James Davis

The Benefits of Mindfulness Without Meditation

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When we think of mindfulness, often the images that spring to mind are of sitting in a darkened room with crossed legs, deep in meditation. It is easy to think of this as all there is to mindfulness, and to not always identify with it ourselves, especially for those of us leading active lifestyles or those who have tried meditation and not found it to work.

However, excluding mindfulness practices from our routines altogether could be detrimental – the benefits of mindfulness are far reaching.

As with many elements of sports training, those who practise it can see improvements outside of their sporting life as well; mindfulness practitioners can see improvements in both empathy and compassion (1). Back in the sporting world, we can find the practice helps us better regulate our emotions, and decrease stress, anxiety, pessimism and mental fatigue (1-5). All are benefits that you can find aids you as a sportsperson, regardless of discipline.

Although different definitions of mindfulness can be found across the internet and beyond, it is best described as “moment-to-moment awareness of one’s experience, without judgement” (1). The practices that can bring about this vary, and can be active, as well as passive, more suited to the more animated and outdoorsy amongst us.

With both the holistic and sport-specific benefits on offer, mindfulness can be an attractive prospect to add into your routine. However, as not everyone finds meditation works for them, there are multiple and varied ways of introducing the benefits of mindfulness for yourself.

Binaural Beats

Binaural beats are a type of auditory stimulation that has been linked with increased focus for those listening for just twelve minutes, reducing the wandering of the mind that might occur during a long training session, for example (6).

In sport, perception of how you feel can be as important as the physical reality, and binaural beats have also been seen to improve the perception of sleep and motivation in sportspeople (7).

Guided Breathing

Guided breathing is frequently recommended as a method of stress and anxiety reduction (8,9). 

By focusing on breathing, even while doing other activities, you can bring about a state of mindfulness, with the ‘moment-to-moment awareness’ of your breathing aiding relaxation and focus.

Box breathing is commonly used by the Navy SEALs as a method of staying calm and performing under pressure. This methodology is also applicable to all high performing individuals, including athletes, who will find benefit from using box breathing in preparation for a competition.

Subliminal Priming

Subliminal priming is the use of visual, auditory, or other cues that occur below the threshold of perception, such that they are only perceived subconsciously. 

Priming sees the most significant effect when those using it are motivated to pursue the goal that they are priming in themselves, but can increase motivation, and feelings of self-efficacy, especially when combined with other techniques (10,11).

We developed Rewire with athletes in mind, to highlight and develop the cognitive side of sports performance.

Rewire’s Mindset Recovery system contains a range of protocols to help you enhance your performance, with binaural beats, guided breathing, and subliminal priming alongside various other neurological and psychological protocols like visualization and self-talk.

Start your free trial with Rewire today to get the benefits of mindfulness without meditation.

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References

1. Davis DM, Hayes JA. What are the benefits of mindfulness? A practice review of psychotherapy-related research. Psychotherapy (Chicago). 2011 Jun; 48(2): 198-208. doi: 10.1037/a0022062.

2. Corcoran KM, Farb N, Anderson A, Segal ZV. Mindfulness and emotion regulation: Outcomes and possible mediating mechanisms. In Kring AM, Sloan DM. Emotion regulation and psychopathology: A transdiagnositc approach to etiology and treatment. New York: Guildford Press; 2010. p. 339-355.

3. Shapiro SL, Schwartz GE, Bonner G. Effects of mindfulness-based stress reduction on medical and premedical students. Journal of Behavioural Medicine. 1998 Dec; 21(6): 581-599. doi: 10.1023/a:1018700829825.

4. Rosenzweig S, Reibel DK, Greeson JM, Brainard GC, Hojat M. Mindfulness-based stress reduction lowers psychological distress in medical students. Teaching and Learning in Medicine. 2003 Sprint; 15(2): 88-92. doi: 10.1207/S15328015TLM1502_03.

