Meditation and Mindfulness

These days, we see more and more students who want to work on total body health. They want to incorporate nutrition and mindfulness practices into their wellness routines, rather than just focusing on building muscle or looking a certain way. That’s one of the reasons we focus so much on functional fitness. Additionally, you can get healthy from the inside out with several of our nutrition-focused programs like our Virtual 7-Day Green Cleanse, as well as 21-Day Eat Clean and 90-Day ReVITALize programs. 

We have explored many of the benefits of meditation in previous communication and on our social media. But we know that meditation and mindfulness do not exist in a vacuum, and need to be incorporated into our everyday lives in order to be truly effective. So how can we include mindfulness directly in our exercise routines?  

Here are some of our favorite ways to incorporate mindfulness in our workouts:

Breathing

We often focus on our breathing in our yoga or stretching practices, but it is actually a crucial part of any exercise routine. Being aware of our breathing helps us monitor the intensity of our workouts by measuring things like our heart rate. Additionally, using the breath to exhale during the challenging part of a movement (such as a sit up or a squat) gives us stability and activates the core to support our spine, prevent injury and engage our muscles to work efficiently. Even though breath retention techniques are practiced in powerlifting, we are lifting for functionality and not for professional gain. So let’s make sure we don’t hold our breath when lifting, pass out, and end up in a “gym fail” video on the internet.

Meditation

A five-minute meditation at the start of your workout can help you clear your mind and focus on your goals. We want our workouts to be challenging, and we need clear headspace so we can focus on correctly performing our exercises to get the most benefit. A few minutes of deep breathing at the end of a workout with a stretch can help us slow our heart rate back to normal and give the needed oxygen to our muscles to recover.  It helps us to balance and prepare to take on the rest of the day or evening. 

Visualization

Visualization is an excellent and under-rated tool when it comes to meeting our goals.  We need to see it to believe it! Visualizing ourselves lifting personal best or completing a challenging exercise will increase our belief that we can do it and give us the mental energy and fortitude to achieve it. 

Yoga

Yoga naturally incorporates mindfulness into exercise as it focuses on the breath and its connection to movement. It helps you look inward and focus on what’s happening in your mind and body as you move. What’s a good place to start? Join us for yoga virtually on Wednesday mornings at 7:15 am with June. 

We believe that being mindful is such a crucial aspect of overall health and wellness, that it is one of our three circles or foundations of our business; The Priestly Process - Fitness/movement, Fuel/food and Focus/mindfulness. As coaches we live it and breathe it daily. We don’t just want you to look your best - we want you to feel great physically, mentally and emotionally. Let us support you to be your best self!