Being in "The Zone"

[Robert Z]

When I was a young guy I was an athlete. Being in the zone was normal. But I had almost forgotten about this. It is a benefit of working out regularly that I never saw coming - intense exercise is a form of meditation.

 

I had almost lost the ability to turn off the world and concentrate on a single thought. Between my disastrous marriage and a very demanding, high-stress business, I reached a point where my mind was always going in four directions at once and there was never any peace of mind. But when you need to concentrate on your breathing, muscle fatigue, and heart rate, just to keep going, the rest of the world fades to black.

 

Now it is all becoming natural again. I close my eyes and concentrate almost entirely on my breathing. And before long the world goes away. There is nothing on my mind but the sound of my breathing, and the next breath. And then the runner's high kicks in... and I keep going, and going, and going... just like the energizer bunny!

 

 

I find myself appreciating the mental state as much as the physical benefits these days.

[Valen]

It sounds like you did the Buddhist's breathing meditation. The way you describe the benefit makes a lot of sense. It's the first time I hear anyone describe as "in the zone". I think the Buddhist call it "Samadhi" which means concentration. I'm going to have to try that out again, I can't seem to get in the zone though, my mind wonders too easily.

[Robert Z]

It sounds like you did the Buddhist's breathing meditation. The way you describe the benefit makes a lot of sense. It's the first time I hear anyone describe as "in the zone". I think the Buddhist call it "Samadhi" which means concentration. I'm going to have to try that out again, I can't seem to get in the zone though, my mind wonders too easily.

 

 

Perhaps... but I don't have any knowledge of this.

 

What did it for me was maximized interval training. I have to focus entirely on my breathing and the oxygenation of my muscles in order to keep up the pace. I am always on the ragged edge of gasping for air or having my muscles give out due to an insufficient oxygen supply.

 

I know from experience now that during the heavy loads I am keeping my heart rate right at the red line for a person my age in good shape.

[Smilecharmer]

Part of my meditation is to be able to do it when running as I am a marathon and cross country runner. I always focus on my breathing and can feel when I am in the zone as far as heart rate exactly at 185 bpm and my mind on one thing. It is really the best way to exercise as you get a mind workout and a body workout.

[Emilia]

I find myself appreciating the mental state as much as the physical benefits these days.

This is what heavy deadlifts do for me. It's just me and the bar, focus on that, everything else is out of my mind. It's just the weight, focusing on form, gathering all my strength. When I'm in the weight room for that short period of time, everything else disappears.

[Shepp]

This is what heavy deadlifts do for me. It's just me and the bar, focus on that, everything else is out of my mind. It's just the weight, focusing on form, gathering all my strength. When I'm in the weight room for that short period of time, everything else disappears.

 

Oh yeah! This is the football pitch for me - I step on it and there's nothing outside of it, its like every movement around me slows down!

 

Particularly taking a free kick or something, that's definitely being "in the zone", cnt hear the crowd, don't notice anything else around me. Its just me, the ball, the target. My body, the ball, the target. In free kicks every tiny movement matters - its science really, not luck. Its slowing down, feeling your breathing, feeling your blood pulse in your ears, feeling your foot placement, pulling your foot to the pall, connecting, following through. Then bam, your back out of it again.

[RonaldS]

Before I started my business, I was reading some business start-up book. Most of it was very obvious common sense stuff, but the one thing that has stuck with me for all of these years is what the author said about exercise:

 

Something to the effect of, when we get overwhelmed with our business, our health often suffers. We tend to put off exercise, and then we not only begin to lose our physical health, but mental and emotional as well. The author emphasized viewing work-outs/exercise as work obligations, and to schedule them and stick to them as if it were any other work obligation or appointment.

 

I've always done that, and it's a huge help.

 

To the point of shutting out the outside world, I play a lot of basketball. It's a total release, because it doesn't matter what else is going on....during a game, you can't think about anything but the game. Sure, afterward it will come back. But in the moment, you're just playing.

 

I've played my way through intense business turmoil, having kids, a divorce, getting buried by having a business and going back to school, etc. I play 4-5 days a week. An ancillary benefit to basketball is that it's an intense team sport, and there's a lot if sh*t talking, so you can verbally release a lot of frustration, anger or whatever, and it just harmlessly falls to the floor. That helps.

 

I do other workouts, esp the days I don't play. But those aren't the same for me. I don't get totally immersed. Don't get me wrong, I work out hard and effectively, but I will also notice all the pretty women, get distracted by others, jibber jabber with other people, etc.

[Harradin]

This is what I'm like when I do motorsport. As soon as I'm racing, all my problems etc are gone and I'm focusing on racing.

 

I've managed to get in the zone a couple of times when revising and done a ridiculous amount!

[contact1]

It sounds like you did the Buddhist's breathing meditation. The way you describe the benefit makes a lot of sense. It's the first time I hear anyone describe as "in the zone". I think the Buddhist call it "Samadhi" which means concentration. I'm going to have to try that out again, I can't seem to get in the zone though, my mind wonders too easily.

 

This right here I agree with a lot. When I'm boxing / kickboxing, I know what that zone feels like, for me it isn't so much focusing on the breathing, but rather being at a point near passing out, feeling my heart pounding, pain in my stomach, like nothing else matters at the moment.

 

I have started practicing mediation myself, reading different books on Buddhism, and it actually works. I was a bit skeptical at first on the benefits, due to being very heavily science/calculative oriented, thinking "how is breathing for 10+ minutes going to help" but it really does calm you down and thing that would anger me easily before aren't having much an effect on me now.

[Robert Z]

Before I started my business, I was reading some business start-up book. Most of it was very obvious common sense stuff, but the one thing that has stuck with me for all of these years is what the author said about exercise:

 

Something to the effect of, when we get overwhelmed with our business, our health often suffers. We tend to put off exercise, and then we not only begin to lose our physical health, but mental and emotional as well. The author emphasized viewing work-outs/exercise as work obligations, and to schedule them and stick to them as if it were any other work obligation or appointment.

 

I find that the focus helps in this sense as well. The key to success for both exercise and business are the same - Push! Push! Push!

 

I used to get in the zone back when I was playing the piano as well. But that is a little different. When you know a song, the key is to let go and allow yourself to work from muscle memory. The moment you think, you're dead.