When we imagine those bulging biceps and ripped abs, we’re thinking only of our bodies—our physical form. However, both our bodies and minds have evolved together, and achieving your dream body through weightlifting can be accelerated by incorporating meditation.
There are many, many benefits of meditation so if you’re open to trying it you can improve your life in many ways that go well beyond the gym. But below we’ll focus on a few points of how meditation can enhance your work out sessions.
Benefits of Meditation for Weightlifting: Get Mass With Your Mind
The mind-body connection
An awareness of what’s happening in your mind helps in conditioning the body. It prepares you to give maximum output during your workout sessions. At times in the gym you’ve probably noticed that everything just seems to flow, you feel perfectly in control over everything that you are doing. That feeling doesn’t come from your body. This is the power of a mind-body connection and it is massive. When this two are not connected, your work outs will lack direction; you feel disorganized, scattered and at times will leave the gym dissatisfied with what you’ve accomplished. The cure for that is meditation.
Increase focus and reduce anxiety
Meditating regularly brings you closer to the flow of events rather than being distracted by random thoughts. You probably know that intense focus brings you faster and better results in the gym. When your mind is focused you are doing only one thing—lifting weights—with the whole of your being. That might sound woo-woo, but it’s powerful. The research is pretty clear that multi-tasking isn’t real. You can switch between tasks very quickly, but it reduces the effectiveness of all the tasks. Your body and your mind are most effective when doing only one thing. Meditation is also well-known to reduce anxiety, which can help if you have any sort of upcoming performance.
Clear the mechanism
As you strive to perfect your form, meditation will help you to be attentive to the muscles that you are training and nothing else. As you finish and repeat every set, your mind is set free and all focus is directed to nothing more than your workout and body. With focused, mind-enhanced workouts, it becomes easier to break through a plateau and reach your goals.
Start the workout right
As you sit for a few minutes before you start training to meditate, your mind is cleared of all noise and clutter. As you load the plates, you can use this opportunity to clear your mind, move to the bar, flex your muscles, hold the bar and without much thought into it, be in the present and lift it just as you had practiced in your mind. Starting a workout with a brief meditation helps you shut out the distractions of the day and bring your full attention to the task at hand.
Visualization is key
As you meditate, it may help you to visualize the movements in your mind. Visualize being in the gym, as you feel your feet come into contact with the floor and your back becomes stronger. You lift the bar up to your hips, into your lifted hands as you raise it higher up, it becomes calming and brings everything at centralized place. Your body and mind and even your breath all come together to execute the workout. Visualizing the movements ahead of time can help you execute them more effectively in reality.
It all begins with your mind, you learn to appreciate the energy in your body rather feeling just the solid physical aspect. You’ll notice that your weightlifting ends up more successful simply because you were more aware of the energetic capability of your body. Sitting still before and after workout sessions helps your body and mind to connect and make the most of each session.
Have you used meditation as an effective tool for body building? Are you willing to try it? Let us know in the comments below.
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