We all hear people say, "It’s all in the mind!” or "It’s 100 per cent mental!” when they refer to athletes competing in events. So, is it? Could we run harder in that marathon or faster in that swimathon if we had the right mental training or attitude?

If we could, we wouldn’t bother running 20 miles a week and spending hours plowing through the worst that the weather can hurl at us to train for that half marathon! We would just sit at home and think about all that hard training.

Almost all serious athletes will, however, acknowledge that mental skill training does play at least some role in the overall preparation and delivery of a great performance. Exactly how much of an influence is hotly debated by exercise scientists, sports philosophers and armchair experts. Some of the evidence is mentioned here. Most level-headed sports scientists and enthusiasts would argue that great results come from a combination of real physical training and sound mental training.

An intriguing study with direct implications for athletes was conducted by exercise scientist, Bill Morgan. Morgan hypnotised cyclists before they started to cycle on a bicycle ergometer. The cyclists were asked to pedal for 15 minutes at a constant speed against a constant resistance. For the first five minutes they were told that they were cycling on a flat road. As would be expected, their heart and breathing rates increased and then plateaued.

They were then told that for the next five minutes they would be cycling up a very steep hill. When this happened their heart and breathing rates dramatically increased. In the final five minute segment of the test, the cyclists were told that they were cycling on the flat road again. Their breathing and heart rates fell back down to 'pre-hill' levels. Physically the task had not increased in difficulty at any time throughout the test, it was just that the cyclists believed that things were going to be harder and their bodies responded accordingly.

Many experts claim that a mental skill – just like physical training – is not mastered simply by doing it once. Imagine practicing for a race once or twice and then saying "the training didn’t work for me; I’ve got to try something different." No serious athlete would do that with their physical training and yet, too often, mental skills are abandoned if they don’t bring immediate results.

The athletes who are interested in creating a mental training program may want to consider including the following principles into their exercise and training:

Frequency – Practise on a regular basis. Just like physical training, you will need to practice regularly if you wish to see results. As you would lose fitness with extended inactivity, you will lose the benefits of mental training without regular practice.

Duration – Practise for a significant period (20-30 minutes per session).

Intensity – Bring an emotional content to your practises so that you replicate (in your imagination) the race conditions.

Specificity – Develop a range of skills that can be applied to the ever-changing challenges of a running race. For example: relaxation for pre-race conditions, self control for the early stages of a race, discipline and perseverance when the race becomes physically draining.

Progression – Improve the quality of your practices week after week.

Does mental training improve your exercise?

Certainly, you have to sift through the anecdotal and scientific evidence before arriving at your conclusion. Bill Rodgers – the great American marathon runner – stated that he used his mental skill training to visualize an enormous hand pushing him up the infamous HeartBreak Hill in the Boston Marathon. Was it then coincidence that Rodgers pulled away from his rivals at that critical point in his race?

Then there are verified reports of deep sea divers who – using yoga techniques – have learned how to slow both their heart rate (to barely a few beats per minute) and oxygen consumption rate, so that they can stay under water for several minutes with only a single breath. Imagine the benefits of that kind of mental discipline in a running race: using your mind to relax a specific muscle that is repeatedly cramping towards the end of a marathon.

Further evidence of how we think and how our body responds to that thought can be found in the science of Psychoneuroimmunology. Studies have shown that white blood cells – which fight infections – function significantly better when people were given relaxation training. Also, these blood cells were found to be four times more aggressive in fighting colds when a person had positive thoughts rather than negative thoughts about the illness. Research by Richard Achterberg discovered that negative thoughts and emotions significantly increase muscular tension. As tense muscles do not work as efficiently as relaxed muscles, it is apparent how negative thinking could be to the detriment of a running performance.

So is it all in the mind? We doubt it’s all in the mind, but as the above suggests, mental training as well as physical training could seriously improve your results.