Interesting research on how to improve your results in the gym/cycling/running

[DBV]

Hi,

just found an article about a study that was performed and it showed (more like confirmed definitely) that it's more about the brain setting your limits when you workout, run, cycle etc. Here is a quote form it:


For example, Jo Corbett, a senior lecturer in applied exercise physiology at the University of Portsmouth in England, wondered how much competition can affect an athlete’s speed. To find out, he asked cyclists to ride as hard and as fast as they could on a stationary bicycle for the equivalent of 2,000 meters. As he rode, each rider was shown an on-screen figure representing the cyclist riding the course.

Then Dr. Corbett and his colleagues told each athlete that he would be racing against another rider hidden behind a screen. The researchers projected two figures on the screen, one the outline of the rider and the other the outline of the competitor.

In fact, the competitor on the screen was a computer-generated image of the athlete himself in his own best attempt to ride those 2,000 meters.

The cyclists rode furiously through the on-screen race. And, as happened in Dr. Thompson’s experiments, the cyclists beat their best times, finishing with a burst of speed that carried them to virtual victory by a significant length.


And here is the link:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/20/he...best.html?_r=2

This is why competing is good, that's why guys who workout together must push each other..It's kinda something people know instinctively (and champion in all sports definitely know!) but it's being proved now!

Leave your opinion guys!

[superfoodist]

Definitely true.

The body still has physiological limits though which depend on many factors, one of them being someones' training, so it has a lot to do with that too.

I read about a runner who held a world record and would consistently hit the same time for a 7 mile run I think it was.. He wasn't able to reduce it by even a second. Then some other guy beat him by like 2 seconds, and then out of nowhere, the runner who couldn't beat his own time, beat the other guy by like 3 seconds, meaning he beat his old record of 5 seconds or so (it's been a while since I read it so I forget exactly), meaning the capability was ALWAYS there, he just needed the other person to push him to break his mental wall.

Good post.

[DBV]

Originally Posted by superfoodist

Definitely true.

The body still has physiological limits though which depend on many factors, one of them being someones' training, so it has a lot to do with that too.

I read about a runner who held a world record and would consistently hit the same time for a 7 mile run I think it was.. He wasn't able to reduce it by even a second. Then some other guy beat him by like 2 seconds, and then out of nowhere, the runner who couldn't beat his own time, beat the other guy by like 3 seconds, meaning he beat his old record of 5 seconds or so (it's been a while since I read it so I forget exactly), meaning the capability was ALWAYS there, he just needed the other person to push him to break his mental wall.

Good post.

Yeah, there are limits of course but by small improvements it's always growing... your example reminded me of the 4-minute mile. People used to think it was impossible to do, that human body won't handle it then one broke it, then next year few more people broke it and so it goes!

[Clint Cora]

It's the peer pressure thing for sure. That's the great benefit of groups for lots of other things in addition to fitness as well. I know that for myself, I'm more willing to go down those steep double black diamond ski slopes when I'm skiing with other people compared to when I'm skiing alone.

Getting involved with groups is one of the best stategies to improve as well as to keep accountable, providing that you have the right people in the group to do that.