Mental preparation for competition is an increasingly important factor in athletes’ training, but there has been very little field research on how the various preparation strategies affect different types of athletic performance. Now a new US study has shown that yoga and motivational exercises can both boost one-mile run performance through sports psychology, although the latter was most effective.
Ninety male and female high school distance runners completed a one-mile trial run on a 400m track to the best of their ability after a typical 20-minute warm-up routine. A week later they repeated the exercise immediately after taking part in one of the following three preparation exercises:
- Motivational group intervention – involving each of the runners shouting out motivational statements of their choice – eg ‘you’re the definition of speed’ – both individually and as part of a group;
- Yoga – consisting of 11 basic entry-level yoga asana positions;
- Attention control – the control (inactive) condition involving a facilitator asking the runners questions relevant to competitive running, such as how they were feeling, what events they ran particularly well, etc.
Key findings were as follows:
- Runners in the motivational group improved their run performance significantly more than those in the yoga group, who performed significantly better than those in the control group – improvements of 5s, 1s and -1s respectively;
- These outcomes were accurately reflected in the runners’ ratings of perceived improvement;
- Runners in the motivational and yoga groups both expressed more satisfaction with their intervention than those in the control group.
Br J Sports Med 2006; 40:60-63