Energy
Energy, which can be defined as the strength and vitality required for sustained physical or mental activity, is an important commodity for performance success. If you feel mentally or physically tired, it is unlikely that you will be able to perform at your best.
Your perceptions matter
A study completed by Marcora, Staiano, and Manning (2009) showed that feeling mentally fatigued can influence your amount of physical output. I.e., you limit your physical exertion due to your perceptions of fatigue.
Participants completed a high intensity execise task where they had to cycle on an ergometer bike until exhaustion. They started with 50W load for 2 minutes, and an additional 50W was added every 2 minutes thereafter. When a participant fell below 60 RPM for more than 5 seconds, it was defined as their point of exhaustion.
The researchers tested the participants on two separate occasions (2 weeks apart so they had time to fully recover). For 90 minutes before each test, participants watched a TV programme (condition 1) or completed a cognitive task (condition 2). The cognitive task was designed to mentally fatigue, and follow up analysis did show it produced increased feelings of tiredness - but obviously neither task had any effect on their physical tiredness.
On the cycle task, when participants were mentally fatigued (after the cognition task) they reached their point of exhaustion quicker. They stopped due to their perception of fatigue, but their physical responses (e.g. VO2 and blood lactate concentration) did not represent fatigue at exhaustion. Therefore, the participants gave up before their body did.
Body language influences your perceptions
The above study illustrates how important your perceptions of energy can be in regards to your performance. The good news is that body language can influence those perceptions.
Peper and Lin (2012) conducted a study involving 110 participants. The participants were initially asked to rate their energy level from 1 (low) to 10 (high). They were then instructed to walk either in a slouched position or an opposite arm/leg skip (also known as cross crawl skipping), for around 2 to 3 minutes, and then asked to rate their energy level again. The condition was swapped. I.e., those that had walked in a slouched position, were then asked to skip (and vice-versa), and after a further 2 to 3 minutes their energy levels were rated again for the final time.
The results showed that ratings of perceived energy were lower after slouched walking (negative body language) compared to the initial energy rating. In contrast, the skipping condition (positive body language) produced higher ratings of energy compared to the initial rating.
The moral of the story
Appropriate nutrition, hydration, rest, and sleep are well known strategies adopted by athletes to help maintain their energy. Perhaps less well known is that body language can influence your perceived energy levels (and after a relatively short time period). Therefore, displaying the appropriate body language may produce the additional 1% of energy (perceived or otherwise) that you need to get across the line.
Learn more.....
PERSISTENCE IN THE FACE OF ADVERSITY
MODULE BODY LANGUAGE
The impact on performance
References
Marcora, S.M., Staiano, W., & Manning, V. (2009). Mental fatigue impairs physical performance in humans. Jounral of Applied Physiology, 106(3), 857-864.