4 Reasons To Add Meditation To Your Workout Routine (2 of 2)

Meditation Also Provides Deep Reflection

After the HIIT session is done, Mind Body Project finishes it off with yet another guided meditation. Not only does this provide an opportunity to give your heart time to rest and lower the heart rate to a normal level, but it also allows you to reflect on the work you put in.

Reflecting on this manner means confronting certain aspects of your health, as well as certain emotions. For example, many people work out because they’re unhappy with their bodies or want to avoid health issues later down the road.

Through meditation, you’re able to properly confront those emotions and process them.

Furthermore, you’ll be able to process them alongside the fact you went through a hard training session that got you to sweat and push yourself.

In the end, it creates a unique sense of accomplishment and well-being.

Athletes Use This All The Time

The final reason to consider adding meditation to your routine is the fact that athletes do this all the time. Nicole Berger, a specialized mental health educator at The Athlete Collective said meditation has always been a method that’s been employed to improve the performance of the top athletes.

“You can’t just focus on strength training and neglect your mental health,” she said. And she’s not wrong. Being able to breathe properly during strenuous exercises is key and can be a big difference between making it through one more rep or failing halfway.

She added “Athletes who can tap into breathing exercises, guided affirmations, and visualizations are able to increase the chances of reaching their full performance potential.

Being able to visualize your workout before and then reflect afterward is rewarding. All the athletic greats do it.”

And if you don’t believe that, there are also athletes that swear by these methods as well like Michael Jordan and Derek Jeter. In fact, George Mumford, who is a mindfulness and performance expert, is brought up time and time again as an accredited individual who transformed Jordan’s on-court performance.

All in all, these are some very compelling reasons to consider adding meditation into your mix. And if you happen to be in New York, you can always try out Mind Body Project and see the effects of it for yourself.