armor; my weakness so to speak.
The result? - My best performance on the Assault Bike to date by far.
I hit a Personal Record performance on the bike (80 calories+) through bypassing ‘the wall’ (which is just a mental construct when you think about it) and tapping into new levels of physical and psychological performance.
It sparked the realization in me that meditation practice (mental awareness / brain training) can improve athletic performance (and our lives) when we apply the principles and training off our meditation seat and into our everyday lives.
Here are three ways Meditation helps Athletic Performance:
Expanding your capacity for concentration
At its heart, Meditation is exercise for the mind. There is nothing mysterious about meditation - it’s really just mental training. When we sit in meditation, we practice keeping our attention on a single point of focus, usually the breath. We do this again and again, and over time our ability to concentrate and focus on something for longer periods of time expands.
Getting You Into ‘The Zone’ aka The Flow State
Popularized by positive psychologists Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi and Jeanne Nakamura, flow state describes a feeling where, under the right conditions, you become fully immersed in whatever you are doing. We’ve all had that experience where a workout or lift seems effortless. A state of effortless effort so to speak - where things seem to flow.
We can’t reach the flow state on demand. We can however set up the conditions for it to arise naturally and organically, which is conducive for peak performance. Meditation training allows our mind to come to a natural place of rest in the present moment. In this state of being, the probability of tapping into the flow state dramatically increases.
Contributes to being calm under pressure.
“Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.” - Viktor Frankl
As mentioned above in my own personal discovery of responding to the pressure of the workout and the assault bike, I experienced a new level of growth and freedom. It’s not a secret anymore that meditation works. Meditation has been proven to make observable changes in practitioners brains. The more practice mediation, the more calm we will be when navigating the innumerable uncontrollables of life. Meditation teaches us to not identify with our knee jerk reactions, emotions and feelings as they arise. They will inevitably always arise, and what meditation teaches us is that we don’t have to let them control us. The practicality of this is immense. From the gym, to everyday life, being in control of how we respond is one of the greatest abilities we can work on and improve. We’ll be all the better for it.
Interested in learning about Meditation or want to practice sometime? We got your covered with free meditations found here: https://www.baptistepoweryogawithaustin.com/meditate/recordings.
Also, we invite you to practice Baptiste Yoga with us. Baptiste Yoga and Meditation go hand and hand. The more you practice one, the more the other benefits.
I wish you well on your Meditative Journey.
Namaste yo,
Austin Kap
Founder of Baptiste Yoga with Austin
