A healthy diet, proper sleep, and rigorous training: these are some of the first things that come to mind when we think about what it takes to improve our athletic performance. With all of this focus on our physical health, we often forget about the role our mental health plays in exercise. Whether you go to the gym, participate in local team sports, or compete as a professional athlete, you engage in key mental faculties that you can improve through neurofeedback.
General Benefits of Exercise for Mental Health
Before going over the impacts of neurofeedback on exercise, let’s cover some of its overall benefits of exercise for your mental well-being.
- Reduces Depression and Anxiety
Regular aerobic exercise, such as running, jogging, and swimming, has been shown to decrease rates of depression and anxiety. Increased oxygen in the blood helps to regulate our body’s stress response, which in turn helps us better manage our emotional states.
- Expands Social Network
Many people think a workout must look like weightlifting in the gym alone or going for a run on your own, but several forms of exercise (especially organized sports) serve as an opportunity to meet new people and make meaningful connections. Spending more time in quality social settings has the power to boost our mental health and can lead to strong social networks that support us through life struggles.
- General Increased Quality of Life
Regular exercise can lead to improved self-image which boosts your self-esteem and benefits your overall mental health. Additionally, it often results in better sleep, decreased fatigue, and increased mental cognition.
A Brief Overview of Neurofeedback Training
Neurofeedback is a non-invasive, drug-free alternative to boost cognitive function. It can be used to treat mental disorders such as ADHD and PTSD, as well as depression and anxiety. However, almost anyone can benefit from neurofeedback training. Many people turn to neurofeedback for peak performance, which can look like improving self-image to increasing emotional intelligence. Peak performance also applies to athletes who seek to sharpen their cognitive skills.
How Neurofeedback Improves Athletic Performance
- Decreases Reaction Time
Neurofeedback training has the unique ability to decrease participants’ reaction times, resulting in faster decision-making skills and efficient problem-solving capabilities. While vital for daily life, this is especially important in sports which require quick thinking and action in order to compete.
- Improves Attention
Similar to its effects on reaction time, neurofeedback helps to benefit attention in individuals as well. Evidence suggests that neurofeedback training works to improve levels of attention, resulting in increased attention spans that can help athletes channel their focus for longer periods of time.
- Reduces Stress Levels
Stress levels and mood regulation go hand in hand. Walking out onto the field or the track while under mental stress will result in poor performance due to focusing on our distress, rather than on the task at hand. Neurofeedback has demonstrated its ability to reduce stress in individuals, which can help athletes and casual exercise-enthusiasts regulate their emotions better and increase athletic performance.
Conclusion
Even if you are not a professional athlete seeking to get a leg up in your sport, you can experience significant benefits to your own workouts through neurofeedback. In addition to improving exercise, the impacts of neurofeedback will ripple throughout other facets of your life, leading to overall lower stress, faster decision-making skills, and the ability to focus on daily tasks.
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NeuroHealth. Using Neurofeedback for Peak Performance Training. https://nhahealth.com/using-neurofeedback-for-peak-performance-training/
