Next week I will turn 68 years old. It’s crazy because, in terms of fitness, I am probably as fit as I was in high school on the track team (well, except that I’m old).
This rather sudden turn toward my personal fitness is due to some health concerns that were revealed in a check-up last year. No treatment was called for, but there were lifestyle changes that needed to be made. One of those changes was to increase my fitness, specifically, to increase my cardio fitness. Running would be the first choice except that I have limited motion in one ankle due an old injury. However, when I lived in the United States, I discovered that I could do one of my favorite workouts: indoor cycling. I bought an inexpensive but decent indoor bike on Facebook Marketplace. I started to do the workouts on Apple Fitness, but they just didn’t do it for me.
On a whim, I decided one day to just play a house music stream and spin to that.
It was amazing!
I had found a way to turn a workout into portal to the present moment. The music made the difference.
Why Music is a Portal to the Present Moment
Why do we love music? We love music because of how it makes us feel. It is the same feeling you get when you are going down the first hill on a rollercoaster, when you eat delicious food or a watch a beautiful sunset. These are activities which, temporarily takes us beyond thought and into present moment. We experience the Joy of Being. We might think that the activity itself brings us joy when, in reality, it is present moment awareness which allows joy to rise from within us. This is why we en(joy) music so much. Music demands present moment awareness because you can only experience it one note, one moment at a time.
Late bloomer that I am, I discovered electronic music in my mid 50s. I attended the Burning Man “festival” for 15 consecutive years, from 2002 to 2016, and my love for electronic music has stayed with me since. When I listen to that driving beat, it’s easy for me to let my feet turn the pedals in time. When I bring my attention to the music, it doesn’t elicit thought. All there is is that one moment, which contains that one beat of the music, as well at that one breath, heartbeat, image (if my eyes are open) …and everything else that exists in that moment.
Although I prefer electronic music, I think that any music with a beat will work. A friend of mine is using the same technique as I am, but she loves tango music, and that’s what she spins to. But, in order to use this technique, it’s important to have music that motivates you. Not sure what that is? Then take time to become aware of music and its effect on you in your everyday life. If you find yourself hearing music and you notice that you are tapping your toes or nodding your head in time, pay attention to the kind of music you are listening to and try spinning to it. Find music that makes you want to move.
Mindfulness
Mindfulness means, simply, becoming aware of thought. When you become aware of your thoughts, you separate yourself from them. You are not your thoughts, you have thoughts. You realize that these thoughts can be “pushed aside”, allowing you instead to bring your attention to the present moment.
The present moment contains only three “things”. It includes sensory awareness; everything that you can see, hear, feel, taste and smell. The present moment can also contain thought. Most importantly, the now contains…you. The essential you, before any other identity, is awareness. If not for you, being there to witness it, the present moment would not exist.
But, your thoughts are not real. They are fleeting, pale illusions on an imaginary past or future. And yet, if we are unable to separate ourselves from our thoughts, those thoughts can cause changes in our physical bodies. A sad thought might elicit a negative emotion, resulting in a physical reaction in your body, tears, elevated blood pressure, flushing. Or, as it relates to spinning, the fleeting thought “my legs are tired” can crease a cause-and-effect loop. You end up slowing down or stopping when, in reality, your legs were doing pretty well.
We even have a name for this; you “psyched yourself out”.
It’s challenging enough to deal with self-generated thought. But sometimes we make it even harder to be present by adding thought triggers into our workout experience. Whenever you look at a screen, it creates thought. Some of this thought is helpful (“My heart rate is 138”), as it relates to the present moment. In reality, most content is there so you don’t get bored, especially when it comes to video. You watch a screen show another person on a bike talking to you or video of other riders going down a road. Nothing on that screen relates to what is happening in your body at that moment. None of it is real.
When we meditate, we are usually in a location which has few distractions. This makes is easier for us to bring our attention to our breathing, our bodies and to the present moment. Consequently, when I spin, I do all I can to eliminate sources of useless thought.
I removed the computer from my spin bike because I realized that it wasn’t serving me. I don’t need to know what my cadence is. My cadence is the beat of the music. I don’t need to know what my distance is. I’m not going anywhere. I don’t need to know what the resistance is. I let my body tell me how I’m doing.
