Meditative Exercise
Wayne Jencke is the product development manager of Innate Intelligence, an Australian based business that specializes in resilience programs based on his PERFORMance Resilience model.
Wayne's articles for PPND are here.
Meditator
Despite the research, very few people ever make a meditative practice part of their daily lives. The most commonly offered excuse is lack of time, which is understandable given that the proponents of most meditative practices suggest a minimum of 30 minutes practice per day.
Two Birds with One Stone
I’d like to offer a solution to time constraints. You can combine a meditative practice with another powerful positive intervention – exercise. At first glance you might think that I’m crazy. Surely you have to be in a quiet room to meditate – not a smelly noisy gym.
Candle for Focus
So the magic ingredients of meditation seem to be mindfulness (awareness of thinking without judgment) and focus.
Weight Lifting
So let’s look at how we can apply these ingredients to a weights program at the gym. Most people do their repetitions as quickly as they can – almost mindlessly. Typically people raise the weight more slowly than they lower the weight. I get my clients to do each repetition over a 10 second cycle, spending roughly the same amount of time raising and lowering the weight. Their focus is on the movement of the weight, making sure that it is smooth and rhythmical. When they lose focus and their thoughts start to wander (for example, “Look at how much that guy is lifting!”), they acknowledge the thought, without judgment, and move back to focus on the movement of the weight.
The movement of the weight is just one focus. Others might include reciting an affirmation in time with the movement of the weight (for example, “I’m getting stronger and healthier!”) or perhaps synchronizing breathing to the movement of the weight.
In between sets they can focus on slowing their breathe down to a 10 second cycle. This maximizes the activation of the physiological calming response, which has many physical and psychological benefits. Read more about the benefits of the calming response.
On the Way Home from the Gym
One of the best times for meditation is after exercise, as the physiological calming response has increased to allow you to recover from exercise. The calming response makes it easier to be mindful. So on the way home from the gym, you can continue your meditative practice. The easiest way is to scan your body slowly and to notice the afterglow that most people experience after exercise – this feeling is particularly intense after a weights program. Focus on this sensation, and when your thoughts start to wander, guess what you do? That’s right! Acknowledge them and go back to focusing on the afterglow.
References
Barnes, S., Brown, K.W., Krusemark, E., Campbell, W.K., Rogge, R.D. (2007) The role of mindfulness in romantic relationship satisfaction and responses to relationship stress. Journal of Marital and Family Therapy, 33 (4), 482-500.
Bishop, R., Lau, M., Shapiro, S.,Carlson, L., Anderson, N., Carmody, J., Segal, Z., Abbey, S., Speca, M., Velting, D. & Devins, G. (no date). Mindfulness: A Proposed Operational Definition. Retrieved May 10 2009 from http://www-psych.stanford.edu/~pgoldin/Buddhism/Mindfulness%20A%20Propsed%20Operationa%20Definition%20Revised%20May%202003.doc
Brown, K.W., Kasser, T., Ryan, R.M., Alex Linley, P., Orzech, K. (2009), Journal of Research in Personality, 43 (5), 727-736.
Chambers, R., Lo, B.C.Y., Allen, N.B. (2008), The impact of intensive mindfulness training on attentional control, cognitive style, and affect. Cognitive Therapy and Research 32 (3), 303-322.
Chiesa, A. (2009), Zen meditation: An integration of current evidence. Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine 15 (5), 585-592
Fredrickson, B.L., Coffey, K.A., Pek, J., Cohn, M.A., & Finkel, S.M. (2008). Open Hearts Build Lives: Positive Emotions, Induced Through Loving-Kindness Meditation, Build Consequential Personal Resources. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 95, 1045-1062.
Garland, E., Gaylord, S., & Park, J. (2009). The Role of Mindfulness in Positive Reappraisal. Explore, 5, 37-44. This article Links meditation to ability to reframe negative events.
Howell, A.J., Digdon, N.L., Buro, K. (2010), Mindfulness predicts sleep-related self-regulation and well-being. Personality and Individual Differences, 48 (4), 419-424.
Smith, B.W., Shelley, B.M., Dalen, J., Wiggins, K., Tooley, E., Bernard, J. (2008) A pilot study comparing the effects of mindfulness-based and cognitive behavioural stress reduction. The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, Vol 14(3), 251-258.
Books with Meditation Recommendations
Ben-Shahar, T. (2007). Happier: Learn the Secrets to Daily Joy and Lasting Fulfillment. New York: McGraw-Hill Professional. Pages 28-29 describe a meditation exercise.
Fredrickson, B. (2009). Positivity: Groundbreaking Research Reveals How to Embrace the Hidden Strength of Positive Emotions, Overcome Negativity, and Thrive. New York: Crown. Along with several references to research related to meditation, this book includes Tool 8: Meditate Mindfully (pp. 207-208) as a recommended way to increase positivity.