5. Scott-Hamilton J, Schutte NS, Brown RF. Effects of a Mindfulness Intervention on Sports-Anxiety, Pessimism, and Flow in Competitive Cyclists. Applied Psychology: Health and Well-Being. 2016 Mar; 8(1): 85-103. doi: 10.1111/aphw.12063.

6. Axelsen JL, Kirk U, Staiano W. On-the-Spot Binaural Beats and Mindfulness Reduces the Effect of Mental Fatigue. Journal of Cognitive Enhancement. 2020; 4: 31-39. doi: 10.1007/s41465-019-00162-3.

7. Abeln V, Kleinert J, Strueder HK, Schneider S. Brainwave entrainment for better sleep and post-sleep state of young elite soccer players – A pilot study. European Journal of Sport Science. 2014; 14(5): 393-402. doi: 10.1080/17461391.2013.819384.

8. NHS. NHS. [Online].; 2018 [cited 2021 Sep 23. Available from: https://www.nhs.uk/mental-health/self-help/guides-tools-and-activities/breathing-exercises-for-stress/.

9. Isle of Wight NHS Trust. Isle of Wight NHS Trust. [Online]. [cited 2021 Sep 24. Available from: https://www.iow.nhs.uk/Downloads/Chronic%20Pain/Stress%20and%20Relaxation.pdf.

10. Strahan EJ, Spencer SJ, Zanna MP. Subliminal priming and persuasion: Striking while the iron is hot. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology. 2002 Nov; 38(6): 556-568. doi: 10.1016/S0022-1031(02)00502-4.

11. Pettit JA, Karageorghis CI. Effects of video, priming, and music on motivation and self-efficacy in American football players. International Journal of Sports Science & Coaching. 2020 Dec; 15(5-6): 685-695. doi: 10.1177/1747954120937376.

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David Lipman

Why Is Rewire The Best Mindset Recovery App?

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The short answer to which is the best mindset recovery app is “Rewire”, but then again that is the long answer too because nobody else is even coming close to what we are doing at Rewire. 

But at this stage you may be asking, actually, what is ‘Mindset Recovery’? 

Mindset recovery is the process of appropriately preparing you, in the mental realm for the performance that is upcoming and the state you want to be in when performing. 

It is not simply calming down, or hyping up, it is taking a holistic approach to improve mental performance and reduce fatigue. 

Ok, but what is Rewire? 

Rewire is an athlete’s Neuro-training coach, readiness tracker and mindset recovery tool, all rolled into one groundbreaking app. 

With Rewire you will track recovery and readiness daily before having your personalized mindset recovery session delivered to aid in areas of need based on your readiness and goals for the day. 

And on days where you are in a great cognitive state? That’s when you can double down and do some neuro-training to build mental resilience, mental toughness and improve decision making to help push your athletic performance to the next level. 

Who needs Mindset Recovery?

Given the modern world we live in with its myriad of stressors, everyone. The key here being that your body only understands stress, not the source of the stress. It can’t differentiate between training/racing and a meeting or press commitment. So whether you are a professional, weekend warrior or sub elite with a part time job, tracking your readiness is key, but without being able to action it, through mindset recovery you haven’t got a lot of good options to action this readiness insight. 

The way the mindset recovery sessions are designed, means they allow you to set a focus for the day and use your current readiness and goal to then guide the mindset recovery to be optimal for you. 

So it’s like Meditation? 

No, it is not like meditation. It is an easier alternative to meditation that incorporates breathing techniques, visual priming and allows you to customize the experience. It is completely guided and will track the effects of the session to help you track your improvement as a result of the mindset recovery session. Think of it as a system designed using science, and targeted to your needs, to use the best parts of subliminal priming, breath work, mantras and mindfulness to achieve optimal state, as a beginner, rather than with years of practice. 

This may be the biggest point of difference for Rewire; an actionable solution to your current state, based on your goals. Information without the ability to action it is just more data in a world where we are flooded with data all day long. It is more harm than good. 

Rewire Fitness is the revolution to human performance through a holistic approach to readiness, mindset recovery, and building mental resilience. My favorite components of Rewire were the relaxation, concentration, and focus protocols. As a former college athlete, I feel Rewire’s solution is a game-changer for those looking to level up their performance. 

