Who has never felt tiredness overwhelm them at the mere thought of going to the gym? sport ? So that demotivation is no more than a distant memory, Swiss and German researchers may have found the solution: the placebo effect! They presented their research in the journal Plos One.
You just have to believe
To reach this conclusion, the authors recruited 78 volunteers between the ages of 18 and 32. They invited them to put on a t-shirt from a well-known sports brand, before asking them to judge their physical condition. The participants were then divided into four groups according to their level and short films were shown to them. The first two groups watched a sequence extolling the immediate positive effects of future physical activity, while the last two watched a video mitigating its benefits. These films also presented the first group with the t-shirt that had been provided to them as an accessory to amplify the effects of exercise on health, and the other groups as a garment simply to reduce sweating. The researchers then invited the participants to pedal a bicycle ergometer for 30 minutes.
Result: the volunteers who were told that this physical activity had immediate benefits went to the end of the session feeling less tired than the others. The t-shirt also had a positive impact on the less athletic participants in the first group, who were told that this item of clothing accentuated the effects of sport. The placebo effect would therefore have a real impact on performance! “This research shows that the right accessory can really make sports more enjoyable for those who don’t consider themselves great athletes – if only you believe in it”, concludes Hendrik Mothes, co-author of the study.
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