Top 7 Stress-Relief Techniques for Athletes
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| Top 7 Stress-Relief Techniques for Athletes |
The Science of Reducing Stress in Sportsmen: 7 Helpful Exercises
Stress has been proven to hinder an athlete in performance and overall health both physically and mentally.
It is not easy for anybody to get the right relation between the mind and the body in the world that exists today, and for the athletes they have have extra pressure of the competition, heavy training schedule and expectation.
But inculcating, stress-relief measures in the life schedules of athletes can work wonder when it comes to controlling mental strain translating into better concentration and performance levels.
In this article, the seven most useful methods for reducing stress in athletes with the recommendation of how athletes can achieve the balance between the sources of stress and effective performance will be described.
1. Mindfulness Meditation
Mindfulness meditation is a form of stress reduction technique that has in recent years received tremendous focus.
When mindfulness is applied athletes are able to pay attention to what is happening in the here and now, be it feelings, thoughts, or physical sensations.
Benefits:
It has been found to decrease anxiety and stress in people.
Enhances the students’ concentration span
Medically – Enhances ability to cope with mental or physically demanding tasks
In order to practice mindfulness make sure that you are seated comfortably, ensure that you put the device you are using on a steady surface, ensure that you are not located in noisy environment, pick a comfortable sitting position, place your palms on you lap, and take a deep breath.
Let your mind rest on your breath and consider whatever thought appears and then let it go.
If the thoughts divert to other things, then implicitly recall them gently to the breath.
2. Progressive Muscle Relaxation
Progressive muscle relaxation is a technique that was used and can be used by athletes in order to relax muscles.
A number of athletes contend that after managing a systematic contraction and relaxation of muscles, they could find particular manipulation and freeing of stress.
Benefits:
In addition, it also helps relieve muscle stiffness and discomfort.
- Improves sleep quality
Reduce the level of overall tension in the physical body
Perform the exercise in a quiet comfortable position.Choose one part of the body, e.g., feet, and try to squeeze the muscles for some seconds.
Next, release your muscles as well as possible for a minimum of ten seconds.
Starting with your lower extremities and progressing through body parts, face, and neck should also be effective.
3. Visualization and Guided imagery
Visualization and guided imagery make use of picturing how a particular place with a positive environment feel like in order to calm down.
The techniques can help athletes utilise this part of imagination to mitigate stress or even boost performance.
Benefits:
– Lowers down the anxiety and stress.
It will help the participants to improve their mental imagery abilities.
- Increases positive emotions
To practice visualization find a comfortable place and sit in a comfortable position then close your eyes.
Try to build up a picture in your head of somewhere calm, for example a beach, forest or mountain. In other words, let’s step into this scene and consciously savor the details of what we see, hear, and smell or feel on our skin.
4. Deep Breathing
Calm, controlled breathing, is an effortless method of reducing stress that can be employed at work, at home, or indeed anywhere.
Breath correctly helps athletes control their autonomic regulation and achieve relaxation.
Benefits:
- Reduces patient's tension and anxiety.
Enhance the availability of oxygen in the brain and the muscles
It also help strengthen the heart muscle therefore helping to reduce risks of cardiovascular diseases.
To do deep breathing it is advisable to get to a silent place and be as comfortable as possible.
RRRRRR Look straight ahead and remain silent as you breathe in(weights stomach), and breathe out(appears relaxed).
Concentration on the feelings of breathing fresh air and gradually elongate the time taken to make a breath.
5. Physical Exercise
Exercise, especially for athletes, is known to be natural stress busters. No different from other people, athletes can also achieve optimal physical fitness and pleasure, relieve stress, and increase mood-enhancing hormones such as endorphins through exercise.
Benefits:
Reduces level of stress and anxiety.
– Enhances physical health, and endurance
- It has the overall positive effect on mood and well being.
The choice here can be running, swimming, cycling, or dancing and the goal should be doing at least 30 minutes of moderate inteinty of physical activity such as should be practiced in a daily routine.
6. Healthy Eating and Nutrition
Stress is known to be influenced by different things, one of which is taking balanced and healthy meals among athletes.
As these nutrients replenishes the used up energy supply in the body of athletes, the immune system is also boosted and the wellbeing of these athletes will be improved.
Benefits:
Exaggeration is bad for health It also helps to reduce fatigue and enhance energy and physical exercise.
It makes the mood better and decreases irritability
- Enhances sleep quality
Food on a daily basis should consist of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, lean meats and healthy fats. One of the nutritional guidelines is to eat foods of different colors to get enough vitamin, minerals, and antioxidants.
7. Quality Sleep
To give your body time to rest and heal, athletes need enough sleep in a day. More time is spent on work, means and facilities are limited and high pressure, however, the flow of physical activities due to this arises, but adequate sleep can additionally provide great and required positive result: decreasing the level of stress, ensuring proper functioning of the cerebral human brain, and improving the result.
Benefits:
They added that listening to music also helps to lower levels of stress and anxiety.
Enhances flow of blood to the brain or the oxygen supply to the organs of the body and it:
- Improves special physical capacity
At least 7-9 hours of quality sleep should be had each day. It’s about a regular sleep schedule routine, a relaxing bedtime routine, and a setting up a sleeping environment as optimal as possible.
Conclusion
The seven methods above can be easily applied to the athletes’ daily practice and need to be mastered to improve athletes’ stress coping strength and well being. Mindfulness, PMR, visualization, DB, regular exercises, proper diet and sleep can provide a proper solution for any athlete to be mentally fit for achieving the goal in their sport and live a normal life.
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