091 Mental Fatigue and Physical Performance

The Paul Weber Podcast

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Many studies have induced mental fatigue to see if it affects physical performance.
They have everybody perform the test under normal conditions.
Then they wait a couple days.
Then they take one group, and have them perform 30-60 minutes of mentally fatiguing tasks right before the retest.
The other group watches a documentary.
Here are the tests that mental fatigue is likely to make you worse at:

• Endurance (e.g. cycling at 80% intensity to exhaustion, 30 minute TT)
• Muscle Endurance (e.g. repeating 50% 1RM to failure)
• Strength-Endurance
• Battery (e.g. repeated near-maximal sprints or jumps)
• Skill (e.g. soccer, basketball, and table tennis)

Tests it is much less likely to affect:

• Anaerobic (30s all out, one time)
• Strength (maximal voluntary contraction)
• Power (sprinting, countermovement jump)

Resources:

Effects of Mental Fatigue on Strength Endurance: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36509089/
Mental Fatigue and Sport-Specific Psychomotor Performance: A Systematic Review
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33710524/
Effects of Prior Cognitive Exertion on Physical Performance: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31873926/
How to Tackle Mental Fatigue: A Systematic Review of Potential Countermeasures and Their Underlying Mechanisms
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35543922/
Mental fatigue impairs physical performance in humans
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19131473/
The Effects of Mental Fatigue on Physical Performance: A Systematic Review
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28044281/
Endurance exercise-induced and mental fatigue and the brain
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32176398/
Mental Fatigue Impairs Endurance Performance: A Physiological Explanation
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29923147/
Mental fatigue impairs physical performance but not the neural drive to the muscle: a preliminary analysis
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36988671/
Mental fatigue impairs time trial performance in sub-elite under 23 cyclists
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31206523/
Interindividual Variability in Mental Fatigue-Related Impairments in Endurance Performance: A Systematic Review and Multiple Meta-regression
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36808018/
The effects of mental fatigue on sport-related performance
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30390836/
Mental fatigue impairs repeated sprint and jump performance in team sport athletes
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37957039/
Perceived Exertion: Revisiting the History and Updating the Neurophysiology and the Practical Applications
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36361320/