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"Concentrate. Concentrate. Concentrate."

By Christopher Russell

Concentrate, repeat as necessary. If you think about Olympic athletes just before their event, they are focused, confident, goal oriented and ready. This is something that we all possess and with the right concentration training we can work our bodies and mind to their fullest potential. We can maximize our everyday's performance, in everything we do, with a concentrated mindset; and here's how.

The minds natural state is disorder, with random thoughts, perceptions and sensations all competing for attention. Adults normally manage this confusion by placing things in a reasonable order with attentional control. This is where we filter out certain other things and focus on the main task - concentrating. However, doing this can be more difficult at certain times than at others. The usual suspects are as follows:

Being Tired - When fatigue kicks in concentration is kicked out. Being tired overrides your bodies ability to focus, so get your rest.

Being Stressed - The little things are just as bad, if not worse, than the big things that stress us out. Don?t let these things take over your mind, be controlled and be concentrated.

Being Physically Depressed - When your body needs the attention (when you are sick, hungry, on medication, injured, etc?) you loose the ability to concentrate on anything else. So, keep healthy and take the best care of your physical body as much as possible.

Being Bored - Practice may make perfect but repetition can make us bored. Concentration needs willpower, and boredom can bring that down. So change little things in your everyday life to keep it fresh and new.

Multitasking - Juggling multiple activities at the same time rather than in an order can make it hard for the brain to focus. More frequent multitaksers may even be teaching themselves to have shorter attention spans. So, get organized and take tasks one at a time.

These things and more can sometimes combine and really make that concentration goal hard to achieve. However, food, rest and regular exercise can go a long way towards improving concentration. Remember the suggestions from above and implement them or your own version of them. Use them in your everyday life and bring that concentration, readiness and focus to your workouts. This way your workouts won?t only be a great way to keep your body healthy and fit but also to keep you more in control with optimal concentration.

About the Author:

Christopher Russell is a personal trainer at VERT Peak Fitness Center in Jericho NY. He is also a member of the NYFD.