athletes

Meditation the new tool to reach peak performance

wildmind meditation newsAlex Hutchinton, The Globe and Mail: It’s relatively easy to spot the physical differences between, say, an Olympic rower and a couch potato. But it’s the mind as much as the muscles that make a champion – so is it possible to pick an “elite brain” out of a crowd of ordinary grey matter?

That’s the challenge that a team of psychiatrists and neuroscientists at the University of California San Diego have been grappling with for the past few years. In brain-imaging studies with subjects ranging from Navy SEALs to elite athletes, they’ve found a telltale pattern of activity in certain brain regions …

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Mindfulness training program may help olympic athletes reach peak performance

wildmind meditation newsChristina Johnson, Imperial Valley News: Research suggests that meditation may help U.S. military personnel cope with the stresses of combat more effectively. Now, UC San Diego researchers are looking at whether strengthening the mental muscle of Olympic athletes could confer a competitive edge in the world of sports, too.

The early results, though not definitive, are promising: The first group of athletes to complete a mindfulness training program developed at UC San Diego won first, second and third place at the 2014 USA Cycling Elite BMX National Championships.

Though the podium sweep is not being directly attributed to the mind-focusing benefits of meditation, the …

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Athletes using meditation to improve performance

wildmind meditation newsIlene Raymond Rush, The Inquirer: For 15 minutes a day, Tim Frazier, Penn State’s senior point guard, finds a quiet place, switches on a podcast, and meditates. Along with his teammates, Frazier, the team’s all-time leader in assists, has found that practicing mindfulness meditation – focusing on the breath with his eyes closed and becoming aware of his thoughts without judging them – has amped up his performance on the court.

“The game moves so fast, it’s hard to focus on the here and now,” said Frazier, who is pretty fleet of foot himself. “Meditation slows me down [mentally], keeps me more relaxed and more …

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