Dr. Chazz Evans, DPT, former NCAA Division I Track and Field Champion

So far, overall, I would say [Rewire], is actually really quite fun, the part that I like the best about it is I love the mindset recovery. Like that’s beautiful

Pilar Arthur-Snead, Ultramarathon Runner and Coach

Aside from the fact that things are not a one-size-fits-all in regards to how mindset recovery sessions can be used for given levels of readiness and goals for the day, one huge advantage of Rewire is that it takes into account the Inverted U of performance.1 In short, this theory states that someone can be both over aroused (think anxious, stressed out, hyped up) and under aroused (think overly relaxed, half asleep, not ready) for performance. Neither of these states is optimal and the optimal level of arousal for peak performance lies in the middle of this. So in some situations a person will need to be more aroused and in some they will need to calm down. Most recovery apps focus almost exclusively on calming you down, and to be fair, in modern society this is a fair bet, but it’s not optimal.  

Optimal is measuring your readiness, asking your goals for the day and then facilitating you performing better through mindset recovery. That’s mental resilience, that’s performance under pressure and that’s what Rewire does.   

But How did Rewire Start?

As a former elite cyclist and lifelong endurance athlete and self-described performance geek, our CEO Sun Sachs had been aware of the science around building more cognitive resilience as a way of improving athletic performance. 

He had been waiting for a commercial version of the science to come to market for 4+ years and then one day whilst on the bike trainer he had an epiphany for how it could be done. 

With his 25 years in software and hardware development he was able to build a prototype in a few weeks with his first co-founder, Cody Rotwein, start beta testing, file a patent, add two more amazing co-founders, Rizala Carrington and Ed Gibbins and the rest is history. 

This is the creation story, but given the uptake of this powerful technology by a range of athletes from amateur to elite, it is likely it is just the start. 

If you’re already a Rewire member (and reading this on mobile), tap here to try one of our Mindset Recovery sessions. If you aren’t a Rewire member yet, tap here to sign up today!

Matt Hanson
Matt Hanson
Professional Triathlete and Coach

“I have been using the app for a few months. It has helped me set the proper mindset before workouts, disconnect before bedtime, and gauge my mental readiness on a daily basis. I have also been enjoying working on the Neuro-Training component during some of my indoor rides.”

Dr David Lipman is an Australian trained Medical Doctor, Podiatrist and Exercise Physiologist. He has worked with athletes of varying levels in all 3 roles. He is an ultramarathon runner, avid physical activity advocate and is passionate about performance in all people.

REFERENCE LIST

  1. Arent SM, Landers DM. Arousal, anxiety, and performance: a reexamination of the Inverted-U hypothesis. Res Q Exerc Sport. 2003 Dec;74(4):436-44. doi: 10.1080/02701367.2003.10609113. PMID: 14768844

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David Lipman

What is Neuro-Training?

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Neuro-Training is the name we have given to training that involves mentally fatiguing activities to induce mental fatigue to help augment this training stimulus. 

Mental fatigue, as a training stimulus? 

Yes, you read that correctly. Any activity that has a component of prolonged time, think sports matches, endurance activities, prolonged focused work – they all have a component of mental endurance. As a result, performance in these can be improved via neuro-training. That’s right, doing neuro-training will help your marathon running, or triathlon performance. 

But if it is so good why am I just hearing about it now? 

As a former elite cyclist and lifelong endurance athlete and self-described performance geek, our founder, Sun Sachs, had been aware of the science around building more cognitive resilience as a way of improving athletic performance. He had been waiting for a commercial version of the science to come to market for 4+ years until one day on the bike trainer he had an epiphany for how it could be done. With 25 years in software and hardware development he was able to build a prototype in a few weeks with his first co-founder, Cody Rotwein, start beta testing, file a patent, add one more amazing co-founder, Ed Gibbins and the rest is history. 

So in short, we aren’t sure, but we sure are happy to be bringing this game changer to you. 