However, I do use my phone for two reasons. I play my music from phone to my AirPods. Also, I use an app to monitor my heart rate. The app I use is called FITIV, although there a many apps out there that would serve the same purpose. FITIV displays a large area of a color representing my current heart rate zone. Inside the area, my current heart rate displayed in numbers. As I spin, I try to not concentrate on anything I can see. Often, my eyes are closed, but if I glance up at the phone, I know if I’m in my desired zone/heart rate.
The key is learning what your body feels like at a certain level of exertion. I am able to come pretty close to knowing my current heart rate without looking at my phone. This comes in handy when the thought “my legs are tired” flits in to my head. I separate myself from the thought and am able to examine it. “Hmm, are my legs really tired?’ I glance my zone and heart rate. “No. I know from experience that I can handle this. I’m going to keep on and see what happens.” These are useful thoughts, thoughts in and of the present moment.
Often, the thoughts generated by a screen involving time. Time, of course, is an illusion. The only real thing is the one moment out of time, the present moment. If you have ever glanced at your elapsed time and thought to yourself “Oh God, I still have another x-amount of minutes to go!” or “Ugh! I’m not even halfway yet.”, then you have replaced the present with an imaginary future. These thoughts are irrelevant to what is happening at that moment. This is why I try not to look at the elapsed time on my phone, or any other clock in my sight.
Instead, I measure time in songs. Most of the tracks I use are between 3 to 5 minutes, an average of 4 minutes per song. That means a 60-minute workout will require about 15 songs. Fortunately, the elapsed time and the clock on the FITIV interface are much smaller than the heart rate/zone display, so they are easier to ignore at a glance.
When I start my workout and the first song is starting, I say out loud to myself “This is Song 1.” When I think of where I am, time-wise, in my workout, the answer is always the current song number. Instead of my elapsed time being “14:07” (and then trying to do math in your head of how many more minutes I have to keep this up!), it’s simply “Song 12”. There is an additional benefit. I need to remember what song number it is, or else I’ll end up doing more or less time than I had planned. And, it will usually mean that I forgot the song number because I got lost in thought at some point. I will often ask myself “What song is this? Oh yeah, Song 12”. In this way, the song’s number becomes like a mantra, a thought which brings you back to the present moment.
As the song starts, I’m seated. I adjust my resistance so that I can very easily maintain cadence of the music. I say to myself, out loud, “This is song 12.” After a while (about 8 measures, for you musical people) I start to raise resistance to the point where there is enough resistance that I can maintain it for a minute or so. Then, at the appropriate time and beat of the music, I stand and pedal to the beat. If necessary, I adjust the resistance a tiny amount up or down to be able to keep the beat. Once I find that spot, I bring all of my attention inward, to my legs and arms, to my breathing. I don’t look at the display unless I need to, otherwise me eyes are closed or open but not focused on anything. Every once-in-a-while, however, it is good to check your heart rate and zone. It lets you learn about your body and how it feels at different intensities.
Still, once you know what your body can do and how it feels, you are free. You are free to totally commit to every moment, mind and body. I let myself go with the music until it no longer feels like riding a bicycle. It feels more like dancing.
But there is something else. That feeling that you get when you are on that rollercoaster, taste that delicious food or watch that sunset? It is the joy that arises with present moment awareness. But, when you know that the joy is rising from within you, not from what you are doing…that joy increases exponentially. Sometimes, I when I’m really “in the zone”, when I am aware of everything all at once, moving to the music, feeling my body as it runs efficiently and powerfully, sometimes, the tinniest thought whispers in my mind: “This is beautiful.”.
I find myself crying and smiling at once.
It’s important to note some safety issues. If you are new to indoor cycling, allow yourself some time to become comfortable on the bike before you try this technique. Start by remaining seated and wait until you get truly comfortable riding before you start standing or riding with your eyes closed.
I highly suggest using a heart rate monitor to determine your maximum heart rate and your target heart rate zones. If you don’t have a HRM, you can start by estimating your max heart rate by looking it up on a chart based on your age. You can then use a chart to give you your target zones. However, having your current heart rate displayed in real time is important because it can not only tell you when you are “in the zone”, but also when you are approaching your upper limits. It’s easy to get carried away and not notice that the zone you are in is “the danger zone”. Be safe.
By the way, many smart watches, such as the Apple Watch, can monitor your heart rate. I prefer a chest-mounted heart rate monitor, as they are much more responsive and accurate than watches. Chest HRMs are not very expensive. I found one at a local sporting goods store for about $30 USD.
