The Joyful Athlete: The Wisdom of the Heart in Exercise And Sports Training: The Wisdom of the Heart in Exercise & Sports Training

How can athletes train for maximum performance and joy? The Joyful Athlete shares the findings of a veteran runner who worked as an editor at Runner's World and has raced at distances from 100 yards to 100K (62.2 miles). After receiving a master's degree from Stanford University, author George Beinhorn was paralyzed from the chest down for three years. No sooner had he recovered than a spiritual teacher urged him to start running—there would be no time for self-pity. For the next 40 years, he researched ways to make training both scientific and personally rewarding. Studying the careers of hundreds of athletes, he found that the most successful shared two qualities. First, they were expansive—they had a positive outlook and exceptional energy. And they practiced "feeling-based training"—they had an uncanny ability to understand the signals their bodies were sending. Athletes in our western culture have been obsessed with numbers. The assumption is that by analyzing our training rationally, we'll be able to achieve more consistent results and get the most enjoyment. In practice, this premise hasn't worked out very well. Athletes from cultures where intuition is honored, notably elite runners from East Africa, continue to dominate. That's because sports training isn't about "running the numbers." It's about working with the individual body that we must train with, and whose needs change continually. The Joyful Athlete tells a riveting story of groundbreaking research that reveals why our bodies thrive when we cultivate expansive thoughts and feelings, and how scores of athletes at all levels have found success by "feeling-based training." It's an enjoyable reading experience that will inspire athletes in every sport. The Joyful Athlete answers the most basic question every athlete faces: "How can I be successful and enjoy my training too?" 17. Fun Runner: A Saner Way to Train18. What Runners Want; 19. Runners and Demons; 20. Expansive Sports; 21. Fatigue and Intuition; 22. Minimalism: External and Internal; 23. The Key to Running Success; 24. A Runner's Path; 25. Answers; 26. Bill Aris's Truth: How Heartfelt Running Makes Champions; 27. Planning My Next life as a High School Athlete; 28. Faceplant; 29. Pickin' Up Good Vibrations; 30. Every Runner's Friend; 31. Let's Get It Wrong; 32. Inside-Out Running; 33. Male and Female at the Races; 34. Next Generation Running; 35. Seasons of a Runner; 36. A Runner Stumbles The Joyful Athlete; CONTENTS; Preface: Spiritual Matters; 1. The Simple Joy of Sports; 2. Introduction: Heart Talk; 3. The 5 Dimensions of Fitness; 4. The Harmony Zone; 5. Science of the Heart; 6. Focus on Feeling; JOYFUL SPORTS IN THE REAL WORLD; 7. The Happiness Advantage for Runners; 8. Burnout; 9. Training in the Age of Energy; 10. Training in the Age of Energy-Part 2; 11. Natural Zones; 12. How to Increase Your Mileage Enjoyably; 13. Arf! Arf! Train Like a Dog; 14. True Sport at the Olympics; 15. Mental Focus of Happy Runners; 16. A Merry Heart Goes All the Way 37. Solving the Riddle of Training38. Song of the Road; 39. Strange Rays; 40. Intuitive Runner; 41. Running for Results; 42. Art of Sports, Law of Sports; 43. The Runner's Brain; 44. How Prefontaine Trained; 45. Happy Heart Running; 46. The 96% Run; 47. Nightingale; Resources; About the Author The Joyful Athlete reveals how anyone can learn to ""listen to the body"" and exercise in harmony with its ever-changing needs. With research and stories of elite athletes, The Joyful Athlete tells the joyful ""inside story"" of sports and exercise