So what is Rewire?

Rewire is a complete system developed for both neuro-training, readiness tracking and mind/body recovery. 

It caters to all your neuro-training wants and needs, in or out of physical training hours, allowing you to gain the edge on your competition by being better able to focus and handle mental fatigue.

Additionally, as mentioned, it is an integrated readiness tracker. This is because, like all training, neuro-training isn’t optimally done when you are dealing with a high amount of cognitive fatigue, so tracking this becomes essential. 

The beauty of Rewire is that it allows you to understand where (emotionally, physically or mentally) you are ready to perform and where you are carrying fatigue. Armed with this knowledge, the inbuilt personal recovery sessions (based on these results) and the will to modify your training program, you can work with your body to optimize training. Heavy mental fatigue? Well maybe do a recovery session and change training, or use this mental fatigue as a form of neuro-training. Heavy physical fatigue? Maybe modify training and take advantage of the time to do more neuro-training with the app. 

You get the picture, we are changing the game through working with your situation rather than assuming you are a robot who can just perform as planned from the training program written six months ago. 

Related: Overview of Rewire’s Neuro-Training System

What does neuro-training look like? 

It comes in many forms, in fact some of them are things you are probably doing. For example, prolonged concentration on a task is a form of neuro-training, this is why after a long, mentally tough day at work training can feel harder. That said, just like physical training, there is a huge difference between targeted  and specific training and training that has some effect. This is where Rewire comes in. 

Rewire uses the same types of training developed in research studies for inducing mental fatigue to help your neurotraining. These require prolonged attention and help increase cognitive load during training, or induce a mentally fatiguing stimulus before your training, to help augment the physical stimulus induced by the subsequent training session. 

How does neuro-training work? 

Fatigue itself is complex, but it has many components, one of which is mental fatigue. By doing neuro-training you are becoming more resistant to mental fatigue and thus will improve this factor in performance or at least reduce or remove it as a limiting factor in performance. Neuro-training can be standalone, or done around physical training depending on goals of the neuro-training and physical training. It is no use pre-fatiguing yourself mentally before a key workout, but perhaps this is a good way to get a little bit more out of the easy workout you have today. It can also be done concurrently with physical training with our Neuro-Training Buttons.

Related: Brain-Endurance Training For Athletes: What You Need To Know

What does neuro-training do?

Neuro-training will ultimately help you improve focus and mental performance. 

This has implications to everyday life and performance of course, especially with more mentally burdensome activities. In an athletic sense, as mentioned, fatigue has a large component of mental fatigue and neuro-training looks to address this specifically. So whilst there are other factors to fatigue, this part will be improved, helping reduce mental fatigue and removing it as a barrier to performance. 

Why is neuro-training necessary? 

You spend so much time training and preparing for the race, it seems a waste to completely ignore one aspect of training doesn’t it? You wouldn’t skip swim training for a triathlon, so why skip neuro-training for your upcoming athletic endeavors? 

Given the interrelated nature of mental fatigue and performance it is crucial for you to focus on the mental aspects of performance. These include neuro-training and finally there is a way in which you can do this easily, in a structured manner thanks to Rewire. The added benefits being that it will have flow on effects to all aspects of your life in terms of focus and mental performance and can be done without adding significant time to your day or any more physical load. That’s right, you get better without having to physically tax yourself! 

Don’t hesitate to start your neuro-training and unlock the benefits of improved mental performance, Rewire your performance circuitry today. 

Tap here to try one of our Neuro-Training sessions. If you aren’t a Rewire member yet, tap here to sign up today! Or, you can try out our Free Online Mental Toughness Challenge!

Looking to take your Neuro-Training to the next level by layering it onto your physical workouts? Check out Rewire’s Neuro-Buttons.

Further Readings:
Brain Endurance Training for Athletes: What You Need To Know
Overview of Rewire’s Neuro-Training System
Neuro-Training Studies

Kyle Korver
Kyle Korver
NBA All-Star and Prolific 3-Point Shooter

“As a professional athlete, I’ve known firsthand the importance of training the mind and body to push the limits of performance. Rewire’s latest platform makes mental strength training more accessible to athletes everywhere with easy-to-use tools to help them reach their goals.”

