“Detachment from Thought is the Heart of High Performance”

Count Your Breaths

During your session in between work sets, just pay attention to counting your breaths. Think about the breath number you’re on during the inhale and think about that same number on the exhale. If it’s a timed rest you can turn it into a focused game. “Get less breaths in during your next rest interval.” Or you can make it so a breath count is your rest interval “50 breath per rest set”.

This does a couple things…

1) It trains you to narrow your focus detaching you from thought bringing you into the present moment

2) It lowers your heart rates calming your nervous system allowing you to recover better between sets

“True power is detachment from thought. If thoughts control you that means anything can control you. Breathe and allow thoughts to pass."

Some people believe that we cannot control our thoughts. That’s only partially true. We have the ability to ruminate on a thought, we have the ability to detach yourself from thought and we have the ability to CHOOSE between the two.

In lifting, especially when you are going very heavy or doing a weight that injured you in the past, fear, anxiety and doubt often seeps in. The practice of PAYING ATTENTION to your BREATH builds the skill of DETACHMENT. This allows us to use our energy wisely.

Extra Practice

“In times of peace, prepare for war” – Niccolò Machiavelli

Practice what you will experience in a safe environment. Daily mediation helps with that. It can be in the form of counting breaths or a guided meditation. Either form will help because when you’re in battlefield, thoughts will arise and you will know what to do. Like any other practice the more you put in the more you get out. Err on the side of caution. If you meditate already try the focused breathing, if you don’t meditate you may want to just try 10 breaths of focused breathing per day with intention of increasing it over time.