How exercise could become less of a hard work. How the placebo effect translates into sports
A lot of people think that regular exercise is too hard a task and they give up on sports before they even try it out. But researchers say that by being convinced of the positive impact it has on our lives, we could actually make constant exercise feel less of a work and more fun.
Psychologist Hendrik Mothes of the Department of Sport Science at the University of Freiburg and his team argue that just by being convinced of the fact that exercise is good for you, can make sports more attractive to those that feel that activity looks more like hard work than fun.
What the scientists realized is that our own expectations influence just how strenuous we perceive a unit of sport.
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The scientists enlisted 78 men and women for the experiment and divided them into different groups and shown one of several short films that either stressed the positive health effects of the coming cycling activity, or dampened the expectations. The participants were also given compression shirts. Some films mentioned that the shirts helped in cycling while others pointed out that the apparel would make the test persons’ sweating comparable.
When the results were in, the researchers found that the more athletic the participants perceived themselves to be, the less strenuous the activity felt. So a positive attitude before the exercise actually made it less hard for these participants. On the other hand, for those that did not consider themselves athletic, the positive messaging did little to make the activity fell less of a job.
The researchers also found that believing in the compression shirt helped. To the subjects who considered themselves athletic, it made no difference; but for those who said they weren’t much good at sports, there was quite an effect.
“Merely the belief that the shirt would help, did help the ‘unsporty’ subjects to have a lower perception of strenuousness during the exercise,” Mothes explains.
According to the scientists, their findings point out that the placebo effect works also when it comes to sports. So for those that do not consider themselves as good athletes, finding a product they believe in could actually improve the amount of exercise they have by making it feel less hard and strenuous.
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