Why meditate after exercise?
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For years, exercise scientists probed, prodded, scanned and measured athletes to find out just what was going on inside the body during exercise. From that, we now have quantifiable outputs to measure performance. Things like: VO2 max, VLA max, FTP, FRC and so on. But now the focus has shifted to the much more intangible, but arguably more impactful, side of high performance - recovery.
The body has two states: The confusingly named ‘Sympathetic’ state - which is actually pretty unsympathetic to recovery - otherwise known as your ‘fight or flight’ state. And the Parasympathetic state, your ‘rest and digest’ state. Both states are important, but as with all things, they must be in balance. Training ramps up the Sympathetic state. It floods us with adrenaline and cortisol, it elevates our blood pressure and increases concentration, all essential for us to perform. But it also leaves us with an exercise-induced hangover. As we need to clear these inflammatory hormones quickly, to return to a relaxed state and start the recovery process. The problem is, most triathletes don’t have the time to sit and allow their bodies to come back into balance, there’s work commitments, kids, responsibilities and a myriad of other things that grab our attention straight after a session.
Practicing meditation has been shown to fast-track the body into this parasympathetic state in a shorter amount of time. As study in 2009, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2690030/ demonstrated better ANS (autonomic nervous system) regulation among participants who actively meditated verses a control group who underwent a a standard relaxation protocol. It showed statistically significant increases in heart rate variability, belly respiratory amplitude and theta brain waves. in conjunction with lower skin conductivity, breathing and heart rates.
Another recent study also showed a significant reduction in blood lactate through post-exercise meditation, https://bjsm.bmj.com/content/34/4/268. VO2 measurements between the post exercise meditation and control groups show no significant differences - unfortunately you still need to make it hurt to get faster!
Post-exercise blood lactate measurements, immediately and 10 minutes after. Note athletes practicing mindfulness we able to produce greater amounts of lactate.
So, if meditation after bouts of intense exercise can bring the body into a relaxed state, starting the recovery process faster, is there an effect on performance? A 2017 meta analysis of over 290 elite athletes, https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28664327/ showed physiological and psychological surrogates improved to a meaningful extent following a post-exercise mindfulness practice, as well as moderate to large effects on performance outcomes.
Graphs showing Mindful Attention Awareness Scale (CMAAS) and time to exhaustion duration.
It’s worth noting that these studies were performed on elite athletes, with more time to dedicate to recovery and fewer life distractions. It would be interesting to see a study performed on age-group athletes, comparing performance gains in those taking five to ten minutes to meditate after strenuous sessions, versus those who simply get right back to dealing with work problems and deadlines!
In our experience, our athletes are able to stay healthier, happier, injury free and more consistent in their training.