You may ask yourself why we need to relax or meditate and what it has to do with wight training. Firstly, the body will achieve your training goals much easier if you relax before each training session. Relaxing will take away lifes strains from the mind and body, leaving you to concentrate on the job at hand. Secondly, after you train you will need to relax. This will promote the body's natural tendency to repair itself. Meditation is just another way to relax the mind and body.
There are many ways we become stressful in the modern society - many are job related. This is another reason why we should exercise after we return from work as all the days stresses can be put behind you. Marriage is another common stress producer and you must avoid training after an argument as your mind will not give your exercises the concentration they deserve. You may even find that the act of exercising will remove any stress you may have, so training may help you over a stressful period of your life.
Relaxing really means to loosen up your body parts or 'letting go', and at the same time to blank the mind of thoughts or feelings. One way to relax is to lie flat on your back in a quiet place such as a bedroom or on the couch. Then concentrate on each body part in turn starting from the toes, and relax each part in turn. It may help to momentarily tense the body part and then relax it. Move up your body in this fashion, relaxing your legs, hips, abs, hands, arms, chest, back, shoulders, neck and finally the head. Feel as though you are sinking through the object you have chosen to lie on. Take many deep breaths and slowly exhale through your nose. You can then enjoy a few minutes of physical relaxation whenever you need to, and it will even help you to sleep at night.
Meditation is the equivalent of relaxation on a mental or spiritual level. Teachers of meditation sometimes give their students a word to chant, called a 'mantra' to induce the meditation state. By concentrating on the repetition of the mantra we will block out all other thoughts and feelings and so find mental peace. The mantra is often a meaningless word and serves only as a focus for the mind. We can use other things to focus the mind on, which work just as well. One is to think of a happy moment in our lives and concentrate on the happiness until everything else is forgotten. Then let this thought fade to leave you at peace.
