STILLNESS, REST, AND RELAXATION: The Forgotten Keys to Muscle Growth

Stillness, Rest, and Relaxation

The Forgotten Keys to Muscle Growth

Epictetus, the founder of Stoicism, one of the inspirations for this article.

“All of humanity’s problems stem from man’s inability to sit alone with himself in a room.” ~Blaise Pascal


I begin our essay with this quote from the great French writer, philosopher, and Catholic theologian, not just because 2023 is the 400th anniversary of his birth, and not just because I believe in the utter, complete truth of the statement, but because it can easily apply to all of man’s problems—including, whether you believe it or not, your goal of getting bigger, stronger, or the combination of both. That’s correct, man’s inability to rest in stillness (and woman’s, too, although women actually tend to be naturally better at this than men) often prevents one from achieving his/her muscle-building, strength-gaining, physique-enhancing goals. Now, as I mentioned, you may not believe this, and if you don’t, then I only ask that you suspend your judgment, read this essay, and put into practice what I recommend. If you can’t put it all into practice, at least at first, then I would like for you to try what you can apply to your own life, and then slowly add some of my other suggestions, especially if you find what you do apply seems to be working.


I will not be treating these three as separate entities. In many ways, I suppose, stillness is the key that unlocks a lot of the results from rest and relaxation, but it’s not the goal, nor, I believe, should it be. Rather, it too is a weapon in your arsenal to achieve your goals. In Greek philosophy, for instance, ataraxia, which could be translated as “stillness,” “equanimity,” or “tranquility” is “a lucid state of robust equanimity characterized by ongoing freedom from distress and worry. In non-philosophical usage, ataraxia was the ideal mental state for soldiers entering battle.”* Different Greek philosophies did use ataraxia in different ways. The Epicureans, for instance (who often get a bad rap due to the fact that they are viewed as hedonistic pleasure seekers, which actually is quite far from the truth), viewed stillness as one of the main ways in which to enter—what was for them—the ultimate “state” of hedone which is the pleasure of a man who is free from all forms of mental distress. For the Stoics, ataraxia was also not the ultimate goal, but it was a key for them to abide in the state of apatheia, a state of mind in which mankind was no longer afflicted with the “passions.” (Apatheia, from the Greek, literally meaning “without pathos,” and pathos being either “suffering” or “passion.”)


Okay, enough philosophizing (at least for the time being); the point is that I want you to see stillness, rest, and relaxation not as ends in themselves, but as paths of action that will allow you to achieve your goals. Besides, any philosophy should not be about “thoughts” or “ideas” but should be easily applicable to one’s life, and should bring about a change in character for the good. This is the reason that a lot of modern philosophy, and modern philosophers, suck at helping modern man. And this is the reason that I have always loved, and written about, Stoicism, martial arts and its concomitant philosophies (what I often refer to as Budo Zen), and Eastern Christianity (I am a practicing Orthodox Christian). With that being said, let’s look at some practical ways to bring about stillness, rest, and relaxation into your life so that you can be on your way to achieving your physique goals.


Before continuing, let it be noted that this essay is, in many ways, a response to questions and emails I received about my last “Classic Bodybuilding” piece on the Welsh bodybuilder Paul Grant, where I touched upon some of his thoughts on rest and relaxation, and their importance for achieving bodybuilding success. This, therefore, is my long answer to the questions I received.


The Importance of Slowing Down.

“Even to see life, we need to go slow. To enjoy life, we need to go slow. To understand people, to understand situations, to arrive at considered conclusions and to make wise decisions – for all of these, we need time.” ~Eknath Easwaran


It is hard, and in fact damn impossible I would say, to achieve any measurable degree of stillness, rest, or relaxation if you are always moving at a frantic, hectic pace, the hallmark of our modern world. Of course, this has always been a problem in all cultures, otherwise the cultivation of stillness, equanimity, and tranquility wouldn’t have been so highly valued among ancient Christians, Greek philosophers, Buddhists, Hindus, and Muslims—all of whom had different techniques and ways of cultivating said stillness. So even in ancient times, there were people—as there are now—who were constantly on the go, often in order to “get ahead” of the rest of their fellow humans. Which is the reason I have listed this as the first step to achieving our goals.


One of the best writers on the art of slowing down, at least in modern times, is the Hindu writer Eknath Easwaran—who I quoted at the beginning of this step. Here is what he had to say in a bit more detail:

“Hurry makes for tension, insecurity, inefficiency, and superficial living… To guard against hurrying throughout the day, start the day early and simplify your life so that you do not try to fill your life with more than you can do.

