summary: Participating in mentally demanding tasks and experiencing mental fatigue can have a significant impact on physical exercise performance, new research reports.
sauce: University of Birmingham
Studies show that people who are tasked with mentally demanding tasks are more likely to have difficulty sustaining exercise.
Researchers from the Department of Sport, Exercise and Rehabilitation Sciences at the University of Birmingham measured the effects of a cognitive task on a group of 16 men and women to see what happened to their perception of physical movement. Their results showed that mentally exhausted participants had an increased sense of motion during exercise.
Findings published in International Journal of Sports Physiology and Performance, Considering the effects of mental fatigue during training suggests that athletes may perform better.
In light of their findings, the researchers recommend that coaches reduce athletes’ exposure to mentally challenging tasks, such as smartphone use, before and during training and competition. should consider “brain endurance training” to increase resilience against mental fatigue.
Lead author Chris Ring, Ph.D., said:
“Athletes are often browsing on their smartphones between competition and training. It strongly suggests that we need to better understand the impact on performance.”
During the test, participants completed a 90-minute mental task that involved identifying strings on a screen. Then completed a series of weightlifting repetitions. A control group watched the neutral video before participating in the physical task.
In a second experiment, participants completed a series of resistance training followed by a 20-minute cycling time trial. They performed a cognitive task before and during exercise while the control group watched the neutral video again. After the cognitive task, participants underwent an online test to ascertain their level of fatigue.
In each experiment, researchers recorded an increase in perceived locomotion among mentally exhausted participants. In a second experiment, the researchers also noticed a decrease in power in cycling time trials and shorter distances in mentally exhausted participants.
Researchers have already begun testing the association between mental fatigue and performance in a group of elite athletes in ‘real world’ exercise scenarios.
About this exercise and mental fatigue research news
author: Beck Lockwood
sauce: University of Birmingham
contact: Beck Lockwood – University of Birmingham
image: image is public domain
Original research: closed access.
“Mental Exhaustion: The Cost of Cognitive Load on Weightlifting, Resistance Training, and Cycling Performance” By Chris Ring et al. International Journal of Sports Physiology and Performance
overview
Mental Exhaustion: The Cost of Cognitive Load on Weightlifting, Resistance Training, and Cycling Performance
the purpose: Mental fatigue (MF) can impair physical performance in sports. Cognitive load alone and mixed with standard resistance training induced MF, increased ratings of perceived exertion (RPE), altered weightlifting and training perception, and impaired cycling time trial performance. I tested my hypothesis.
method: This two-part study employed a within-participant design. In Part 1, after establishing the maximum number of single leg extensions (1RM), 16 participants lifted weights at his 20%, 40%, 60%, and 80% of his 1RM for a short period of time. kept. RPE and electromyogram (EMG) were measured at each lift. During the test session, participants either completed a cognitive task (MF condition) or watched a neutral video (control condition) for 90 minutes before the participant lifted weights.
In Part 2, you completed a submaximal resistance training consisting of 6 weight training exercises and a 20 minute cycling time trial. In the MF condition, cognitive tasks were completed before and between weight training. In the control condition, we watched a neutral video. Mood (Brunel Mood Scale), workload (National Aeronautics and Space Administration Task Load Index), MF Visual Analog Scale (MF-VAS), RPE, psychomotor alertness, cycling distance, power output, heart rate, and blood lactate were measured. Measured.
result: In part 1, cognitive task increased lift-induced RPE (P. = .011), increased MF-VAS (P.= .002), mood changes (P.< .001) compared to controls. EMG did not differ between conditions. In part 2, the cognitive task increased RPE (P.< .001), MF-VAS (P.< .001), and mental load (P.< .001), decreasing cycling time-trial power (P.= .032) and the distance (P.= .023) compared to controls. Heart rate and blood lactate levels did not differ between conditions.
Conclusion:MF states induced by cognitive load, either alone or mixed with physical load, increased RPE during weightlifting and training and subsequently impaired cycling performance.
