Clear Your Mind Before Your Workout

I recently wrote about My 7 Personal Principles of Training. Moving forward I’d like to talk a little more in detail about each one. I hope you get something out of it. If so, let me know in the comments below.

Principle number one is all about clearing your head. Every day we seem to act as reservoirs for information, stress, and the obligations of our personal lives. It can be a bit daunting, to say the least. Add to it the fact that we carry around tiny supercomputers in our pockets always chiming in and interrupting. Day to day and week to week it all starts to accumulate into a never-ending deluge of weight.

Now, couple this with trying to get to the gym and having an effective workout. We all know that effective training requires our full attention not to mention the ability to eat well, rest properly, and tamp down our stress levels. It’s a wonder we even try so hard sometimes.

Training as zen

My workouts are special to me. They’re a place of both social interaction and focused concentration. I love to meet new people, train with old friends, and simply be around others to feed off each other’s energy. I also love the personal zen-like state I get into regarding building not only my physique but also strengthening my mental capacity and discipline.

It’s one hour or so of shutting out the world and becoming single-tasked.

This ability (that sounds like I have some kind of superpower!) didn’t come easily or overnight. I’ve been training since I was 14 years old so I have a few years of practice. Fortunately, I grew up before TVs in gyms and smartphones (we called them cell phones years ago). I had the unique advantage of deep camaraderie and focus in the gym. This forged my mental strength and the ability to shut out the outside world and concentrate on the training at hand.

Sure, I still have my bad days where I drag my mental baggage right through the gym door but I can easily recognize when that happens and work to right the ship.

Steps for effective workouts

Use this step approach before each training session. It’ll only take a few minutes and over time you’ll quickly reap bigger rewards like better focus, more intensity, and consistent results.

1. Take a breath. After work or wherever you’re coming from take a moment and sit in silence. Listen to your breath without distraction: no phone notifications, no music, no noise. Just you and your breath. This should only take a minute or two.
2. Disconnect. Now that you’ve had a moment of sanity it’s time to mentally disconnect from your day–even if for only an hour. Make the effort to shift from work mode to training mode. This should be a deliberate practice.
3. Visualize your training. Next, visualize your training. See yourself going through the exercises, sets, and reps. You should already have a plan in place so simply do a mental rehearsal of what’s about to go down. This will further cement your mindset into training mode.
4. Make the commitment. Finally, make the commitment to go all in. You’re mentally there already so now it’s time to put your money where your mouth is and do it! After the above steps, it’ll be much more seamless to put that plan into action. Over time the habit will be ingrained in you so much that it’ll seem easy to make that transition.

Getting back up

You will stumble and fall. You will have days that are overwhelming and make it seem as though you can’t even get close to focusing on your workout. But don’t despair. The mind is like a muscle. It takes days, weeks, and even months of training to get it in shape–to get it to work in your favor. Just remember to keep moving forward. Keep training no matter how many times you fail, you will get better. You will succeed.

Fall seven times, stand up eight.

Japanese Proverb

Let me know your thoughts in the comments.

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Here are all the posts related to the 7 Principles of Training:

My 7 Personal Principles of Training
Clear Your Mind Before Your Workout
How to Get Better Results From Visualizing Your Workouts
Get the Most From Your Training: Go to Work in the Gym
What’s the Right Amount of Weight to Use in My Workout
Water and Workouts: Your Overlooked Tool for Better Results
How to Modify Your Workouts to Avoid a Plateau
3 Keys to Workout Longevity