What if you found out that your
brain is limiting what you can physically achieve?
We know the old adage of mind of
over matter. With mastery of one’s mind, an athlete can push their body past a
limit and go beyond—that extra rep. But what if that limit that you just pushed
yourself past was put there by your own mind?
In a recent study, it was found
that your mind would fatigue and make you think that your muscles are just as
tired as your brain, even if your muscles were not at a stage of fatigue. In the
study two groups of men were asked to sit and pedal an ergometer. Electrodes
were placed on their leg muscles to collect data on muscle contraction. One
group was asked to count letters on a computer screen—this was to induce mental
fatigue. The other group was the control group and asked to simply watch a
video. The results were as follows. Time to exhaustion was 13% shorter in the
group with mental fatigue as compared to the control group. However, the max
exertion of the muscles for each group was the same. In addition, the subjects
in the mental fatigue group had a much higher perceived exertion than the
control group. The study concluded that mental fatigue did not have an affect on
neuromuscular function. The muscles of both groups were contracting with the
same amount of force. Rather, mental fatigue resulted in a higher perception of
exertion, and therefore results in a shorter time to exhaustion.
So when your mind is tired, it will make your whole body
feels like its tired—even if your muscles can still produce a similar amount of
force. Your mind will put barriers on how much physical exertion you can
produce. Your mind will make you perceive that you can only run so far and only lift
a certain weight.
Bottom line: You are stronger than you think you are. Do one
more rep. Swim one more lap. Run one more mile.
Cites:
Pageaux B, Marcora SM, Lepers R. Prolonged Mental Exertion
Does Not Alter Neuromuscular Function of the Knee Extensors. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2013 May 21.
Billy,
ReplyDeleteVery interesting stuff. At an amateur level it may be the difference between quitting and grinding out one more rep, but at a professional athlete level it could be the difference between winning and losing. That is why sports psychologists like Bob Rotella get paid the big bucks to help athletes like golfers with a case of the yips. Unfortunately no amount of psychology will help Shaq shoot free-throws.
Really good post, I was not aware that the mind could limit the body so drastically. Do you know what part of the brain in particular is sensing this mental fatigue and attributing it to body fatigue? Also has there been any therapies developed, using this knowledge, to help treat disorders like Parkinson's disease where fatigue is a prominent problem?
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