Rami's Blog

Like the Yin-Yang, Eastern Martial Arts and Western medicine are two halves of a whole. My mission is to preserve the ancient mind-body tools and pass them on to you.

 

Mentally Chunk Your Workouts

Do you get overwhelmed by the idea that you have a whole hour of exercise ahead? Does the idea of a laundry list of to-dos make you exhausted?

Modern psychological research has long since established that our short-term memory, which we use to work through our day-to-day lives, has a limit of 5 to 9 "things" or "chunks" which it can handle at once. Any greater number of details or tasks and our brain goes a little haywire. We stress out because we're worried we will mess up or forget something. It takes so much energy to remember things and mentally prepare for everything that we can't put all of our focus onto actually doing the one task at hand.

So to make your workout life (as well as the rest of your life) easier, you should chunk your workout into small parts, and focus completely on one part at a time, like hamstrings, for example. 

If you have a whole-body workout you do, focus on one area of the body at a time, and don't worry about the next area, or how much time you have left, until you are completely done with the chunk you are working on. 

You can also use this strategy to look at your workouts differently. Twelve exercises is a good amount, maybe even a stressful amount to think about. But four chunks of three exercises, organized by which part of the body they are used for (legs, hips, torso, etc.) might make the routine easier to handle on a mental level.

Very accomplished distance runners use this strategy to make it through long races. Just get to that next telephone pole, now get to the next one, now the next one.... Pretty soon, they've gone five miles without losing their mental resilience.

You can do the same with your life. Don't try to mentally tackle the entire challenge at once, just take each step, each chunk, as it comes. Also, don't forget to meditate to renew your energy!

Where Is Your Mind When You Exercise?

You do exactly the number of repetitions you are supposed to. You hold the stretches for exactly the right amount of time. You do your routine everyday, and and you do it first thing in the morning before anything else. Even before checking email.

But you're still stressed out. You still have anxieties that plague you during the day. You still can't get a great night's sleep.

It's probably because your mind is wandering while you workout.

Half of all mind-body regimens is in the mind. Doing the exercise is good for your heart, but thinking about that project your have to get done at work is bad for your heart. Stress-induced hormones increase your blood pressure and put you on high alert, making it impossible to relax as your thoughts spin around the source of your anxiety.

Put away the timer and start exercising for as long as it takes to feel relaxed. Go muscle by muscle, and move your mind into that part of your body. Picture the muscle and soft tissue like ice, frozen, but melting from your mind focusing on it, like heat from the sun.

Afraid you won't have time to get fully relaxed? Go to bed earlier and wake up earlier. Put yourself in a position where your schedule is wide open when you start stretching, so you can go as long as you need to without constantly checking the clock.

Eventually you should be able to feel each muscle by putting your mind there, and you should be able to consciously relax it with a deep breath.

Focus on your breathing too. Do whatever makes it easier for your to let go of your stress for this hour, or half-hour, each day. You don't need to solve your life problems or get any work done right now. Right now, you need to relax your body and mind.

Doing Tai Chi with a monkey mind is like not doing Tai Chi at all. Bring that energy down from your head to your center and cool off. A meditative mind is kind of like a sauna: you don't need to spend all day in there to feel the benefits. A little bit every day works too.

Tai Chi is Good for the People Around You

Some people are motivated to do things because it helps them, personally. If eating healthy is good for them, then they will do it. No questions asked.

Other people still struggle to be motivated, even if they would experience the same benefits. It isn't hard to understand why: if someone has learned to live with the body and state of health they've got, then the only thing that really scares them is getting worse.

When was the last time you ran a mile? Yesterday? Last week? Last year? Last decade? Unless you run a lot, it is easy to let that ability get away from you. How often does the average joe need to run a mile in his day-to-day life? Not at all, really. But even if you don't feel it, you are getting worse and worse at running everyday that you don't do it.

But if you don't run, you'll never realize how much you've lost. This applies to all health situations. You don't realize you can't bend down anymore until you have to. You don't realize you can't play catch with your kids until your shoulder cries out in pain.

It's hard to motivate ourselves to avoid those things, because we only notice them after they are a problem. But just treating current problems is no way to take care of yourself, you have to avoid health problems to feel really good.

So try this: meditate and be mindful for a few minutes about the well-being of your loved ones. Consider the positive effect if would have on the people around you if your mood was improved through regular meditation. Or the effect that improved strength and flexibility will have on the time you spend with your kids and/or grandkids. Or the effect that better sexual health will have on your love life. Or the effect that lower health care costs and insurance premiums will have on your family's quality of life.

The list goes on and on, but the theme is always the same: your health is not just about you, it is about everyone around you, and everyone who cares about you. So if you aren't motivated to improve your health and start a mind-body routine for just your own benefit, consider the benefits it will have on the people around you.