Woman doing weighted crunches with coach watching on.

PHYSICAL AND MENTAL HEALTH

We often think of the mind and body as two separate entities, but our mental health and physical health are interconnected. When physical health problems are present, this significantly increases the risk of developing mental health problems — and vice versa. Here’s how sports training can improve the overall mental health and performance of both elite athletes and weekend warriors.

Other benefits of sports on mental health include:
•Improves serious mental disorders such as schizophrenia.
•Helps with stress-related illnesses by releasing endorphins in the brain.
•Boosts mood by helping put aside worries to focus on the task at hand.
•Helps fight behaviours that lead to addiction. 

Team sports were found to have a greater impact on improving mental health than individual sports, although there was no difference cited in the physical health in team sports versus individual sports.

Woman staying hydrated.

ENHANCING YOUR SPORTS PERFORMANCE

No one approaches the gym or sports, hoping for mediocre results. Here are some of the most efficient strategies to enhance your performance and get the most out of your sport.

BEFORE THE WORKOUT

The workouts you do are critical to successful sports performance. Make sure your sessions are mapped out and focused. .

DURING THE WORKOUT

If you want to peak your athletic abilities in sport, you must peak in on the right workout. The following are some areas you should focus on to get the most out of your workout:

  • Functional exercises. Functional exercises refer to exercises that include different muscle groups. These exercises aim to improve movements and decrease the possibility of injury. 

  • Drills. If you have ever observed a professional athlete and wondered how they could react so quickly to various scenarios, the answer is drills. They repeat the same movements over and over, helping to improve the neuromuscular reaction and helping to reduce lag time.

  • Muscle confusion. This means adapting the body to the various stressful scenarios it will encounter. Continued improvement relies on mixing up workout routines. Some experts recommend changing up your workout every three weeks or so to get maximum results.

  • Conditioning. Instead of simply focusing on technique, it’s also a good idea to focus on conditioning. Conditioning exercises, such as squats, box jumps and push-ups, train the body to succeed at an activity even when it is already tired.

  • Tracking progress. You need to know how much you’ve accomplished—and how far you still need to go. Tracking progress helps become faster and stronger and can identify areas for improvement.

AFTER THE WORKOUT

Rest and recovery are essential parts of any workout routine and often the most overlooked. Your after-exercise recovery routine impacts your fitness gains and sports performance.
  A muscle needs from 24 to 48 hours to repair and rebuild itself. Working a muscle before it has adequate time to repair itself can lead to tissue breakdown instead of muscle building. Any experienced weightlifter will tell you that you should never work out the same muscle groups two days in a row.