Get Stronger Inside and Out

Strength training and spiritual practice may seem to be completely opposite practices. If you have a spiritual practice it is unlikely that you have considered applying it to weight training. Some even might feel weight training is harmful to spiritual practice. In reality any of our activities can become our spiritual practice. It’s all about setting the intention and carrying out the activity with as much presence as possible. This blog will outline four strategies you can use to make your workout your spiritual practice.

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Strategies for Integrating your Weight Lifting and Spiritual Practices

Mindset Check In (psychological preparation),
Breath awareness,
Somatic experiencing,
Conscious down regulating cool down.

Mental Preparation

A psychological preparation is an important part of any activity you want to be performing your best at. I like to refer to it as a “Check up from the neck up”. It’s an opportunity to set the intention and get your head in the right place before your strength training. I recommend finding 5 minutes at the start of your workout to get psychologically prepared. It’s best if you can make a routine around this, doing it in the same place (eg. change room, car, or a spot within the gym), and following the same simple process (outlined below).

Begin by finding a spot where you can sit and relax
take a few long, slow, deep breaths in and out
Quickly scan your body head to toe to connect with your present internal state
Mentally run through your workout by visualizing yourself going through it
Set the intention that this is more than just a physical endeavour, it is for mind, body, and soul
Finish by bringing immense appreciation to your physical form. Become grateful for your strength and flexibility, and the ability to move your body with precision

Breath Awareness

You likely know how to breathe within a lift. Any trainer or gym rat will be able to tell you to breathe out during the most difficult part of the lift (the concentric phase). This is excellent advice and should become an automated part of your training. Meaning that you should become so familiar with it that it becomes automatic and you no longer even need to think when to breathe in or out. Does you breath awareness end there though?

Do you have awareness of your breathing as you warm up? As a challenge see if you can complete your whole warm up only breathing though your nose with awareness on each breath.

What about your rest periods? Do you mindlessly breathe and scroll your phone?
Try maintaining your awareness on your breathing and notice how it changes as you recover. Use this time to mentally prepare for your next exercise.

Set a goal to have awareness on your breath throughout the entire workout and notice how present you become in your body.

Feel into Your Body

Somatic experiencing means getting into tune with what is happening on a sensory level within your body. There are many access points to this. You can feel the skin as the sweat beads and drips off of you. You can pay attention deeply to the muscle contractions and notice the sensation. You can feel the muscle pump after a set. I recommend trying all three of these cues to feeling into your body. The more awareness you have within the muscles you are using the more effectively they will work. You will be able to lift more as a bonus.

The more you feel the more connected you are to your present moment experience and the more connected you are to your present moment experience the less you will be in your head. Ultimately spiritual practice is about getting out of your head and into your body to experience the moment as it is.

Conscious Cool Down

Cooling down at the end of a hard workout is necessary for proper recovery and reducing muscle soreness. As you finish your workout take 5-15 minutes to stretch (passively or actively) or do low intensity cardio. Use this time to connect to the contrasting feelings in your body; I feel energized but exhausted, and strong but fatigued at the end a hard workout. I notice these feelings as I consciously cool down.

Breath is a theme throughout this article. At the end of a workout it is important to come back to a relaxed state by slowing the breath rate down and returning to nasal breathing. If this is not done intentionally then you will continue to release stress hormones long after your workout is over. This is not good… It delays recovery and ultimately reduces gains.

If possible change your music to something that is slower tempo, and down regulatory. You may choose to finish your workout with some breathing exercises such as box breathing (4s in – hold 4s – 4s out – hold 4s) or 3-part breathing. This can lead you to a final meditation where you can fully drop in to your body and the present moment.

Final Thoughts

Bringing awareness into body and breath during your strength training through the above strategies will help you to integrate your spiritual practice into the gym. You can make any task a spiritual practice if you have the right awareness. I recommend starting by choosing one of the 4 strategies in this article and integrating it into your training. See how it changes your quality of training and how it impacts your life as a whole. If you need some guidance in getting started contact us with the link below.