How many times do you begin your workouts with an internal body scan? Do you breathe and feel how your body is doing in that particular moment? Do you take a few minutes to get in touch with your own body and then start your workout from an informed perspective?
If you do, than you know that this is maybe the most important part of a workout or training session.
If you do not, then it is time to start exercising your body in a more conscious manner. At this point you might ask why such a step is necessary or even dismiss it from the start as a waste of time and stop reading the remainder of the article. If you feel compelled to do just that, I will ask you to remember a time when you got injured during a workout or a running or cycling session.
With the understanding that learning to listen to the physical body is of utmost importance for every day life, general health and well being, learning to do a body scan is of equal importance. Knowing what feels tight, weak or out of alignment before engaging in any physical activity will influence the workout routine, its duration and its intensity.
Working out within the paradigm of respect and cooperation with the body will lead to faster results. Most importantly, working out while understanding the signals and messages coming from the body will prevent most of the injuries acquired due to lack of awareness.
How do you do a body scan?
No equipment and no special location are necessary in order to do a body scan. Start by sitting on a chair or on the floor and quickly assess if there is any tension anywhere in your body; feel how your head sits on your neck and if your shoulders are relaxed or not. Do not judge or try to explain what you feel, just gather the information your body is offering to you.
Next lie down and start breathing, inhaling and exhaling through the nose. Keep your knees bent or straight, depending on what feels more comfortable for your body. Start feeling that your body is becoming very heavy and allow your muscles to relax. This is not a relaxation exercise, even though you will feel more relaxed at the end of it. It is a body scan: you are gathering information about how your body feels as a whole and how everything in your body feels as separate entities. This exercise will allow you to create a partnership between the body and the mind in order to exercise your body in a more conscious context.
Pay attention to the following:
- Are you able to inhale and exhale effortlessly and evenly? Is it harder to inhale or exhale? Keep breathing until you feel more ease and the rhythm of your breath becomes slower and calmer.
- Where do you feel most of the tension? Are you in any kind of pain? Are you uncomfortable in any way?
- Next move your awareness to the neck and head and release any tension that you might feel. Think of gravity working for your benefit this time and acting upon every bone, muscle and structure in your neck, throat, face and head.
- Continue by allowing gravity to take over your rib cage and all the organs inside it.
- Next move your awareness to your abdomen, pelvis and lower back.
- Finish the scan with your hips, shoulders, arms and legs.
The body scan can last from 5 to 15 minutes, depending on how experienced you are in listening to your body. Remain at each step for as long as it feels appropriate. Remember that your body will guide you in a way that your mind cannot.
Maintain this state of heightened awareness and assess how your body feels and what levels of tension you are still carrying in the body. Gently sit up and pay attention to how you feel compared to the beginning of the body scan. Take this information into your workout session and use it to align your body better, to modify the weight load, the number of repetitions and the length of your workout according to your present body needs.
As you become more aware of the signals coming from the body you will be able to increase the efficiency of all your physical activities and you will become less prone to get injured.
The integration of the physical, mental, emotional and spiritual aspects of ourselves is what will lead us towards optimal health and well being. Learning to do a body scan is one important step towards this integration.