Good news for all football or rugby supporters: sitting passively in front of your television to follow a match turns out to be a sport… or almost!
A study by Professor Vaughan Macefield of the Sydney School of Medicine published in the trade journal “Frontiers in Autonomic Neuroscience reveals that” observing images of active athletes increases muscle activity, heart rate, breathing, blood circulation, central nervous system activity and even perspiration, physical parameters normally observed on people playing sports. “
To arrive at this conclusion, the scientists inserted in 9 volunteers seated comfortably in front of a television screen of the needles which recorded their nervous electrical signals. Meanwhile viewers watched footage of a still landscape and then a 22-minute video of a jogger. After analyzing the data, the researchers concluded that there was a change in the activity of the sympathetic nervous system depending on the type of images observed.
Increased activity of the sympathetic nervous system
“The changes recorded were small, but they were consistent with physiological responses to exercise,” said Rachael Brown, who conducted this study with Professor Macefield.
“We know that the sympathetic nervous system, responsible for the heart rate, salivary glands and blood vessels, increases its activity during physical activity. We have shown that its activity also increases when you watch a scene of physical activity, as if you are running yourself, ”concluded Professor Vaughan Macefield.
Watching others play sports could therefore be a strong stimulus to provoke physiological reactions but of purely psychogenic, and therefore mental, origin.
Unfortunately, the researchers say that watching others play sport has no effect on our abs and our buttocks! And yes, it will be necessary to lift our buttocks off the sofa and practice a sporting activity regularly to be in good health …