LEARN MORE ABOUT REWIRE’S NEURO-PERFORMANCE SYSTEM

Dr David Lipman is an Australian trained Medical Doctor, Podiatrist and Exercise Physiologist. He has worked with athletes of varying levels in all 3 roles. He is an ultramarathon runner, avid physical activity advocate and is passionate about performance in all people.

Join Our Community Today!

David Lipman

Why is Rewire The Best Readiness Tracker?

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The list of available wearable devices, apps and gadgets is seemingly ever growing. Each seems to have a slightly different method, pitch and demographic. 

Surely it must be simpler than this? 

Yes we all have different goals, but performance, whilst there are different components to it, largely requires the same thing: being physically, emotionally and cognitively ready to go. 

Yes of course, it is more than just readiness, performance requires preparation of all sorts, but this is the price of entry, without this there is no start. Once this is done though, performance hinges on readiness to do so, and being able to respond to challenges that arise during the performance. 

As a younger athlete, it can be easy to think that performance is only about training, and only physical in nature. As time passes and you gain experience it becomes quickly apparent that readiness fluctuates and that the impact of mental and/or emotional fatigue can be real and impactful. 

ASSES YOUR READINESS FOR FREE TODAY

What are the Components of Readiness?

The physical aspects of readiness are probably the things you have already heard about and know about. These include training load for the previous day, soreness, resting heart rate, heart rate variability (HRV) and sleep. 

The cognitive components of readiness are much less talked about but a crucial aspect of readiness that helps form the complete picture required to truly discern readiness, especially when life stressors are more than just training related (which is almost always the case). These components include reaction time and accuracy, mental load, and sleep. 

When considering readiness, ignoring the emotional aspects of readiness (and thus performance) is outdated at best. The new generation of elite coaches and athletes is increasingly realising the importance of emotional aspects of performance and working hard to both monitor, train and control these to be able to hone them for top performance. These components include; rest, readiness, frustration and stress. 

But Some of these are Subjective? 

That is a good thing, not a bad thing! 

There is a tendency to believe that athletes are robots and the body is a machine, this is absolutely false. Sometimes the subjective measures of wellness and readiness are more important and sensitive than the objective ones such as HRV.1

Readiness Sounds Complicated? 

Simply put, it is. 

The human body is complicated enough, getting it to perform in any facet of life is another layer of complexity on top of this. 

Ultimately there is no one measure that tells the complete story, the combination of all of these measures, from all of these aspects of readiness gives the most complete picture of readiness possible. 

We use a holistic approach to help you achieve maximum human performance. 

Rewire – The answer

Rewire was ultimately created with the understanding that performance has many factors that are not physical. The best physical monitoring was added to evidenced based subjective scores, in addition to newer concepts to cover the three domains of fatigue and readiness previously mentioned; physical, mental and emotional.

This all combines to give you the most accurate readiness tracker on the market.  

Rewire – How does it work? 

Each morning you complete a reaction time test, this is integrated with other physical measures and sleep. Following this test, there are a set of questions that cover training load, mental and emotional fatigue. 

You are then scored for readiness overall and in each individual realm; physical, cognitive and emotional. 

These scores are all compared to your baseline, because there is a huge deal of individual difference in many of these measures. 

The beauty of all of this is that you can track all of these factors as a group and individually, better understanding your health and readiness data. 

So my Readiness isn’t good, what do I do now? 

Emerging evidence suggests that there is some value in training based on readiness rather than a rigid program.2,3 Preliminary evidence looks as though those using a readiness based program had fewer injuries and outperformed or at least matched the group in the study using a rigid program. The key here being the readiness based program had less volume as a result of doing less on days when readiness was lower. 

