The Effects of Exercise on the Promotion of Mental Readiness of Athletes

Mental readiness in sports is paramount. Most sports call for split second decisions and being able to properly read and assess situations to gain the upper hand. Being able to do this makes the difference between leaving with a victory and going home a loser. Exercise offers many benefits to promote mental readiness and increase it.

  1. What It Effects

    • Exercise can help create new pathways in the brain for learning and memory.

      Regular exercise does a lot of great things for the mind that we were not fully aware of until recently. It helps create and strengthen neuropathways that can increase memory and the ability to learn and retain information. Exercise releases endorphins that help combat stress and make athletes more resilient to stressful situations. From an athletic point of view, regular exercise familiarizes the body and helps it get used to the demanding conditions. This means when you step on the field you feel more comfortable and prepared.

    Improved Memory

    • New pathways in the brain could help athletes react to quick changes in a play.

      Regular exercise for an athlete would mean that they would be able to recall plays better and perform them with more ease and confidence than an athlete who only showed up to practice and did not do any extra exercise. Aside from just remembering the plays better the athletes who regularly exercises would be able to react to changes made in the middle of a play because their reaction speed and visuo-spatial reasoning would be increased due to the enhancements made in their brains as a result of the exercise.

    Working Together

    • Increasing neuromuscular connections turn an action that the athlete would have to think about, like dribbling, into muscle memory.

      Mental readiness and physical readiness in athletes compliment one another on the field. To have an athlete who is mentally prepared but not physically ready won’t win a game and the same is true for an athlete who is physically prepared but not mentally ready. Exercise will help link the two in many ways. Not only does it create more pathways to increase learning and memory it also enhances the connection of the pathways in your neuromuscular system that tell your muscles how and when to preform. This creates an idea that is familiar to every athlete; “muscle memory” is more than just catching and throwing ground balls it applies to every muscle in the body. Having the muscle memory typically makes an athlete more comfortable, confident, can relaxed on the field so they have time to think about what is going on strategically and not worry about telling their body to move. There are also "exercises" which are not physical but which some sport psychologists recommend for some of their athlete clients. These include specific relaxation and breathing techniques and visualization of certain outcomes in advance. Mental readiness could be the difference between a silver and gold medal.

    There Is More To Come

    • Studies are still being done to find out just exactly what exercise and being physically fit means for our minds.

      The effects of exercise on the mental readiness of an athlete are almost immeasurable. Studies are still being done and data is still being gathered. What we know so far is that exercise does most definitely work to improve an athletes’ mental preparedness. We also know that the link between mental readiness and physical readiness is huge and that being physically prepared and comfortable will improve the athletes’ ability to be mentally prepared.