Lyubomirsky, S. (2008). The How of Happiness: A Scientific Approach to Getting the Life You Want. New York: Penguin Books. One of the Happiness Activities is called Taking Care of Your Body and Soul and includes Meditation, pp. 240-244.
Images
Use of picture of woman lifting weight purchased from Shutterstock by Wayne Jencke. Reuse in a reprint of this article not covered.
Meditation / Sacred Spaces courtesy of mscaprikell
Candle courtesy of firemedic58
Thanks for the article, Wayne. I’m inspired by it to restart my exercise practice, especially if I do it your way. Two for the price of one! Actually, I have often combined my exercise with listening to meditation speakers who incorporate guided meditation into their talks.
It was great to read about the afterglow when exercise is completed. I love that feeling, and I can see how that can induce its own meditative experience if capitalized upon properly.
Absolutely! Very glad to read this article!
Here’s another benefit of your suggestion, Wayne: people progress and get results faster. If they spend time focusing on the movement (and know how to perform a movement properly), they have better form, which builds strength more efficiently and also prevents injuries. If they are thinking of their muscles, they are really adding brain power to the physical work that builds strength. I must admit that this is my humble observation and not an empirically-validated finding, but the research I know about points in this direction too.
Also important, they will have more fun (for more on why this is the case, and for more on the “no time to exercise” excuse, please refer to my previous article Personal Hygiene, Einstein and Your Like-O-Meter).
Thanks for this contribution!
MarieJ
MarieJ – anecdotally I would have to agree with what you are saying.
As an aside there is also research that suggests that eccentric muscle contraction builds muscle bulk more quickly with less weights.
Kirsten – I’m glad that you’re going to get back into exercise.
I’m not sure if listening to meditations is as useful as doing them yourself.
And yes the exercise afterglow is a really useful focus. The interesting thing is that the afterglow is often present several hours later.
The afterglow is real. I’ve experienced it, but usually after strenuous exercise, never after a mild exercise bout. I’ve felt it both during muscle training and cardio. I think that I generally like to drift away when I’m exercising, trying to just relax. Maybe that’s another meditative element?
Good job, Wayne.
Jeff – you are right in that relaxation is a meditative element. In meditative practice its the focus that allows you to relax (it acivates the calming response as deos exercise) – when you are relaxed its easier to be be mindful. That’s why post exercise is the perfect time to meditate. Try playing around with some meditative breathing psot exercise – you’ll find it really easy.
Check out this practice combining physical movement + positive affirmation. http://www.satilife.com I’ve been doing the Intensati challenge this past month — at least 3 classes per week. I leave feeling energized, inspired, mindful, all good things. If you watch the TODAY show clip closely, you’ll see me in the class
Louis
Louis, thanx for the headsup on satilife – didn’t see you in the video. Patricia’s perspective on mindfulness is a little different than either of the definitions used in psychology. The eastern perspective, which I use, is “awareness without judgement”. I have never seen a definition that talks about positive affirmations.
In my article I talk about affirmations as a focusing tool – not as a mindfulness tool. The focusing helps to develop mindfulness.
Does satilife play around with just clearing the mind?
Hey Wayne,
Some of the meditation CD’s I have actually include guided meditations, which means that I am actually meditating while listening to them, not just listening to a speech. You should listen and see what I’m talking about…
Kirsten – guided meditation is great. But ultimately the aim is to do be able to practice meditative practices without the assistance of a guide.
The big issue with relying on a guide is that you can’t take mindfulness into the real world as your guide (the tape) won’t always be there.
Hi Wayne
Thanks for a great article and a reminder that mindfulness and meditation are essential. It’s also a helpful reminder that if we miss our silent meditation, we can build it into our day in other ways. At this moment I’m trying to do emails mindfully and joyfully, but not much succeeding
Amanda
Amanda, Not sure how you would do emails mindfully. Good luck.
I think most people could find a spare 60 mins a day to practice meditation if they took up all those spare 5 minute blocks we have throughout the day.
Hi Wayne
I’ve certainly found that meditation helps my archery – to shoot well you need to focus on the gold (attention) and also be very aware & precise (mindful)with your body placement & movements.
A book I’ve found very useful in learning to meditate is Bhante Gunaratana’s Mindfulness in Plain English.
Mark2 – and perhaps your archery is a meditative practice – perhaps your archery helps with life?
Hi, Wayne. Thanks for the article! Any thoughts about the physical approaches that are often specifically linked to mindfulness – yoga, tai chi, etc? Even archery (yea, another archer on PPND – him Mark2!), for example, Zen and the Art of Archery.
Dave, yoga and tai chi all involve focus, Take Tai-chi for example – the slow moves require you to focus in order to successfully execute them.
Yoga involves focus on posture and breath. As an aside I juts found some research on cyclic meditation – alternating yoga poses with breathing. It seems to help with sleep.
I have never tried archery but I suspect it is a meditaive practice as it would incorporate focus and mindfulness.
In general I’d say that anything that increases the physiological calming response assists in mindfulness. The calming response makes it easier to let go of ruminative thinking.