Beyond this though, Rewire helps you perform via using your readiness results and key goal for the day to then prepare a personalized recovery session to help you better achieve your selected goal for the day given your readiness assessment. These sessions use a mixture of methods such as different breathing patterns and neuropriming to help you optimize your day. This is because we realize that not everyone has the luxury of moving their training around but also because these will help you better achieve your goals regardless of training. You may have a low readiness and decide that day’s goal is then recovery, we can help.  

Sounds Good, but I am not that Serious of an Athlete 

The modern world and modern life mean that now more than ever we are under more stress. We have more going on, more to be concerned about and more to get done. Given all this, it’s arguable that readiness has never been more important for the population, regardless of athletic goals. In fact, given readiness may actually be easier to predict in professional athletes given athletic performance is their job, the components thereof including things like recover and readiness optimization. In contrast, weekend warriors or recreational athletes often have many other stressors that are higher priority to them and thus should really consider the role of these in their readiness but also how much training stress they want to take on given their priorities may be orientated elsewhere. 

What I want from whatever devices I’m using is that it’s looking at the whole person.  Right, that it’s not compartmentalizing my physical wellbeing or my emotional wellbeing. And I think that what you and your team have built is an amazing platform. That really is whole-person focused
Tammy Abbott-Thiel, MSW, LMSW

Given the increasingly taxing and stressful nature of modern life and the will to perform that most if not all of us have, it seems critical to both track readiness and remedy poor readiness. Luckily this is now available to you through Rewire. Test it today and start to see the benefits of applying stress appropriately rather than fighting against your body. 

If you’re already a Rewire member (and reading this on mobile), tap here to take your Readiness Assessment. If you aren’t a Rewire member yet, tap here to sign up today!

Join for Free Today!

REFERENCE LIST:

  1. Saw AE, Main LC, Gastin PB. Monitoring the athlete training response: subjective self-reported measures trump commonly used objective measures: a systematic review. Br J Sports Med. 2016 Mar;50(5):281-91. doi: 10.1136/bjsports-2015-094758. Epub 2015 Sep 9. PMID: 26423706; PMCID: PMC4789708.
  2. Peter Düking, Christoph Zinner, Khaled Trabelsi, Jennifer L. Reed, Hans-Christer Holmberg, Philipp Kunz, Billy Sperlich,Monitoring and adapting endurance training on the basis of heart rate variability monitored by wearable technologies: A systematic review with meta-analysis, Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport,2021,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsams.2021.04.012.
  3. Javaloyes A, Sarabia JM, Lamberts RP, Moya-Ramon M. Training Prescription Guided by Heart Rate Variability in Cycling. Int J Sports Physiol Perform. 2018 May 29:1-28. doi: 10.1123/ijspp.2018-0122. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 29809080.

Dr David Lipman is an Australian trained Medical Doctor, Podiatrist and Exercise Physiologist. He has worked with athletes of varying levels in all 3 roles. He is an ultramarathon runner, avid physical activity advocate and is passionate about performance in all people.

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Chazz Evans, DPT

The Importance of Cognitive Recovery for Athletic Performance

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What’s the first thing that comes to mind when you think about cognitive recovery? Unfortunately, the problem is the majority of people don’t think of it at all. It’s already challenging for most athletes to take time from their training schedules to rest and recover physically. It’s even harder for some to be intentional about their cognitive recovery. Cognitive training and recovery are just as important, some may argue more, to an athlete’s performance as their physical training. If not addressed, it could potentially have a negative impact on your performance, whether you’re training for the Olympics or your next pick-up game at the gym. That’s why it’s so important for athletes to be aware of how their physical and cognitive training affects their performance and ways they can successfully address the holes in their training. Luckily, these areas of improvement can be addressed by systems like Rewire. This type of training can address mental fatigue, reaction time, perception of effort, self-talk, etc. 

The effects of mental fatigue have continued to show a negative correlation with physical performance. A systematic review, published in 2019, concluded that “cognitive exertion has a negative effect on subsequent physical performance” (D.M.Y. Brown et al., 2019). This continues to support the fact that performing at your highest level isn’t only about what you do physically but how you prepare and take care of yourself mentally. 

