Aspire, Perspire, Nourish Yourself

Mantras for Positive Focus

The Honolulu Marathon is one week away and I’m getting nervous. As the day approaches my mind fixates on the event. What time do I need to get up for the 5 am start? What am I going to eat that early? Can my body manage one more marathon? What am I going to wear? Remember to buy more glide! How am I going to get through this? These questions endlessly loop through my mind for every race. The nervous energy that builds up in my body to countdown just keeps bubbling up in my brain.

Like every race, important business meeting, personal challenge, or any activity that means something to me, I need to be fully ready to feel at ease. For this marathon, my body is as ready as it’s going to be and now it’s time for my mind to get in sync. What’s my mantra for this event?

Using Mantras

http://www.theemotionmachine.com/ your-mantras-for-the-new-year

With every challenge, whether physical, emotional or intellectual, I give myself a mantra to help me focus. These mantras are specific to the situation and represent a positive energy to connect my thoughts to my actions. The mantra tells my brain how to feel and what’s the desired outcome. For instance, at the upcoming race my mantra is “strong and steady.” These two words are comforting, easily spoken in my brain as I breathe in rhythm, and tell my body – and specifically my legs – to stay strong and run steadily. I’ll let you know next week how well this mantra worked for me!

In other situations where I’ve been nervous about the event or performance, mantras I’ve used are:

“You know your stuff”
“Stay with it”
“Time to Shine”
“Smile”
“Feel the Power”
“Grounded and Real”

Sometimes my mantra is an image like a race finish line, a family member’s smiling face or special look ingrained in my brain.

Psychology of Mantras

The brain is a powerful system. I believe that sometimes it controls and other times it’s controlled. The intricate connection between mind and body is astonishing and I find it amazing how playing with one leads the other to follow.

The science of neuroplasticity demonstrates that we can re-wire our brains with practice. Research shows that people who suffered critical injuries have been able to regain functioning using neuroplasticity protocols.

Experience from sports psychology and positive psychology also support the use of mantras to enhance performance. From Appreciative Inquiry, two principles in particular that speak to the power of the mind are:

We see what we focus on, so make it positive. In other words, our beliefs (based on personal experience and perspective) are what we see. If we focus on pain, we see pain. If we focus on rhythmic breathing, we see rhythmic motion. Mantras need to be worded positively.
Language creates our reality through images in our brain. What does the word “white” bring to mind for you? How about “black”? Each of these words holds an image in our brain that surfaces consciously or subconsciously and may affect the way we approach a situation. For mantras, create the most positive image you can for the words you have chosen.

A groundbreaking paper by Drs. Cooperrider and Srivastva, originally published in 1990, “Positive Image, Positive Action: The Affirmative Basis of Organizing” details some examples from research about positive imagery and the value of positive internal dialogue in health, sports situations, and life in general.

Religious Roots of Mantras

http://www.thinkabouteternity.org/ Hinduism/Hinduism%20Index.htm

In the recent past, mantras have been linked to yoga and meditation. They are thought to have religious and spiritual roots as far back as 3000 years ago with Hindus in India. Many more religions, including Buddhism, have included mantras into their foundation of practice.

There are many schools of thought about how to structure and use mantras, as well as how effective they are. I say, “If it works for you, why not?” The literal translation of the word mantra from Sanskrit is “instrument of thought.” That makes sense to me, and connects back to the link between mind and body.

Find Your Mantra

Never used a mantra before? Give it a try, not just for your next challenge but also for everyday living. Stuck in traffic? Say to yourself, “slow, steady, and safe.”

Resources:

http://psychology.about.com/od/biopsychology/f/brain-plasticity.htm
http://www.runnersworld.com/race-training/magic-mantras
Cooperrider, D. L. (2000). Positive Image, Positive Action: The Affirmative Basis of Organizing. Appreciative Inquiry: Rethinking Human Organization Toward a Positive Theory of Change. 29 – 53
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mantra

Recipe of the Week: Overnight Oatmeal Treat

Plyometrics: Getting the Jump into Your Workout

Have you ever seen people do a bunch of exercises that involve jumping and explosive moves and wondered, “what are those called and why are they doing them?” Some of us wonder, “why would they want to do them?” They look hard and way too much work.

These moves are called plyometrics and are used by athletes to improve speed and power. The extremely quick and powerful moves force muscles to extend and contract explosively. Athletes use plyometrics for sports specific training like baseball, basketball, football, sprinting, etc. Plyometrics are also popular with power athletes, i.e. powerlifters. In all these cases, the plyometric exercises are specifically focused on the speed and/or power they are trying to build. For example, a baseball athlete may work on upper body plyometrics that can help develop more power in their pitch, while sprinters may use more lower body plyometrics to quicken their pace and explosiveness in their running.

Plyometrics for Recreational Athletes

Plyometrics are also great for the everyday athlete like most of us. These exercises can be intense so it’s a good idea to start out slow.

With past plantar fasciitis injuries, I’ve been cautious about including plyos in weekly workouts and am just now learning the proper technique so I can to do these safely. What I’ve discovered is that I’ve needed to build more basic strength in my upper body to do some of the upper body plyometrics. Given my running experience, lower body exercises are much easier for me. Below is a short video showing my slow progress on plyometrics. In this video we also feature my son’s friend, Jace, performing a couple of upper body plyometrics. As a Jiu jitsu athlete, Jace has more upper body strength and performs these exercises with ease.

Learning from the Experts

Now that you’ve had a laugh watching me do some of these plyometric exercises, check out these great sites. They include articles about plyometrics and demonstrate exercises.

Sports & Fitness Advisor

http://www.sport-fitness-advisor.com/plyometric-drills.html

Perform Better

http://www.performbetter.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/PBOnePieceView?storeId=10151&catalogId=10751&languageId=-1&pagename=104

Runner’s World

For runners, here is a great article and video series:

http://www.runnersworld.com/workouts/jump-to-it-to-make-yourself-stronger-and-faster?cid=NL_TrainingExtra_1882166_10212014_FourAwesomeExercisesforStrongerRunning

Greatist

http://greatist.com/fitness/explosive-bodyweight-exercises

Get to It

All of the above sources will get you started on plyometrics. If you want to get serious about doing plyometrics and ensure you are doing the exercises properly, please consult a professional trainer.