How may exercise improve mental health?
Whether we like it or not, the body does not enjoy being sedentary for several hours of the day. Adequate blood flow cannot be achieved if we are not letting our muscles function. That goes to say with our brain needs that blood flow in combination with oxygen and water to keep us from losing our minds. Exercise does not always have to be the traditional ones an everyday person may think of.
To start off...
Our physical body may be very strong, but if our mental state cannot remain stable, what is the use of having an incomplete chain? Why have only one portion of the body stronger than the other instead of them both contributing even strength to create a better version of yourself?
There comes a time where exercise may actually be detrimental to mental health. Society may be pushing an individual to look a certain way, with a fixed perspective in mind, exercise intensity will ramp up while their diet goes down the drain. It is important to reflect sometimes on who you are and reevaluate of why you are exercising. Develop that unbreakable intrinsic motivation!
It is important to have stressors in our lives to help contribute to stimulate our minds and keep ourselves occupied! Life does happen and sometimes the negative stressors will have their moments where they outweigh the positive and healthy stressors.
Mental health in strength sports
When applied to powerlifting, varying athletes may experience adversity when it comes to lack of progress, nagging injuries, or both. Not every individual is trained to be able handle the stress of striving at their sport or other endeavor they choose to take on.
According to a study that occurred at Kazan Federal University (Russia), 160 individuals who were associated with powerlifting were given a questionnaire to identify different variables that affect their training protocol that can translate into competition performance. The main two factors tallied were coach's assistance and mental attitude (Ljdokova et al. 2014).
A main takeaway from this study is that when it comes to exercising, yes there is the possibility to have the physical health changes, but people forget that mental health is just as significant. It does not hurt to have a figure that is always in our corner that will help us take down mental barriers when we are not strong enough on our own.
Anxiety in exercise specific performances
According to a study performed from through the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, Judge et al. (2016), wanted to investigate the impact competitive anxiety trait had on collegiate level powerlifters. Participants were asked to take a SCAT (sport competition anxiety test) prior to attempting their first lifts of competition. Results came in that the athletes who reported higher anxiety levels tended to perform worse compared to the lifters who reported lower levels of anxiety.
Besides anxiety, others factors may influence a lifter's performance on competition day. Everyone copes differently with how they feel. Not being able to train in an environment similar to what is there on competition day may lead to a disadvantage. Having a sufficient support system can give a lifter that extra push to block out the adversity i.e. coaching staff and loved ones.
Powerlifting is an excellent discipline for exercise and a good way to test one's mental barriers. The tough part about it is when a lifter is putting the training hours in for several weeks at a time just to show out for that one day (performing 1 rep max repetitions of the squat, bench, and deadlift), it may difficult to reach an appropriate level of arousal to perform at desired expectations.