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The Importance of Meditation

meditating man

I started Strong Kicks (http://strongerkicks.com) to help people develop their kicking skills for martial arts. Part of this, as I continue to flesh out the website, is my own, personal martial arts journey. I used to compete at a number of Tang Soo Do/Taekwondo tournaments a year until I started college and working full-time. Now I want to get back to that. I’ll be 32 this year so I’m not sure I’ll ever be as good as when I was 15-19 and sparring guys invited to the Olympic team tryouts, national champions and state champions every week, but at least I’ll qualify for the old-person division now… 🙂

Anyway, I want to post daily on this blog with my personal journey back into Taekwondo to motivate myself and hopefully motivate others who want to either get back into Taekwondo or get to a higher level in it.

So to the topic of meditation.

You should strive to meditate at least 10 minutes a day.

Why? Meditation has a number of benefits including reducing stress, improving focus and concentration, and there is even evidence that meditation can help your body heal itself and its DNA.

So my goal is to meditate at least 10 minutes each morning after I wake up. I did that this morning and it felt amazing.

How to Meditate

  1. Set a timer on your watch or phone (I recommend starting with 1 minute, then working your way up to 3, then 5 then 10 minutes at a time).
  2. Sit in the lotus position (I prefer to sit with one leg over another instead of them crossed in the middle).
  3. Keep your back, neck and head straight.
  4. Either clasp one hand in the other on your lap or sit in the more well known position with each hand resting forward on your thigh, thumbs touching the tips of your finger(s).
  5. Close your eyes
  6. Focus your closed eyes and mind on an imaginary white dot in the distance, directly in front of you.
  7. Don’t think about anything. Simply breath in deeply into your diaphragm through your nose then exhale through your closed mouth.
  8. Continue until the timer finishes, then exhale and slowly open your eyes and stand up.
  9. Good job! Felt great, didn’t it?

Besides the meditation today, I am starting on my General Preparation Phase (GPP) for fitness for Taekwondo. What does this include?

  • Walking two miles to and then from the gym to strengthen my legs, shins and feet for running and eventually sprits.
  • Lifting (I am using a modified StrongLifts 5×5 program with dips, pull-ups and core work added).
  • Stretching

Traditional Taekwondo coaches will flip out about the weight lifting but as long as the volume is low enough, you stretch and don’t get caught up in bodybuilding, it can be very beneficial and cut down the time necessary to build a strong enough body to withstand and deliver some amazing strikes.

Tomorrow will have swimming (an amazing recovery exercise and stress-free steady state cardio) and regular Taekwondo practice using my StrongKicks program.

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