Not only does your mental fatigue play a role in how you perform, but the way you think and talk to yourself in those moments affects your performance as well. A study done by Blanchfield concluded that positive self-talk reduced the perception of effort during endurance performance. This study also showed that the subjects that used the self-talk intervention had increased time to exhaustion in comparison to their pre and post-tests (Blanchfield et al.,2014). Again, these types of studies point to the importance of implementing more than just physical training.  

Available research has already shown the benefits of cognitive recovery and training. There are enough interventions and protocols out there to start addressing aspects of it and getting positive results now. That is where programs like Rewire’s mindset recovery system come in. Rewire’s mindset recovery protocols offer guided breathing (including box breathing, pranayama, 4-7-8, and more), use of binaural beats, visualization, self-talk mantras, and subliminal priming. Each of these tools play a vital role in helping athletes, seasoned and novice, get the most out of their training sessions. 

One of Rewire’s guided breathing protocols focuses on box breathing which guides you into inhaling deeply, holding your breath for 4-seconds, then exhaling slowly for the same amount of time and holding again for 4-seconds. This is then repeated several times. This type of guided breathing has been shown to reduce stress and anxiety. It’s also a technique widely used by the Navy SEALs to stay calm and focussed in stressful situations. Another study showed that this type of diaphragmatic breathing helped to reduce anxiety, as well as reduce breathing rate in as little as eight weeks (Yu-Fen Chen et al., 2016). Implementing this into recovery will help to calm and relax the mind assisting with cognitive recovery. This can have a direct impact on performance by decreasing pre-competition or pre-performance anxiety and increasing performance confidence, thus having a better outcome in performance. A 2020 study that looked at collegiate track and field athletes concluded that when anxiety is decreased and self-confidence is increased, they are able to obtain their “best record” (Liang et al., 2020). This included the athletes hitting the same or better than their personal best in their perspective events. Examining newer studies like this helps to look to the use of relaxation techniques like box or other guided breathing in order to positively affect an athlete’s performance.  

Additionally, Rewire’s binaural beats protocol helps to relax the user and aid in recovery and performance. It works by having the athlete listen to audio sounds that are pre-set to a different frequency in each ear. The brain then interprets that sound in a way that has a favorable impact on the athlete’s mood and mindset. The protocol offers multiple wavelengths that address various areas of improvement for the user. These wavelengths are delta (2Hz for deep sleep, theta for meditation or sleep, alpha for relaxation or dreams and lastly beta for activity. A 1998 study showed that “beta-frequency beats were associated with a less negative mood” (Lane, J.D. et al., 1998). Not only does the use of binaural beats help improve mood, a 2020 study focused on the reducing effect it has on mental fatigue. This study resulted in the music (or binaural beats) group being the “least affected by mental fatigue” (Axelsen et al., 2020). These results were seen in just one day of testing, highlighting the on-the-spot effect of binaural beats. When mental fatigue is reduced, we see that attention can be kept for longer, as well as reaction times not being negatively affected. This results in better performances as mental sharpness improves, along with being able to detect and respond to different stimuli while performing.  

Rewire’s Mindset recovery protocols also incorporate visualization and self-talk mantras. Visualization techniques are used to prepare for readiness when it comes to training, competition or aiding in relaxation.  A review study completed in 2018 in the International Journal of Physiology, Nutrition and Physical Education looked at the effects of imagery on sports performance in over fifteen studies and concluded that imagery (or visualization) adds to physical practice but “can be used as a substitute for physical practice when athletes are not able to effectively practice physical skills such as when fatigued, over-trained, injured or when environmental conditions (e.g., poor weather) prevent physical practice” (Jose et al., 2018). This is a prime example of how you can still train to be your best even if you may not be physically training. 

