Mental fatigue leads to physical fatigue, so mental training can improve physical performance:
In the twelve-week study, two groups of fourteen soldiers each trained on stationary bikes. The first half trained three times a week for one hour at a moderate aerobic pace. The second half did exactly the same intensity of training for the same duration, so the physiological work was the same. But while this second group pedaled, they were also doing a mentally fatiguing task.
The results at the end of the study were mind blowing. The two groups saw similar increases in their VO2 max, meaning the physiological effects of the training were about the same. But when you asked them to do what’s called a “time to exhaustion test, in which they rode at a specific percentage of their VO2 max until they couldn’t go on, the differences were profound. The control group saw the time to exhaustion improve 42 percent from their results before the training started. The group that combined training with mental exercise saw an improvement of 115 percent, almost three times the improvement that the control group saw. Combining the physical and mental stress led to a quantum leap in performance.
From Faster, Higher, Stronger, by Mark McClusky.
It’s unfortunate the book’s name is very close to the name of the excellent documentary Bigger, Faster, Stronger that came out in 2008. Does McClusky’s book go into any detail about PED use amongst elite athletes? Without controlling for their use it’s hard to gauge the effectiveness of any other sports science.
McClusky barely touches on performance-enhancing drugs, which, I agree, is a serious weakness in a book on sports science — but it’s not unusual.