“It is important here to not confuse slowness with sloth, which breeds carelessness, procrastination, and general inefficiency. In slowing down, we should attend meticulously to details, giving even our very best even to the smallest undertaking.”**


Start the day early. This is the exact advice that Paul Grant offered in the aforementioned “Classic Bodybuilding” post. If you begin the day by rushing about, jumping out of bed, hurriedly showering and putting on your clothes, rushing to get your morning coffee, jumping in your car, speeding through traffic in order to get to work—the way the majority of people live in today’s world—then you will never be able to slow down in order to improve your life, much less make any gains in building muscle mass or strength. If you value your bodybuilding/strength-training gains, then you will take stillness, rest, and relaxation just as importantly as you do diet and training. This means you will make the effort to start your day earlier and slower than usual in order to cultivate an attitude and a behavior of stillness.


Wake up early enough so that you can quiet your mind with either prayer, meditation, or some sort of contemplative practice (more on all that stuff shortly). This will allow your mind to achieve at least a certain amount of equanimity to begin the day, which will make it easier for you to take your time in the other things that you do. After you finish one of these practices of cultivating stillness, don’t just rush off as you did before, thinking that will be enough. No, wake up early enough so that you can have your meditative time, followed by a nice, leisurely, muscle-building breakfast, and time to bathe, shower, shave, or whatever morning hygiene routine that you follow. If you have a family, then encourage your partner and children to do the same thing. Don’t let your kids wake up late, and then rush off to school the same way that you previously rushed off to work. By doing this, you won’t just be helping yourself, but you will be helping your children establish the kind of mindset that will allow them to thrive in a world gone (at least slightly) mad.


Once you start your work day (or school day), don’t rush, but do each thing with one-pointed concentration. Which brings us to our next step…


Practice One-Pointed Concentration.

“When you walk, just walk. When you sit, just sit. But in all things, do not wobble.” ~Zen proverb


This oft-quoted Zen dictum—often incorrectly attributed to the historical Buddha Shakyamuni, as is almost every quote of the “Buddha” on the internet—points to the need to do one thing, and one thing only at a time, and do it with complete devotion and attention.


A couple of years ago, I was working for a non-profit helping young men and women “get back on their feet” after being incarcerated. Anyway, in a workshop that I was giving them on just this very thing, I’m pretty sure that everyone in the room—including my co-workers who were listening to my talk—thought I was crazy when I told them that it’s impossible to multi-task, nor should you even try to do so. My point to them was that you should do one thing, and give your complete attention to it before moving on to something else. Now, I’m not saying that you shouldn’t have multiple things going on in your career or life at the same time—in fact, it would probably be impossible for that to be the case. For instance, at the moment, I’m working on three different books that I hope to have published at the end of this year, or early next year. On top of that, I write essays such as this that won’t even fit into any of those books. I also have workout goals, and my martial arts training goals, but when I train, or I sit down to write something—such as this very post—I only do that one thing! If you don’t believe this, then try to think of more than one thing at the same time. It’s impossible. You may flit back and forth mentally between this thing and that, and something or other, but you can only think of one thing.


This is the key to make slowing down not slothfulness. You slow down so that you can do one thing at a time, and do it with absolute perfection. When you go to work, if you have an office job, this will allow you to do your tasks better. Your supervisor(s) will notice. If you have a factory job, then you will absolutely be much better at your work, since you won’t create any quality problems because you will be totally focused on the task at hand. This should go for your leisure time, as well. If you are reading a book, just read a book. If you are watching television, don’t just scroll mindlessly, but only watch something that you really want to watch, and watch it with one-pointed attention.


And stay the hell off your cell phone as much as possible! While you’re working in the office or the factory, or enjoying your attention to your leisure activity, don’t check your phone every few minutes, or social media sites. And don’t talk on the phone while doing other things, such as driving or shopping at the grocery store. For one, no one else wants to hear your damn conversation, and, two, it shows that you will never, ever achieve stillness if you need constant stimulation. Our modern Zen saying could be, “When you shop, just shop. When you drive, just drive. When you work, just work. And when you train, just train. But do not wobble in any of these activities.”


If you find all this seemingly impossible due to years of constant activity and over-stimulation, on your part, then our next step may be just what you need…


Practice a Form of “Centering” Throughout the Day

Okay, first off you may be asking yourself, “just what the hell is centering?” There are different “forms” of it, and it’s used differently in psychological, spiritual, and martial arts usages. Here is how “Psychology Today” defines centering: “Centering usually refers to our mental and physical state of mind. It’s the place we know we have to get back to when we’re not feeling like ourselves. When we’re not centered, we might feel lost or out of touch with ourselves. When we center ourselves, we bring calm to our emotions. We do so by slowing down our breathing so that we “feel” more of what’s going on around us. Becoming centered is a way to find peace within the chaos that might be surrounding us. It’s about being “in check” with what’s going on. Individuals who are centered are typically calm and peaceful.”***


