The Meditation Edge in Endurance Sports
It’s a striking thing that most endurance athletes, including mid life athletes, spend hours and hours of training to understand their bodies and improve performance. Yet probably one of the most influential things on our endurance performance; our mind; gets no training and something we spend little time trying to understand.
I’ve done endurance sports for so many years. I always dismissed meditation and when quizzed by a clearly more enlightened friend years ago, replied that riding a bike for hours on end was meditation in itself. I was so wrong. I know this now, having practiced almost daily meditation for the last 8 years. I’m not alone. Listen to Johnny Sexton talk about how mindfullness helped him as a professional rugby player, despite previously dismissing it.
So why do I think the practice of meditation or mindfullness helps endurance athletes? The starting point is learning to understand your own mind. Everyone believes meditation is clearing your mind of thoughts. It’s not. It’s almost the complete opposite. You can’t clear your mind of thoughts but you can observe them; take note of them but without acting on them. After practice what you’ll notice is that your mind is constantly churning out different thoughts - that’s what it’s designed for - but, by not acting on them, they simply disappear. By doing this you’re starting to be in the present, noticing things like your breath, how your body feels, maybe noise around you instead of being caught up with your thoughts. Sounds simple but to do it properly takes time and patience.
As an endurance athlete you will have several moments during a race, long training sessions etc where your mind says ‘stop’ or ‘this is too hard’ or ‘why are you doing this..’ etc etc. We’ve all been there. The meditator appreciates the thoughts but can focus on being in the present and not engage with them. As Johnny Sexton said, ‘I need to focus on the kick, not what the next play might be’. Over time meditation helps build resilience in being able to cope with the mental fatigue that in turn helps to maintain focus.
What does the science say?
It appears that research is starting to back this up. A team of researchers at National Taiwan Normal University had a hypothesis that athletes with prior meditation experience (AM group) would demonstrate better cognitive performance and endurance performance under conditions of mental fatigue compared to athletes without meditation experience (ANM group). The study aimed to explore the relationship between meditation practice, mental fatigue, and performance outcomes, positing that meditation could mitigate the negative effects of mental fatigue on cognitive and physical performance.
The subjects in the study—24 meditators and 25 non-meditators—were all serious athletes in a mix of sports including track and field, judo, and wrestling. They had an average age of around 20, and trained on average for 16 hours a week. Three quarters of them were male, a quarter female. They had similar performance in a cognitive test that involved remembering a series of digits.
Findings
The main findings of the study indicated that athletes with meditation experience (AM) were better able to counteract the negative effects of mental fatigue on endurance performance compared to those without meditation experience (ANM). Specifically, the results showed that:
Endurance Performance: Athletes in the mental fatigue condition exhibited shorter time to exhaustion and lower motivation during endurance tasks, with these impairments being more pronounced in the ANM group. In contrast, the AM group maintained better endurance performance under mental fatigue conditions.
Cognitive Performance: The AM group displayed higher accuracy and maintained neuroelectric indices in the Flanker task, suggesting that their inhibitory control was less affected by mental fatigue compared to the ANM group.
Motivation: The AM group reported higher motivation levels during endurance tasks compared to the ANM group, indicating that meditation experience may help athletes sustain their motivation even when experiencing mental fatigue.
The researchers measured neurocognitive functions in the athletes using the following methods:
Flanker Task: This task was employed to assess inhibitory control, which is a key aspect of cognitive function. The Flanker task involves participants responding to a target stimulus while ignoring flanking stimuli that can either be congruent or incongruent. The accuracy and reaction times in this task provide insights into the athletes' cognitive control abilities under different conditions of mental fatigue.
Event-Related Potentials (ERPs): The researchers also utilised neuroelectric measures, specifically looking at the N2 amplitude, which is associated with cognitive processes related to conflict monitoring and inhibitory control. Changes in the N2 amplitude during the Flanker task were analysed to understand how mental fatigue affected the athletes' cognitive processing
So what?
If you’re serious about improving your endurance performance I would strongly recommend meditation. You can do as little as 10mins each day but the benefits can be significant.
Enhanced Endurance Performance: Athletes with meditation experience demonstrated better endurance performance under conditions of mental fatigue. This indicates that incorporating meditation into training regimens may help you maintain your physical performance even when faced with cognitive or emotional stressors.
Improved Cognitive Control: The study found that meditation practice is associated with superior inhibitory control, as evidenced by better performance on cognitive tasks (e.g., the Flanker task) and more favorable neuroelectric indices (N2 amplitude). This suggests that meditation can enhance cognitive functions critical for sports performance, such as focus, attention, and the ability to manage distractions.
Increased Motivation and Resilience: Athletes who practice meditation may experience higher levels of motivation and resilience in challenging situations, which can be crucial during competitions or intense training sessions. This psychological benefit can help you push through fatigue and maintain your performance levels.
Mental Fatigue Management: The findings imply that meditation can serve as a valuable tool for managing mental fatigue, allowing you to recover more effectively from demanding cognitive tasks and maintain your performance in subsequent physical activities.
Long-term Benefits: Regular meditation practice may lead to cumulative benefits over time, improving your overall mental and physical resilience, which can be advantageous in both training and competitive settings.
More importantly these things are not just important for endurance performance but life generally.
If on reading this you are interested in getting started with meditation I would recommend the following:
Headspace - great for getting started.
If you use an Oura ring they have a variety of meditations in the app
Waking Up - can get you started but also serves as a new operating system for the mind