It’s been twenty months since we launched the intriguing End7ess SoulSport Club on Strava. You can find us at https://www.strava.com/clubs/end7ess.

Our club now boasts fifty-four members, and our journey so far has demonstrated the importance of mutual encouragement and motivation in sustaining consistent SoulTraining. For more insights on the initial stages of this unique recreation and physical fitness approach, check out our earlier articles, “Becoming a SoulAthlete, parts one and two.”

Despite the comprehensive guidelines, I’ve observed that people frequently pose a crucial question: “What distinguishes standard result-oriented training from training aimed at achieving the ‘zone’ or ‘flow’ experience?” In this article, I’ll attempt to offer the clearest and most straightforward explanation.

First, it’s essential to understand your heart’s performance during exercise, specifically your heart rate, which is measured in beats per minute. Sports watches provide an excellent, objective way to monitor this, as even the most basic and affordable ones can display your heart rate during activities. A sports watch is essential for a serious commitment to “exercising for the soul.” Some resist using them, insisting they can gauge their feelings without one. However, relying solely on subjective feelings can be misleading, especially when new to training. Counting your pulse manually is both impractical and cumbersome. Modern technology offers significant benefits—take advantage of it. Nowadays, sports and smart watches are reasonably priced and can effectively measure your heart rate right from your wrist, without needing extra sensors.

Okay, so we depend on heart rate (HR), but that’s nothing new—any dedicated recreational or professional athlete does too. Essentially, the fitter you are, the longer your heart can sustain a higher rate (the goal of standard training) or maintain a slower rate during the same activities (the goal of zone training).

Re-read the previous sentence because it highlights the fundamental difference in approach that leads to specific actions. Here’s how it looks in simplified examples.

You slip into your workout gear and start jogging. It’s an easy pace, not too intense, and you keep it brief—say, 15 minutes. During this time, you cover just under 2 kilometers, maintaining a pace of 8 minutes per kilometer. This serves as your baseline for a standard exercise regimen. Over time, your aim is to quicken your pace to 6 minutes per kilometer, meaning you’d cover not just two but two and a half kilometers in those 15 minutes, and eventually maybe even three. You’re not overly concerned about your heart rate, except noting that you were winded after the initial run and equally winded on later runs, though now you’re running faster and covering more ground. For recreational purposes, measuring your heart rate isn’t necessary in a typical training plan—it will likely be near its peak both at the start and after six months of training. The difference is that now you can sustain that peak heart rate for longer and run farther than before.

We begin from the same point: run for 15 minutes at a pace of 8 minutes per kilometer. The key factor to focus on here is your heart rate (HR). When you measured it for the first time, your heart rate was 160 beats per minute during those 15 minutes. This is your baseline for the “zone training” or “training for the soul” program. Unlike traditional training, the aim isn’t to improve your speed or distance over time. Instead, the objective is to maintain the same 15-minute run at the same pace of 8 minutes per kilometer, decreasing your heart rate by at least 25%, reaching 120 beats per minute.

Observe the stark contrast in emphasis. In typical training and workouts, the focus is on achieving results. You increase the intensity, operate under constant pressure, work diligently, and naturally anticipate that these efforts will enhance your speed and stamina. In contrast, with “exercise for the soul,” the focus shifts to an internal experience. This experience is not only subjective, since the intensity lessens over time, leading to a sensation of lightness, but is also objectively validated by your heart and body’s ability to operate with reduced energy consumption.

In both situations, you need to be proactive—nothing occurs by itself. You have to practice, and sometimes the exercises resemble each other, such as the diversity of workouts and the pacing of exertion. However, the aim is quite distinct. Specifically, when the body learns to stay active with a reduced heart rate, the sensation of lightness gradually becomes habitual, leading almost naturally to an amazing state where the body’s capabilities and the mind’s experiences transform.

In other words, don’t mistake “ordinary” standard training or leisure activities for exercises that nurture the soul! While a regular athlete and a devoted one may appear to be engaging in similar activities, their approaches are fundamentally different and lead to distinct outcomes.

Here’s a crucial point that highlights this distinction. Recreational athletes and more serious athletes might say this about the concept of lowering their heart rate as a key factor: “If I train my body to run faster and longer while maintaining the same high heart rate, then when I slow down, my heart will also beat slower, so it essentially leads to the same result.”

This objection appears valid, but in reality, it isn’t. Our bodies are highly adaptable, yet they are also creatures of habit. In this particular scenario, if your body is accustomed to maintaining a heart rate of 160 beats per minute while running, it will generally do so every time you work out. There might be a slight reduction, but typically, an athlete will use this decrease to either quicken their pace or lengthen their run, which ultimately brings their heart rate back to 160 beats per minute, as in our example, yet with enhanced outcomes.

Additionally, due to the habitual exertion of significant energy during exercise, experiencing a sense of lightness is uncommon, and naturally entering ‘the zone’ is even rarer. This is why achieving this state is infrequent, even for elite athletes, although the best occasionally reach it. Concentrating on performance and rigorous training will yield precisely what you aim for: results. If achieving results is your sole objective, traditional training methods are almost enough.

I wrote “almost enough” because the concept of training for the soul theoretically allows you to achieve results that are not just good but extraordinary once you’ve entered the zone. However, the opposite isn’t true: if you focus solely on results instead of reaching the zone, it becomes difficult to reprogram your body to experience flow. To achieve this, you would need to retrain your body through conditioning, breathing exercises, and other techniques, which might temporarily reduce your performance. This is why John Douillard, the author of “Body, Mind and Sport” and an Olympic triathlete, hasn’t been very successful with top athletes, despite starting to coach some, like Martina Navratilova. It’s likely inconceivable for most athletes to pause their sports careers for six to twelve months to reprogram their bodies to function differently.

However, with recreational athletes, we encounter a completely different situation. There’s no rush, and results aren’t our primary focus. We rarely compete, and when we do, it’s usually in a spirit of camaraderie and encouragement, where the Olympic ideal and the saying “the important thing is to participate” are still very much alive. Our focus is on maintaining health, achieving good physical fitness, and enjoying the experience of exercising, which is the victory we aim for. Indeed, recreational athletes often find it easier to achieve a state of flow compared to active, particularly professional athletes.

Many people believe that being “in the zone” is a rare experience reserved for elite athletes, but the reality is quite the opposite: recreational athletes often find it easier to achieve a state of flow than competitive ones. The great news is that your level of physical fitness and abilities don’t matter. Previously, I mentioned running with a heart rate of 160 beats per minute, but you can adjust this to suit your own needs. For instance, if you’re not athletic but enjoy walking, you could walk briskly for half an hour at a pace of 10 minutes per kilometer. This is a reasonable pace, manageable for most people. If you track your heart rate during such an activity, it might range from 100 to 120 beats per minute. Start from there, and aim to decrease your heart rate to 80-90 beats per minute over a few months while maintaining the same exercise routine (30 minutes of brisk walking at 10 minutes per kilometer).

And that’s it. If you succeed in that, the door to the zone or flow is open for you! You have become a SoulAthlete!

You don’t need to achieve extraordinary results or push yourself to the limit. However, you do need to engage in exercise in a particular manner. This method involves several aspects, such as breathing and mental focus, since the feeling of flow occurs in your consciousness and relies on where you direct your attention. Exercising in this way is straightforward, enjoyable, and safe. It brings a sense of fulfillment, not only because your physical condition improves but also because, eventually, you will experience an amazing flow state during your workout.

Get a sports watch, join the End7ess SoulSport community, and master the fundamentals of soul-training—then dive in. Your body, mind, and soul will thank you.