Muscle Fatigue

Fatigue plays a major part in the sporting performance of the athlete both in physical and mental terms. The athlete needs to learn to notice the signs of fatigue and tension that arises from this and introduce methods to cope with the debilitating effect it can have on their performance.
Muscle fatigue and the tension associated with it can result from a number of different factors. The athletes may simply have over exerted themself physically in training or competition leading to muscular fatigue from pushing their physical limits. They also may have drained their body and mind from mental stress with regards to performance or outcome. This is described in General
Adaptation Syndrome (GAS) as originally described by Hans Selye and describes the body’s
reaction to stress. The 1st stage is the â€oefight or flight― stage whereby adrenaline is released in the body producing a quickening of the heart rate. Stage 2 sees the stage of resistance whereby coping methods are used to assure that success can be achieved. The final stage is the stage of exhaustion where if the athlete cannot cope with the demands and stress placed to maintain cognitive effort when demand is high that fatigue sets in and the body and mind reaches exhaustion.
For the athlete to perform to the best of their abilities muscular tension needs to be at a minimum so the muscles can work as they are supposed to in a relaxed fluid state; as opposed to the tension stress filled state which causes the muscles to contract and tighten leading to a decrease if optimal performance and an likelihood of â€oechoking― in performance. As grand slam tennis winner Arthur Ashe said â€oethe ideal attitude is to be physically loose and mentally tight―.
All athletes are aware of the negative effects stress and tension has on performance. To try and eliminate the probability of them affecting the individual, she must learn to recognise the signs of tension, introduce methods of coping and treating it as well as learning to change focus to the task in hand. Thankfully for the athlete there are many ways which they can do this.
The first stage is to recognise tension in the athlete. The 4 key indicators of acknowledging tension in the athlete are • Touch – the relaxed muscle is soft and fluid to touch compared with the stiff tightness of the tension filled one. • Observation – the relax muscle moves with full movement and mobility compared with the contracted tense muscle which restricts full range of motion and fluidity in movement • Contract – through progressive muscular relaxation (PMR) we can tense the muscle by squeezing it hard for a short time before allowing it to relax and observing the differing state. With a relaxed muscle this is relatively easy after a short learning period, however the already tension filled muscle finds the exercise very difficult sometimes even encountering increased tension in trying • Biofeedback – here electrodes are attached to the body and signals are sent to a monitor when heart rate, breathing, skin temperature and muscle activity changes.
There are many ways to combat tension in the athlete with priority given to controlling breathing, centring, focusing, imagery and self-talk as ways to decrease muscular tension and focus on the task in hand. As mentioned before with muscular tension we are likely to see an increase in the breathing rate as the athlete struggles to cope with the stress level of the situation. Learning breathing techniques will help counter this, slowing the breathing rate down and reducing the tension felt in the muscles and body. An easy example of this is ratio breathing where the athlete will breath out for longer than she has breathed in. Here she may breath in for 4 seconds, pause and then breath out for 6 seconds whilst relaxing the jaw; the end result leading to a more relaxed state. This type of breathing causes the adrenal glands to release the hormone noradrenaline, which in turn reduces the volume of blood pumped to the muscles and therefore reduces blood pressure and heart rate. The opposite of way of breathing of course resulting in the opposite results with the release of adrenaline pumping more blood to the muscles.
Centring is a great way an athlete during completion can reset and address muscular tension.
Here she will counteract the increased physical tension by standing in a relaxed state with flex in the knees, relaxing the neck and shoulder muscles and focusing on breathing from the diaphragm with a loose jaw and narrowing the focus to the task in hand keeping distractive thoughts at bay. Often the athlete can focus on a mantra whilst doing this, repeating thoughts like â€oerelax― as they perform the task. Once this type of exercise has been mastered by the athlete they will find they are able to recognise the cues of tension and use centring during performance effectively to get back on track.
As the Real Madrid footballer Ronaldo said after scoring the match winning penalty v Juventus in the Champions League semi-final after a 4-minute delay in injury time â€oeThe pulse increased, but I calmed down, and I knew I'd be decisive―.
Using imagery in training and performance is an excellent tool for the athlete to combat the stresses on tension. As the effect of the mind on sporting performance continues to grow, more and more athletes are harnessing the power of imagery and visualisation to increase sporting performance.
A study by Australian psychologist Alan Richardson on basketball free throws separated groups into 3.
Those who practised free throws for 20 minutes a day, those who visualized successful free throws for 20 minutes a day and a group, which did neither. The results were that the practise and visualisation group both saw significant improvement whilst the group that did nothing stayed as they were. Imagery can also come in other forms such as imagining oneself as a speedy and powerful cheetah if those elements are a key component of their performance. Also elements of performance can be broken down, for a golfer, this maybe visualising a smooth controlled take away, a slight pause at the top of the swing, before driving the hips through to a full follow through.
The power of mental rehearsal and imagery enables the athlete to put themselves in differing realistic situations so that when these actually occur in the field of play they can draw on â€oesuccessful experience― gained whilst doing the exercise to keep relaxed and tension free. Leonardo the
Brazilian World Cup 1994 winner said â€oeI still dream before I run onto the pitch about how I’m going play…I spend all day thinking about it. I play it over and over like a film in my mind―. The imagery can take two forms; it can come in the first person where the athlete imagines himself or herself acting out the scenario, the reaction to the crowd etc. It can also be in the 3rd person where they imagine watching himself or herself perform either from the stands, tv or a position of their choice. Many psychologists now recommend the athlete create a imagery â€oevideo highlights― reel which they can watch showing successes and building up positive thoughts to competition. The famed golf psychologist Dr Bob Rotella is known to recommend this to all levels of golfers in his books. One key aspect of imagery and visualisation is to only focus on positive outcomes as to bring negative images in means they are more likely to occur. To use golf again, focusing on hitting a target, like the fairway, makes this more likely; focusing on avoiding the water on the right however brings that in to the mind-set of the player and makes hitting the penalty shot into the water more likely than before. Self-talk is another way the athlete can reduce muscular tension. In a similar way to the methods before repeating phrases such as â€oeI can do this― or something tactically relevant to the objective â€oeattack the backhand― or â€oepower through the gaps― allow the athlete to reframe and focus on the hand with a positive mind-set. Like imagery though, the key is to be positive in your self-talk as a negative self-talk process will only cause further tension and increase the chances of a lesser performance. It must be noted also that when describing self-talk, it is generally short memorable phrases repeated by the athlete silently in their head as opposed to out loud. These can often be coupled with the breathing exercises described earlier.
Deliberate practise set in training is another valuable tool to deal with the stresses that competition brings. The athlete who trains under conditions akin to that they will experience in competition is unlikely to have heightened arousal and stress brought on when in key moments of competition.
There are many ways to make practise closer to competition from introducing a noise element to recreate crowd effects to practising with a player less in team events should a sending off ever occur. The athlete who is prepared for all outcomes will find less tension when these events occur in the heat of competition. To quote the old boxing maxim â€oetrain hard, fight easy―. Having clear goals make it easier for the athlete to accept the stresses and tension of the target but to zone in on them allowing themselves to use the goal as positive focus whilst blocking out the distracting elements around them.
We have gone through how the athlete can recognise, cope and deal with muscular tension brought about by physical and mental fatigue. The role of the coach and psychologist is to get the athlete to understand that all top end performers feel nerves and tension and that they should be embraced as they show we are close to achieving our goals. When we recognise them we go into our plan to deal with performing under stress and tension, as legendary