As a martial artist, I was taught to stay centered in traditional Okinawa Karate-Do through the use of breathing techniques, especially breathing into your tanden area, which is located below your navel, and which you must learn to breathe in and through, which also allows you to stay (potentially, at least) calm, focused, and relaxed when you engage in kumite. In his book, “Introduction to Zen Training: A Physical Approach to Meditation and Mind-Body Training,” the late Zen (and Budo) master Omori Sogen had this to say about the effects of breathing through your tanden: “(When breathing through the tanden) blood descends in the body to keep the head cool and cure excitement. If you breathe with your abdomen, with your power concentrated on the tanden under the navel, the area near the solar plexus (the center of the autonomic nervous system) is properly stimulated to keep your feet warm. In this way, the three poisons—greed, anger, and folly—disappear. When autonomic nerves are fully active, the natural vitality of the human body operates to make us healthy and alert enough to attain enlightenment.”**** While “enlightenment” is not the goal here—and may actually not be a thing wanted for many—the point is that learning to breathe through the tanden can help you stay centered. I would add that, through experience, it works best if you can also stay mindful of your body throughout the process. Get out of your head, and into your body, and you may find that staying centered—or simply bringing about an experience of centering—is much easier and simpler.


Practicing centering—and learning to stay centered—does take practice. But if you’re struggling with either slowing down or staying one-pointed in your concentration, then learning to develop the skill of staying centered is a good thing. For instance, anytime that you are learning any new skill—playing the guitar, training in martial arts, learning how to properly clean and jerk—requires that you force yourself to slow down, focus on the moment, and stay as one-pointed in your concentration as possible. In other words, learning to center yourself achieves two objectives: first, it forces you to practice our first two steps here out of necessity, and, second, quite obviously it allows you to develop the ability to center.


Finally, we are brought around to the final step I would like to discuss in this essay, a step that feeds into our first three steps, and which they in turn feed into it…


Develop a Daily Habit of Prayer and Meditation.

If you are atheistic or agnostic, this may be a step that you will struggle with. But it’s not necessary that you be religious—or even just spiritual—in order to benefit from this step. Remember, the goal is stillness, rest, and relaxation, not union with God—as it is in the Christian tradition—or union with the Absolute Itself—as it often is in Zen. And so if you will, for the time being, at least, let go of your prejudices and simply practice this step (not “believe” in it), you may be amazed by the amount of inner tranquilty and peace it gives you, and therefore stillness. (And if you are interested in a more religious perspective, whether it’s Eastern Christianity or Zen, I have other essays and posts on my blog that can help you with that.)


If you are unsure where to start—and I don’t have the length here to go into an incredible amount of detail, but I will cover some basics—then do an internet search on various forms of meditation, and find one that you are comfortable with. If you are atheist or agnostic, then you can simply practice any form of “mindfulness” meditation where you are mindful of something non-religious, such as your breath or body-awareness. If you are religious, then you can practice a mantra, or a prayer phrase, from your tradition. As an Orthodox Christian, I often use the Jesus Prayer, also known as the “prayer of the heart,” for my meditation: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.” If you lean toward Buddhism or Hinduism in religious view, then there are a plenitude of mantras that you can find that will be of aid.


Whatever you choose, try to develop a daily habit of both morning and evening prayer or meditation. Don’t overdo it at first. If you have never attempted meditation before, then begin with ten minutes in the morning before you start your day, and ten minutes at night before you go to sleep. Slowly, you can increase the time, as you get more proficient, and increase it over the weeks or months to thirty minutes in the morning and another thirty at night.


I view my daily meditations as the “book ends” of the three other steps. Beginning my day with meditation allows me to more easily slow down, stay one-pointed, and center myself when need be. And ending my day with a period of meditation before sleep allows for a perfect way to complete my daily stillness practices. The nightly meditation, it must be noted, will often help you enter more quickly into a deeply restful sleep. And since quality sleep is another pre-requisite for quality muscle-building, it has an added benefit that is simply difficult to beat.


Closing Thoughts

I hope this essay has offered some insights that you may not have even thought about before on your muscle-building journey. Don’t dismiss these tips, either. You can even attempt them in order to prove me wrong, though in the end, I believe you’ll stick with them if you do try.. As it says in the “Big Book” of Alcoholics Anonymous, “though perhaps you came to scoff, you may remain to pray.” And, hopefully, achieve your physique goals, as well.


As always, if anyone has any questions, leave them in the comments section, or email me, and I will try my best to provide a decent answer.








*From Wikipedia’s entry on “Ataraxia.”

**From the book “Passage Meditation: Bringing the deep wisdom of the heart into daily life,” by Eknath Easwaran.

***From the article, “What is Centering? What is Grounding?” by Diana Raab, in the February, 2020 Psychology Today.

****From the book “Introduction to Zen Training: A Physical Approach to Meditation and Mind-Body Training” by Omori Sogen, published by Tuttle Publishing.