Mindful Fitness – A Workout Philosophy

There’s a new fitness trend making waves in the sweaty world of workouts. But before you face palm at the thought of sumo squats, ab challenges or upside down burpees, this new philosophy is attempting to put mind over matter and help burn inches that are more easily lost than a hair bobble in a gym bag.

Unfortunately it’s still going to involve us working up a sweat and moving our bodies, but no matter the physical exercise that gets you going, personal trainers and fitness gurus alike want you to be ‘in the moment’! Because let’s face it, we’ve all purposefully distracted ourselves when gritting our teeth through a spin class. Imagining that we’re anywhere else than hovering unceremoniously over a bike while an instructor screams for us to go faster.

Remembering to get the chicken out of the freezer, or wondering what we’re going to wear on Friday night, even the smallest distractions flitter into our brain and momentarily take us away from what we’re actually doing. In any normal situation this would be fine, but when we’re trying to achieve that extra calorie burn we need a little less brain conversation and a little more action please.

However these naughty little distractions are costing us calories. Calories that could be earned for that cheat day that sometimes turns into two. Not only are we losing ourselves to the daily grind, but our bodies are not getting the full effects of our workouts because we’re not focused. We’re always trying to do too much at once, and although this multi-tasking is a natural thing for us to do, in all areas of our lives it’s essentially making us less effective, and this is exactly what the celeb personal trainers feel is holding us all back from pushing our bodies just a little further.

It may sound like complete torture, especially when you do anything not to think about that crippling workout burn, but understanding the way our body is feeling and focusing on the now can make you go a little further, push a little harder, and actually clear your head. The only thing you should be thinking about when exercising is making your body work as hard as possible.

If you’re bored by your fitness classes or finding the gym a complete drag, then it’s time to stop coasting your exercise and find workouts that can make you focus only on the activity itself. Sure we’ve all been distracted by the Arnie wannabe’s lifting weights, or the dance video playing above the treadmills, but coasting is not going to help you feel anything, and only make your brain go into overdrive from boredom. Find something that you feel addicted to and stick with it.

Of course like any bad habit it will be difficult to delete those random thoughts to begin with, but even making yourself aware that this is happening will make a dramatic improvement to your overall fitness. So when you’re next in class and feeling distracted by inconsequential thoughts, re-direct that energy back to your body and see how many calories you burn then.