Hypnosis for exercise: I tried it for a month

Surprisingly, our DIY version of hypnosis didn’t actually work. And growing up, I never thought I could use hypnosis for something practical, like making my time at the gym a little more intentional. But that’s the idea behind self-hypnosis app Reveri, co-created and voiced by America’s leading hypnosis expert, psychiatrist and Stanford University professor David Spiegel, M.D. .

Reveri ($15/month) offers a wide range of hypnosis exercises designed to help users track better sleep, kick bad habits, and eat intuitively. I was interested in how self-hypnosis for exercise can help with fitness, so I decided to conduct a month-long experiment with a method called “Tune Your Mind and Body for Optimal Athletic Performance.” I used the app’s pre- and post-exercise sessions. It helps you “relive successful aspects of your routine and consider areas to focus on next time.”

When I started using Reveri, I was in the middle of a grueling three-month bouldering training plan. For those who aren’t ordained, bouldering is a type of rock climbing done without ropes and on “short” walls (averaging about 15 feet in height). This exercise style requires both power and raw strength and can be taxing on the body. Committing to using tools that help me set intentions before and after my workouts felt like a smart idea. Especially since Dr. Spiegel is a respected medical professional (not a clown).

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So, I felt…very…drowsy…and I mean, very…motivated…to begin my self-hypnosis journey. Here are my honest thoughts on how it went.

What is self-hypnosis?

For many years, popular culture has portrayed hypnosis as a form of mind control that takes away people’s free will. According to clinical hypnotherapist Julie Costa, that depiction couldn’t be further from the truth. “[Hypnosis] is a tool that allows you to tap into your inner knowledge and subconscious mind to help you achieve your goals more easily,” she says. “In the simplest terms, hypnosis is the act of entering into a deep state of relaxation. This state is a natural state that many of us actually visit several times a day, such as when we daydream.”

“In its simplest form, hypnosis is the act of entering a deep state of relaxation.” —Julie Costa

Self-hypnosis involves bringing yourself into this state of fixed attention through breathing exercises, focusing, visualization, or another concentration technique. “The goal is to relax your body and relax your mind,” Costa says. “This allows you to bypass important functions and open the door to your subconscious mind.”

In Reverie, Dr. Spiegel helps you enter self-hypnosis mode by instructing you to look up, close your eyes, and take deep breaths. He then instructs you to hold your hands up in the air while you are hypnotized, while you “enter your subconscious.”

Although the whole process may sound a little fluffy, hypnosis is based on a lot of solid scientific research. In a phone interview, Dr. Spiegel mentioned a 2017 study in which he and a team of other researchers placed people with high and low hypnosis in a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scanner. Some participants were hypnotized before entering, while others were not. This allowed doctors to peer into what was happening inside the brains of people under hypnosis.

First, Dr. Spiegel and his team noticed that the brains of hypnotized people had reduced activity in the cingulate cortex, which processes acute stimuli such as loud noises. These same participants’ brains also showed hyper-connectivity between executive control areas and the prefrontal cortex, allowing people to better control the relationship between their bodies and their brains. There is a possibility. For example, if a person perceives pain, a hypnotized person may be able to pause before responding to that pain.

The third thing that happens is [in hypnosis] “This is a disconnect between executive control areas and the posterior part of the cingulate cortex, which we call the ‘default mode network,'” Dr. Spiegel says. Similar to the effects of mindfulness, Dr. Spiegel says this disconnect allows you to imagine new possibilities for your life and relationships without judgment.

“I think of hypnosis as a kind of childhood peak state that we can’t reconnect with as we get older,” Dr. Spiegel says.

Benefits of pre-workout hypnosis

These effects make hypnosis a good practice before activities that require concentration, such as running, pickleball games, and climbing sessions. “There are so many benefits to entering a hypnotic state before training,” says Costa. “During hypnosis, you can imagine yourself exercising, reaping its benefits, and achieving your health and fitness goals.”

Spiegel says this process allows you to focus more on how your body is feeling in the moment, rather than on the outcome of your training. “You’re not sitting around doing nothing and acting like your coach is saying, ‘Come on, you can do it!’ You’re just experiencing what it feels like to let your body do what it wants,” he says. This is similar to hitting a flow state or reaching a “runner’s high,” he adds.

My experience of trying hypnosis before training

I started my Reverie journey on a tough training day. My climbing program requires one workout each week where I attempt a problem (a bouldering route) at an effort level of 9 or 10. This means I’m going to fall. and falls. And then it falls again. Even if you can catch yourself with a giant bouldering mat underneath you, falling over and over again is both physically and mentally taxing. So I downloaded Reveri and started the “Get Ready to Workout” hypnosis.

One of the great things about Reverie is that each exercise comes with the option to interact with the practice or just listen. This is useful if you’re out in public and want to be discreet. I was planning to finish my workout at the gym, so I decided to just listen to Dr. Spiegel in the yoga room. I was sitting in a criss-cross position, as when meditating, and Dr. Spiegel decided that I had entered a hypnotic state by holding one hand in front of me.

The hypnosis itself felt similar to the deep meditative states I had previously experienced during long mindfulness sessions, yin yoga classes, and long distance runs. My body felt like it was floating as my thoughts flew into the distance, and Dr. Spiegel asked me to visualize the movement patterns I needed to succeed in my upcoming workouts. He imagined different climbing holds and how they would feel in my hands. I imagined strengthening my core and not letting myself fall off the wall. I imagined performing the final, exhausting movements necessary to solve the problem.

When I opened my eyes, I found that my concentration had sharpened. Front row seats were no longer on my to-do list for the rest of the day, and I walked to the climbing wall with a presence I hadn’t felt in a while. As Dr. Spiegel said, I found myself focusing on individual movements rather than asking if I could reach the top. To be clear, I still fell (many times!), but I no longer felt like I was struggling to climb a wall. I just he was reaching for one hold and reaching for the next hold. Sometimes I would completely release my hold. Sometimes it was hard to get there. Sometimes I couldn’t stand it. However, as I continued to train, I found myself comparing my progress less and less to other “better” boulderers.

When I opened my eyes, I found that my concentration had sharpened.

We then performed a hypnotic running ritual before starting our warm-up exercise. There were days when I truly believed that the hypnotic state itself was the reason I felt more in tune with my body. For others, understanding exactly what your intentions are before you start a workout really seems to make the magic happen. Either way, the experience of adding Reverie to my routine has made me think deeply about the “why” behind bouldering training.

I realized that I don’t climb because I want to be the strongest person in the gym or be able to climb up tiny plastic railings (imagine that). I just like the movement itself. The act of making calculated decisions about where to place your hands and feet next so that you can stay on the wall for even a little longer.I love surprising myself by completing difficult moves or discovering problems from the ground that look like puzzles did it With enough concentration it can be broken.

In other words, you don’t need someone to “hypnotize” you into enjoying your time at the gym. To remember simple truths, we need exercises that will help clear the brain smog. That said, I already really love this.