Tag Archive for: Stress

Craig Pickering

The role of stress in performance

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Athletes are generally under large amounts of strain. This can be physical in nature, such as the strain produced both by a single training session, or the accumulated strain of a number of training sessions within a training block. More recently, we’ve started to understand that strain can also be non-physiological in nature, with a link between increased stress and under-performance becoming more established. New research helps us further understand the connection. Read more

Craig Pickering

Psychosocial factors impacting performance health

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Whilst we may have previously considered the brain and body and separate entities, it is no longer viable to do so; the research is now clear that the brain plays an important role in moderating risk factors associated with injury and illness, and, from a performance standpoint, it is often psychological factors that most differentiate the performance of elite athletes on competition day. Read more

Craig Pickering

Sports Science Monthly – March 2020

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Every month we take a deep dive into the latest research in sports science. Athletes often complaint about small niggles, but how seriously that needs to be taken has not been researched much. In this month’s edition we start off by taking a look at new research on the topic, plus updates on the art of coaching, performance health, youth sports scaling, sports psychology technology, and high pressure training. Read more

Craig Pickering

Sleep, stress, and physical performance

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Whilst athletes and coaches have long focused on the physical aspects of performance enhancement, such as training program design and exercise selection, it is only relatively recently that we have started to pay attention to how stress and sleep might also influence both the magnitude of adaptations seen following a training program, and competition performance. Based on this recent research, we have an increased understanding of the need to account for psychological stress, including, in the case of younger athletes, academic work load, when developing optimal training programs. Read more

Martin Bingisser

HMMR Podcast Episode 180: Flying high (with Herbert Czingon)

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Pole vault is one of the world’s most dynamic sports, requiring elite levels of sprinting, jumping, and gymnastics from athletes. Herbert Czingon has been coaching the event for decades as both German national coach and now Switzerland. He joins us on this week’s podcast to talk about how his approach to planning for the complex event has changed over the years to better identify the individual needs of athletes, plus a discussion on the unique demands the sport requires from athletes. Read more

Craig Pickering

Personalizing the training process – a look at stress

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In recent years, the individualized training movement has grown in momentum. Coaches no longer debate the need to individualize training; instead we often focus on the best methods for individualization. Individualizing the training process is something that is very interesting to me. My doctoral thesis is built around how of genetic testing may prove useful in the development of individualized training programs. Another area that I want to look into here is that of stress, the individual response to stress, how this affects our psycho-emotional state, and how that can alter our training responses. Read more

Craig Pickering

Sports Science Monthly – March 2018

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In the March edition of Sports Science Monthly we look at new research across a variety of areas including the impact of coaching behavior, Selye’s General Adaptation Syndrome, nordic hamstring exercises, genetic testing, monitoring fatigue and more. Read more

Craig Pickering

Sports Science Monthly – February 2018

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The February edition of Sports Science Monthly is perhaps our most in-depth yet. We take a look at 10 new studies this month on a variety of topics from how soon injury rehabilitation should start, adaptations from small-sided games, how resistance training stacks up against plyometrics, and the ketogenic diet for athletes. In addition, we dive into some novel topics like new research on the placebo effect, RPE, and stress contagion. Read more

Mike Bahn

Balancing recovery and adaptation

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Recovery has become a popular term that has sparked a deluge of equipment, technology and practices. So far, unfortunately, the research lags far behind the practice. This is not to discount the validity of some strategies or items in affecting the recovery process, but it does require us to take a much closer look at the overall processes and develop strategies accordingly. Read more

Martin Bingisser

November 2017 in review: adaptation explained

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After focusing on getting back to the basics in October, we turned our attention to a new site theme in November: adaptation. In one sense, adaptation is the most basic element of training; everything we do is aimed at trying to get the body to adapt. But the body is complex, which makes our job difficult. Throughout the month we put together a variety of resources to help understand that complexity. An overview is below. Read more