Likewise, along with visualization, the use of self-talk mantras can assist in optimizing your training. Self-talk mantras consist of repeating affirming and motivational phrases or words in order to increase positive self-esteem or self-confidence. A 2009 study showed that self-talk can enhance self-confidence and reduce cognitive anxiety (Hatzigeorgiadis et al., 2009). These are imperative to performing at the highest level. It’s also important to note that self-talk also has an effect on how one perceives the level of effort they are giving in a certain task. A study by Blanchfield concluded that self-talk significantly reduced the rate of perceived exertion and therefore reduced the level of perceived effort (Blanchfield, 2014). According to this study, the perception of effort is the “ultimate determinant of endurance performance” as opposed to the actual physiological changes that occur in the body when one is fatigued. Understanding this, we can see that the use of self-talk to push the limits in training will carry over to performance as athletes are able to train longer and harder with this intervention. This further attributes to the benefits of positive self-talk. Rewire offers a variety of pre-loaded phrases to use, and the athlete is also able to add their own personal self-talk phrases as well.  

Lastly, to round out Rewire’s mindset recovery tools, it also offers subliminal priming. This is a technique in which an individual is exposed to stimuli below the threshold of perception (Elgendi et al., 2018). These stimuli can be either visual or audio. Rewire ‘s training focuses on the visual subliminal priming in order to impact the perception of effort, as well as motivation and mood. A study from 2014 looked at the effect of subliminal priming in each of these categories and concluded that the time to exhaustion was most impacted and actually improved with intervention (Blanchfield, 2014). There was a significant improvement in time to exhaustion in the group that used self-talk versus the control group, compared to their pre and post-tests. 

It’s clear that there are a variety of ways that cognitive recovery in athletes can be addressed. Acknowledging the need for it is the first step to performing at your absolute best. Rewire’s Mindset Recovery system helps to provide the action steps in order to reach your best.  

Are you already Rewire Member? If so, just tap the button below to use our Mindset Recovery system. If you’re not a Rewire member, join our community of like-minded individuals looking to Unlock their Ultimate Performance Today!

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Chazz Evans Doctor of Physical Therapy, former NCAA Division I Track and Field Champion, specializing in neuroplasticity. While partnering with Rewire Fitness on neuro performance, Chazz has contributed research on the importance of cognitive recovery. When she’s not working, she loves to eat, workout, and roller skate.

REFERENCES: 

Axelsen, J. L., Kirk, U., & Staiano, W. (2020). On-the-spot binaural beats and mindfulness reduces the effect of mental fatigue. Journal of Cognitive Enhancement, 4(1), 31-39. 

Blanchfield, A. W., Hardy, J., De Morree, H. M., Staiano, W., & Marcora, S. M. (2014). Talking yourself out of exhaustion: the effects of self-talk on endurance performance. Med Sci Sports Exerc, 46(5), 998-1007. 

Chen, Y. F., Huang, X. Y., Chien, C. H., & Cheng, J. F. (2017). The effectiveness of diaphragmatic breathing relaxation training for reducing anxiety. Perspectives in psychiatric care, 53(4), 329-336. 

Elgendi, Mohamed et al. “Subliminal Priming-State of the Art and Future Perspectives.” Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) vol. 8,6 54. 30 May. 2018, doi:10.3390/bs8060054 

Hatzigeorgiadis, A., Zourbanos, N., Mpoumpaki, S., & Theodorakis, Y. (2009). Mechanisms underlying the self-talk–performance relationship: The effects of motivational self-talk on self-confidence and anxiety. Psychology of Sport and exercise, 10(1), 186-192. 

Jose, J., & Joseph, M. M. (2018). Imagery: It’s effects and benefits on sports performance and psychological variables: A review study. International Journal of Physiology, Nutrition and Physical Education, 3(2), 190-193 

Lane, J. D., Kasian, S. J., Owens, J. E., & Marsh, G. R. (1998). Binaural auditory beats affect vigilance performance and mood. Physiology & behavior, 63(2), 249-252. 

Liang, D., Chen, S., Zhang, W., Xu, K., Li, Y., Li, D., … & Liu, C. (2020). Investigation of a Progressive Relaxation Training Intervention on Pre-Competitive Anxiety and Sports Performance among Collegiate Student Athletes. Frontiers in Psychology, 11, 4023.