Training Mindfully
By: Lisa Buchmiller
Whether you’re dancing or running cross country, it’s essential to incorporate mindful training into your routine. Mindfulness can encompass many practices, but here we’ll focus on methods that will help you stay connected to how you’re feeling throughout the season. By increasing awareness of your body's sensations, your energy levels, and your emotional state, this practice can help reduce the risk of injury, as it allows you to be more in tune with your body's needs. Here are some ideas to help you stay connected while you work toward your training goals:
- Variety - Routine is important and can be beneficial, but even athletes tend to prefer a specific type of activity or workout, resulting in limited variety. When we try something different, new sensations may arise, and we might notice things we wouldn’t during our regular routine. If you enjoy higher-intensity workouts and activities, try incorporating some low-impact and perhaps slower-paced exercises, such as Pilates or The Ellové Technique. By tuning into different sensations and working the body in new ways, you may notice areas that don’t get as much attention during your usual activities, or areas that have restricted mobility and with which you feel less connected. As we shift our attention to these different areas of the body, we can become more attuned to how to adjust our training to better fit our body’s needs. At the same time, we’re balancing muscle groups, reducing the risk of injury, and enhancing our performance.
- Take a day off - As much as we want to vary our routines and incorporate cross-training, it's equally important to ensure adequate recovery time. Use your day off to notice how your body feels. Are you sore, tired, or energetic? This can help you determine what to do on your rest days. It might mean doing little to no physical activity or going for a short, mindful walk outside.
- Don’t be afraid to adjust - We often have a set training schedule, perhaps to meet certain goals or because it fits our routine. However, with mindful training, there may be times when changing your plan spontaneously is beneficial. This might mean scaling your workout way back or, on the flip side, ramping it up and adding an extra 5 minutes if your body feels primed for more.
- Support your body both physically and mentally - There are many great tools available to aid in recovery, such as Apolla compression socks, foam rollers, and epsom salt baths. In addition, professionals like sports psychologists and strength and conditioning coaches are resources who can guide your journey and help you stay in tune with your needs.
- Community - Find a community that supports you through your training! Join a running club or a pickleball league, and seek out places where you can connect with other athletes in your sport. Collaborate and share training tips with others to enhance your progress.
There will be ups and downs in training, but if we take a mindful approach, we can continue doing the activities we love in a balanced and healthy way.
Lisa is the co-creator of The Ellové Technique®, and has been teaching group exercise and training clients for over 20 years. She is a certified personal trainer, certified yoga instructor and a certified STOTT PILATES® Instructor. When working with clients individually or teaching a class, Lisa combines her expertise in many different disciplines to help students prevent injury and find synergy in their bodies. Lisa resides in Portland, OR and currently teaches at Pacific Northwest Pilates, Multnomah Athletic Club and Nike World Headquarters.
Website theellovetechnique.com
Instagram @theellovetechnique
