Written by Jaimi Baker
B. (Hon) Psychological Science, PhD Candidate, Yoga and Breathwork teacher, Owner of PEAQ Performance.
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When you think about performance, what immediately comes to mind? How fast you can run? How high you can jump? How much weight you can lift? Performance is often defined too narrowly, giving an uneven amount of attention to physical parameters. As our understanding of physiology, psychology and skill acquisition progresses, it is becoming clearer that high-performance is multifaceted and relies on a combination of social, emotional, psychological, and physical factors.
In modern day professional and semi-professional sporting environments, the margin between winning and losing is becoming progressively thinner. As such, coaches and athletes are becoming increasingly aware of the benefits of implementing tools derived from sports psychology to enhance athletic performance. Such strategies to improve performance, often referred to as psychological or mental skills, are typically directed toward controlling the content of internal experiences. This approach involves developing awareness and control of internal states such as thoughts, emotions, and physical experience in order to enhance performance.
To date, Mindfulness-based practices are one of the main athletic performance-enhancement strategies that affect psychological outcomes. Broadly speaking, mindfulness is an umbrella term for a range of practises and techniques that teach an individual’s brain how to live in the present moment. Unpleasant thoughts are acknowledged and accepted, rather than suppressed or replaced by positive thoughts. These strategies have been shown to counteract psychologically dysfunctional thinking which can lead to experiences of poor performance in training and competition.
When working with athletes in this space, I commonly hear things such as, “I find it so hard to switch my thoughts off’, “I am just not good at meditating” or “I can’t find the time in my training schedule to sit down and meditate”. What I would really like to convey to you is that 1) people aren’t born with a special ability to be mindful and 2) mindfulness can be done in any environment at any time. Just like improvements in the gym, strengthening your mindfulness muscle takes practice and repetition. Every time you pause to notice how you are feeling, every time you stop to take a deep breath, or simply reflect on something you are grateful for, you are performing a ‘mental repetition’. The great news is that mindfulness can be done anywhere and at any time. The key to finding consistency is to implement it within your life in a way that you enjoy and that fits in with your lifestyle. It is well established that mindfulness has a range of benefits for athlete wellbeing but what is less understood is how mindfulness can enhance performance. So, you may be wondering how can being mindful in the gym improve your performance?
Mindfulness can improve concentration and focus
The gym environment is typically an overload on the senses. At any given time, there is loud music, barbells hitting the floor, bright lights and coaches’ voices encouraging their athletes. As an athlete or a coach, being able to pay attention and focus on the task at hand (particularly in a distracting environment) is key to performing well. Furthermore, we know from the literature that characteristics associated with attention, awareness and cognitive control are of importance when providing technical cues or feedback for movements. This is particularly vital when learning or teaching skills such as weightlifting, jumping, landing and changing direction. Introducing mindfulness into your toolbox can improve your ability to pay attention, thus potentially fast tracking the learning of a new skill or movement pattern in the gym. Once learned, it should also be able to enhance the output that you are able to execute in the aforementioned skill or movement.
Mindfulness can enhance recovery
The relaxation component of mindfulness has been associated with enhancing an athlete’s ability to mentally and physically recover after performance. Increased recovery enhances overall levels of wellbeing, which play a significant role in achieving peak-performance output on a consistent basis. First and foremost, mindfulness can play a pivotal role in transporting an athlete from a sympathetic nervous system (fight or flight) to a parasympathetic nervous system (rest and digest). Additionally through practising mindfulness, athletes learn to become more aware of their bodies, physical sensations and emotions. This awareness can help athletes to recognise when they might be pushing themselves too hard or not achieving adequate rest, which can help to prevent injury. In addition, mindfulness can help athletes to reduce symptoms associated with stress and anxiety, which can be significant barriers to the bodies healing process.
In summary, through mindfulness practices such as mediation, breathwork, visualisation or simply taking the time to hit pause on your day, athletes can learn to calm their minds and reduce stress, thereby enhancing their ability to control thoughts during training and competition. By being in the present moment, athletes can develop a deeper understanding of their body’s response to stress and how to overcome distractions. Overall mindfulness is powerful performance enhancement tool which can benefit athletes by improving their ability to stay in the present moment when it counts most.
To Learn More & Connect With Jaimi: https://www.peaq.com.au/