Meditation practice improves body balance compared to stability exercises alone

Sport and competitions stress athletes both physically and mentally. Physical training strengthens muscular and metabolic capabilities, while mental training reduces psychological load and negative emotions. Meditation practice helps athletes to reach better results in many sports, but evaluating only sport results makes it difficult to disentangle the specific effects of meditation contributing to performance. Our aim was to evaluate if meditation practice may benefit body balance, a basic skill relevant for action execution and performance. 81 high school students were trained in body balance for six weeks through balance and stabilization exercises and to stand on a fit-ball. 42 of them were trained in meditation, which practiced during the same six weeks (meditation group), the remaining 39 did not (control group). Core stability, tested before and after the training period, improved in both groups to a similar extent. On the other hand, the meditation group developed a much greater skill on fit-ball than the control group: the hazard rate of falling was reduced by 67 %. Our results suggest that for a more difficult task, meditation can increase learning and execution, and that introducing meditation in athletes' training routine may be of value for balance control and performance.