Fatigue from work or study? How to overcome mental fatigue and play full sports?
How many times have you run out of work? Too many requirements, decisions, changes or tasks. The natural consequence is that your brain has had enough. Do you feel lethargy and aversion to any activity and exercise, or do you overcome it?
Is mental fatigue justified or is it an excuse? Thanks to research (and common observation :)), we know that fatigue from work or study has an effect on sports performance and also self-control in diet. In this article, we will introduce when and how fatigue is transmitted to sports activity. Fortunately, we learn from research that you can prevent mental effort from leading you to a sedentary lifestyle, and you may have the answer on your wrist.
Origin and manifestations of mental fatigue
Mental fatigue is a condition that arises as a result of thought processes, when the so-called you work with your head (you work with information, you get it, you re-organize it into new units, you learn). It develops gradually during the activity and prevents you from giving optimal cognitive performance. It manifests itself on a physiological level and its accompanying features are feelings of general fatigue and lack of energy, or reluctance to continue the activity. It usually leads to increased distraction, inconcentration and errors.
Did you know that longer working hours do not have to lead to mental fatigue? It seems that if your activity is rewarded (in the form of money, recognition or friendships) that you perceive as high, mental exhaustion may not occur. On the contrary, low reward leads to earlier exhaustion, loss of motivation and the like.
You use cognitive control when working with information. It usually helps us achieve what we want. This mechanism prevents unwanted responses and activates goal-oriented thoughts and behaviors. We draw from it precisely during mentally demanding work, but according to some sources also during the control of your emotions (if the mother definitely uses the cognitive control during maternity, too!). However, the ability of cognitive control is also key in maintaining healthy habits and helps us to control ourselves, e.g. when we don't want to train, whether we are attracted by an extra cake. This requires effort and has a moderate effect on perceived fatigue and subsequent behavior. The effect of mental fatigue on physical activity is called fatigue transmission.
Previously, this effect was explained by ego depletion or regulatory depletion. After self-control, it is more difficult to check further. This theory assumes that we have one indivisible resource that we use to control emotions, thoughts, or behavior. Whether we are talking about mental fatigue or ego depletion, the results of the studies are similar. Of course, newer approaches are based on more modern recommendations for dealing with the consequences.
How does this "fatigue transmission" occur from a psychological point of view? This is not a magical reduction in inner motivation, it is relatively stable. In the beginning, it is a deliberate process where, in response to fatigue, you reduce your willingness to make further efforts. Another process that leads to a reduction in performance may involve a reduction in the commitment to the long-term goal and a commitment to achieve it (Brown & Bray, 2019).
A meta-analysis (Brown et al., 2020), which summarized the results of 73 studies, confirms the finding that previous cognitive exertion has a negative effect on physical performance, with this effect being small to medium in size.
With mental fatigue, the following decreases:
isometric endurance (eg wall sit, Boat & Taylor, 2017)
motor coordination (eg reduced accuracy of strokes in table tennis and slowdown of exchanges while the force of the stroke remained the same; Le Mansec, 2017)
explosiveness of movement (eg longer sprint start time; Englert & Bertrams, 2014)
force endurance (e.g., number of clicks performed over time; Dorris et al., 2012)
Fatigue transmission also affects aerobic performance, although slightly less than in previous areas. For recreational cyclists, a relatively large effect of mental fatigue was shown at 20 km. With a longer duration of the activity, it is understandable that the athlete's time has deteriorated quite significantly. It is also important that subjectively the activity was perceived as more demanding than in the control group (RPE).
From a meta-analysis of Brown et al. (2020) it is clear that the effect of mental fatigue on physical performance is related to the type of activity. The ability to coordinate, endurance activity, the ability to endure in isometry and muscle endurance suffer the most. In contrast to the mentioned areas, we have no evidence that the maximum force decreases after cognitive stress, although there are relatively few studies in this area (measured, for example, a jump against resistance, all-out cycling test, or maximum contraction with leg extension). Conclusions on strength training must therefore be taken with caution. However, from the currently available results, it seems that if you focus on anaerobic training (strength development) and maintain rest between sets, mental fatigue may not be reflected in performance. The concentration or ability to "feel" the activity could be discussed.
How to prevent the transmission of fatigue?
One of the few studies that focused on preventing the transmission of fatigue looked at students. As a result, they failed to meet the recommended 150 minutes of physical activity per week in the last six months and their weight was normal. Their task was to cycle on a stationary bike for 20 minutes and adjust the difficulty so that the exercise was intense. Before they started, they underwent a 12-minute cognitively demanding task (naming colors written in a different color, try the Stroop task).
The cognitive task has led to a reduction in planned exercise exertion (RPE) and a reduction in the perceived commitment to physical activity (when the desire or courage to achieve one's goal decreases, it ceases to seem interesting or achievable). The intensity of the training was lower after the cognitive task than if they watched the film before the training. Specifically, at 20 minutes, the maximum heart rate and work volume were lower. However, this decrease was prevented by the respondents monitoring their heart rate during exercise. When monitoring heart rate, they kept training intensity unchanged (Brown & Bray, 2019).
Having clear goals and feedback will help you track the shift to the goal and control your own behavior even when you are mentally exhausted (Brown & Bray, 2019).
These results are in line with older findings on regulatory exhaustion. E.g. according to this research, the mere presence of hours in a room leads to greater perseverance in performing cognitive tasks in exhausted people. If the respondents did not follow the time and were mentally exhausted, they refused to continue the task significantly earlier than the rested respondents. When exercising, try to keep track of time and divide it into sections, you will be able to better distribute the forces to achieve the best possible result.
Real-time feedback for performance shift
Self-regulation normally works through the goal setting and monitoring process. We always evaluate the feedback about our own progress to the goal, and we try to reduce the difference between the current and the desired state. When you get tired, your ability to monitor your own behavior will deteriorate. And here's time for external help.
We can prevent the negative effect of mental fatigue on other tasks simply by monitoring your heart rate. Monitoring performance feedback in real time increases the likelihood of continuing the task despite mental exhaustion (Brown & Bray, 2019). If you monitor your heart rate, you will probably regain the capacity of your working memory, because you don't have to constantly monitor your performance emotionally and push to move it. For cases of deteriorating concentration as created. Biofeedback (here your heart rate) will help you keep your attention on your target. Interestingly, the increase in endurance will only come if you are really tired.
Summary
Mental exhaustion does not necessarily mean that you have no more sources of energy. In fact, you can exercise, you just need to be effective. We know that exercise helps restore cognitive function in the long run, so it's a good investment :). You may suffer a little from exercise and exercise will be subjectively more challenging, but it also depends on the type of activity.
In the article, he learned that maximum strength performance does not suffer so much, although the concentration and theoretically the ability to maintain a muscle-mind connection may be impaired. You can use a heart rate monitor or divide your workout into time slots for support directly during exercise.
When you are tired after work:
take a short break or walk (ideally without electronics, let you fully relax :)
and go exercise only then
track how long it takes you to prepare for training (diversion and monitoring)
find something that supports your commitment to achieving your goal (What makes you feel determined to achieve your goal? Sometimes a motivational song or photo is enough.)
look at your training diary and plan to support your commitment
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