Few will dispute that exercise is good for us. Strength training, stretching and fitness training ensure a healthy and strong body. Exercise not only brings changes in the body, but also has mental consequences. Your body produces happy hormones during exercise. In addition, exercise relaxes, which promotes a good night’s sleep. However, these mental benefits are even greater if you apply some elements of mindfulness during your training. This is called ,mindful fitness,, and is a method of exercising that promises more fun and better results.
Contents
- What is mindful fitness
- Fitness
- Mindful
- Applying mindfulness in training
- Consider how you feel
- Focus on something
- Notice when your mind wanders
- The music must be mindful
- Have compassion for yourself
- Which sports can you practice mindfully?
- All sports can be practiced mindfully
- Exercise with repetitive movements
- Mindful eating
- summarizing
What is mindful fitness
Fitness
The word ,fitness, in the concept of ,mindful fitness, does not only refer to strength training, but to all forms of sports and exercise.
Mindful
British clinical psychologist, neuroscientist and mindfulness trainer, Dr. Tamara Russell states that mindful fitness aims to ensure that you are fully present in the moment and do not allow yourself to be distracted by all kinds of things. Being mindful while exercising will help you figure out what your body needs. Mindful fitness also teaches you to be kind to yourself, because you learn not to judge yourself so harshly. According to Dr. Russel, traditional fitness teaches you the opposite, namely to judge yourself and not learn what your body needs.
In her clinical and academic research, Dr. Tamara Russel focuses on the link between movement and the brain. She also works as a visiting lecturer at King’s College London, where she teaches on the clinical and neuroscientific aspects of mindfulness.
According to Dr. Russel, mindfulness not only leads to you living more consciously and gaining more control over your emotions; If you apply mindfulness while training, it can even make training more fun.
Applying mindfulness in training
Consider how you feel
Because mindfulness means being aware of what you are doing, Russel says it is important to ask yourself how you feel before training. For example, if you have little energy, a yoga class can be nice. For example, if you are angry, you can take a boxing class or exercise on the treadmill.
What you should definitely not do is exercise while you are in pain or other discomfort. In any case, you should always only start your warm-up after you are aware of how you feel.
Focus on something
Russel indicates that it is good to focus your attention on a rhythm, because this can prevent your thoughts from wandering. This can include the rhythm of your breathing, your footsteps or the cadence of the pedals of your spinning bike. . If you focus on this, you maintain control over your thoughts.
The repetition of your breath (footsteps, pedals) therefore creates a rhythm that can help you, as it were, to stay in the moment.
Notice when your mind wanders
Tamara Russel believes that here’s how to practice noticing when your mind is wandering. As soon as you think about something other than the cadence of your breath, etc. – and think about an exciting series that you will watch later – say this to yourself: ,I’m not supposed to think about this; I need to think about the rhythm of my breathing etc.,. According to her, this allows you to bring your thoughts back to the rhythm of your breathing.
The fact that your mind wanders is simply part of exercising. When you meditate , your mind often wanders. It is then important to ensure that you get back into the moment, into the cadence and into the exercises you are doing. You will have to do this several times during a workout, but practice makes perfect; the more you practice this, the better you will become at it.
The music must be mindful
The researcher advises to choose music that does not distract you from exercising. In general this will be somewhat ,softer, music; so probably not house, dance or techno.
By experimenting with different types, you can find out which music keeps you from wandering off. You may also wonder whether you can focus better if you play music that involves singing while exercising or not .
Have compassion for yourself
The researcher warns against looking at the performance of others while exercising; this works against you. For example, don’t think that you have to run as fast as the lady next to you on the treadmill.
Dr. Russ el’s tip is to ask yourself as soon as you notice that you are talking negatively about yourself, whether you are getting anything out of it. Since the answer will of course be ,no,, you will – if all goes well – view yourself more mildly afterwards. In short, it is better to treat yourself with compassion instead of judging yourself because you perform less well than a fellow athlete during exercise.
Her expectation is that if you have self-compassion, you will eventually find that your workouts are much more enjoyable. Because you enjoy exercising, you will do it more often and achieve better results (even if this is not a goal in itself).
Which sports can you practice mindfully?
Source: 12019, Pixabay
All sports can be practiced mindfully
In principle, you can practice any sport mindfully. However, some sports are particularly suitable for developing mindful fitness, because these sports make it easier to synchronize body and mind.
Exercise with repetitive movements
Examples of sports that are particularly suitable for starting mindful fitness are walking, running, jumping rope, martial arts, yoga and Tai Chi.
Because practicing these sports involves repetitive movements, they can have a calming effect that makes you alert (mindful); just like with meditation.
In jumping rope, the repetitive motion is spinning the jump rope over and over again. In yoga, the repetition is in the asanas (poses) that come back again and again. Walking and running are meditative because you keep putting one foot in front of the other.
Mindful eating
Not only can you exercise mindfully, mindfulness can also be applied when eating. This is also referred to as intuitive eating.
summarizing
You practice mindful fitness if you try to align body and mind during your training or exercise. You can use certain music and the cadence of your body or movements. You do all this with the aim of making exercise an enjoyable experience, which will also help you achieve better results, even though the latter is not a goal in itself.
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