Stress and exercise
12 August 2005If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
I had occasion to talk at length with a Yoga adept the other day and while comparing notes the issue of mental stress and exercise came up. They commented that one reoccurring difficulty in practice was (and I paraphrase) keeping thoughts from taking root as the practice session progressed. In formal Zen these thoughts are called nens and are generally classified as either passing thoughts or clinging thoughts. A passing thought arises in the consciousness of the meditator and once noted is allowed to evaporate; the mind does not follow, build upon or elaborate on the initial thought. It passes and that is that. A clinging nen takes root and is expounded and expanded upon; this is to be avoided and is quite difficult to do. Like not thinking of an elephant. The Yoga adept was sharing their experience that after a period of time using the same sequence of asana postures in the same order, the mind has a tendency to lose focus and repetition dilutes the single-pointed degree of concentration that separates a perfunctory session from a truly transcendental session. The repetition and sameness of the routine is the culprit and the adept expressed a certain level of frustration: painfully aware that clinging thoughts were clinging, thereby undercutting the depth of the session experience, they more they were aware of the problem the more it occurred. It was a subtle psychological dilemma. Change the routine was my advice; change the setting, change the sequence, change the time of day the session was conductedchange everything!
They admitted they were a bit attached to the asana sequence and the groove pattern they had established. It had taken years of diligent and repeated practice to master these difficult postures and it was hard to put them aside. Krishnamurti called this freedom from the known and it takes a big person to toss aside that which theyve spent eons perfecting. The adept asked if this was a problem at the higher levels of progressive resistance training and I answered, absolutely not. Really heavy weight training makes preoccupation during the actual set a physical and psychological impossibility. It is suicidal to attack a heavy bench press, squat, overhead press or deadlift while mentally distracted; if preoccupation seeps into the mind as the set unfolds disaster is one step behind. The slightest break in concentration results in the poundage crashing down instantaneously woe be onto he/she that spaces out while a weight is over top of them. This becomes literally a life or death situation: having a mental lapse while under the 6th repetition of a limit squat causes the body to collapse and once this occurs the athlete will not have the reserve strength to stop this poundage avalanche. So you cant and wont allow this to happen. Over time this ability to shut out thoughts becomes a skill as real as a classical pianist being able to fire off a flawless three octave scale run using both hands in simultaneous effortless fashion. Again, this degree of concentration only occurs when the trainee uses gut-busting, teeth-clenching, limit-exceeding poundage. If you are yawning your way through a set of preacher curls with poundage my 14-year old daughter can handle then this type of mental focus is not called upon, much less developed.
Once you have put yourself on the line repeatedly using weights that bump up against the lip of the limit envelope, the psychological phenomena manifests and improves over time. A spin-off side benefit that I have repeatedly observed in myself and other limit-exceeders is what I call the clean slate post-workout phenomena. Regardless the pain, confusion, distraction, trouble or stress you are being subjected to in real life, a limit progressive resistance session will leave you blank, alert and mentally fresh in its wakeafter an all-out training session the mind, having been forced, literally, to shut down the eternal mental masturbation that accompanies a stressed-out mindset, is reinvigorated, fresh and clear. The brain needs periodic rest periods to function optimally and by forcing it to be quiet, even for a short period, it recharges itself. Allowed to be free of thought (the ceaseless internal chatter) brain circuits are given a respite, a reprieve, a break. Once this occurs fresh perspective can fight its way into the forefront of our consciousness. The stressed brain, overheated and running along madly like a horse being whipped until it collapses, is forced by sheer physical exertion to shut-the-hell up. The mental oasis that intense training provides breaks stress up like a sledgehammer used on a glass tabletop. Intense physical exertion trumps mental stress every single time: use this to your advantage. In times of trouble, confusion, stress and heartache, remember this and head to the gym and subject yourself to a serious ass-kicking session. Use intense exercise to short-circuit that overheated brain and allow some fresh perspective to seep into those deeply worn mental grooves and patterns. It works every single time.
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