Post-workout meditation is effective and simple

My “eureka” moment came when I started doing Melissa Wood Health workouts. The platform’s founder, pilates instructor, and meditation teacher, Melissa Wood Tepperberg, typically does a mini meditation or gratitude moment at the end of her workouts. It was my first time experiencing post-workout meditation outside of a yoga class, and it felt so good that I started meditating after my workouts. every You can do a variety of workouts, including walking on a treadmill and strength training.

And guess what? The moment I started to see working out and meditating as one, I was much more likely to check both feel-good habits off my to-do list.

“I’m a big advocate of habit building. [people] “Incorporating new habits into your daily life can be difficult,” says Josephine Atluri, a meditation and mindfulness expert and podcast host. Responding to Life: Talking about Health, Reproduction, and Parenting“If you’ve carved out time for exercise, adding in one to five minutes of mindfulness meditation after your workout is a great way to build a habit of mindfulness. Best of all, it can also serve as a nice cool-down, similar to savasana after a yoga session.”

The best part about post-workout meditation is that it doesn’t have to be a long commitment to reap its benefits: Neuroscientist, psychiatrist, and co-founder of Apollo Neuroscience, Dr. Dave Rabin, says the sweet spot to aim for is two to five minutes—a realistic, manageable amount of time.

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“Adding meditation or mindfulness practice to your workout, even if just for a few minutes, can be extremely beneficial for your overall recovery,” he says.

Curious about what post-workout meditation can do for your mental and physical health? Read on to find out all you can expect.

3 Benefits of Meditation After Exercise

1. Reduce the physical stress of exercise

Exercise, whether it’s weightlifting or heart-pumping cardio, puts stress on the body, and post-workout meditation is a quick way to bring everything back into balance.

“If you think about how training or intense exercise affects the body, it puts us into a state called ‘hormesis’ – a state in which the body is exposed to stress in a controlled, safe environment,” says Dr. Rabin. “When you experience the physical stress of training, your heart rate, blood pressure and breathing rate all increase – your body recognises that it’s a stressful environment. So the faster you can recover from that stress, the more resilient your body is, and the better you’ll feel afterwards.”

According to Atluri, meditating after exercise can help you feel more relaxed and improve your overall well-being. “You can transition from exercise into a calmer state of mind,” she says.

“Adding meditation or mindfulness practice to your exercise routine, even for just a few minutes, can be extremely beneficial to your overall recovery.” —Dr. Rabin

2. It aids recovery

Dr. Rabin is a big advocate of post-workout meditation for its recovery benefits: “Meditation helps the body calm down, which means it recovers faster,” he says.

Atluri agrees, saying that the reduced levels of stress and inflammation the body experiences during exercise helps this process.

“When inflammation occurs during exercise, it can be felt later as muscle stiffness and soreness,” she says. “Mindfulness meditation can also help. Shown² It reduces inflammation in the body and aids in overall recovery.”

3. The good feeling lasts for hours

Post-workout meditation is a gift that keeps on giving. Whether you exercise in the morning or at night, taking the time to ground yourself can help you feel calmer, more balanced throughout the day, and more easily able to fall asleep at night.

“Slowing down your overall thinking can calm your body, reduce anxiety, Improves sleep quality³“And it helps you feel more focused and focused during the day,” says Dr. Lavin.

How to prepare for post-workout meditation

Before you begin your post-workout meditation, create a calming environment: Dr. Rabin recommends surrounding yourself with soothing, dim lighting and calming meditation music. And try any other tools you have that help you ground your body and remind yourself that you’re safe.

“[You want to be] It’s soothing, it’s meditative, it’s peaceful, it puts you into a quiet state of mind,” he says.

Also, try to avoid looking at screens as much as possible, and opt for an audio-based meditation app (there are some great free ones here) that won’t distract you from your practice.

An extremely relaxing environment is the goal, but that’s not always possible. Maybe you’re at a gym, where fluorescent lights and loud noises are the norm. Distractions are common at home, too, like barking dogs or traffic outside your window. Luckily, no matter what your environment, a few minutes of meditation can have a positive effect on your mind and body.

“My biggest advice to anyone wanting to try meditation is to start with no expectations,” Atluri says. “If you go into the experience with a list of things you want to achieve during the session, you can feel defeated when they aren’t achieved. Mindfulness meditation is about being in the moment with open curiosity underpinned by generosity and self-compassion. Therefore, you can’t predict what will happen in the moment. The act of just being there during your post-workout meditation and seeing what happens is a huge win.”

Ready to get started? Try Post-Workout Meditation

You can choose to meditate after your workout using an app on your phone or by playing a YouTube video, but if you want to meditate with Atluri, follow the steps below.

One thing to note: It’s okay if a million thoughts race through your mind while you meditate.

“Your mind is never completely free of thoughts,” she says. “Thoughts will happen. Instead, go with the flow of thoughts, witness the thought, acknowledge the thought, and then come back to focus.” In this case, that focus is the breath. Ready to get started?

1. Set a timer for your meditation. There is no right amount of time. You can reap the benefits of meditation by practicing just a few minutes each day and gradually increasing the time.

2. Start by lying down or sitting upright with your legs crossed. Lying down and allowing your body to fully relax after exercise may help you feel more restored.

3. Close your eyes and take a moment to listen to the sounds and feel the ground beneath your feet. How is your body feeling in this moment?

4. Slow down your breathing and settle into your body and the space.

5. Breathe in through your nose and feel the air fill your stomach.

6. Exhale slowly through your nose and feel your stomach drop.

7. Repeat this process of intentional breathing, focusing on the physical and mental calm you feel with each breath. Breathing is the focus of this mindful meditation.

8. When the timer goes off and before you open your eyes, thank yourself and your body for making the effort to take care of yourself.

9. Open your eyes and slowly come out of the meditation position.