Increasing Anaerobic Power in Cycling By Implementing Embodied Self-Talk

Abstract

The current study employed a within-participant design to analyze the effects of head movements in three conditions (i.e., head nodding, head shaking, and no head movements) during positive (motivational) self-talk among 22 male cyclists. After the self-talk and head-movements task, physical performance (i.e., anaerobic power) was assessed using a Wingate Test for each experimental condition. Each cyclist participated individually on three separate days, completing one of the three experimental conditions each day. We hypothesized and found that the head-nodding condition resulted in greater physical performance (i.e., mean and peak power) than the no-head-movements condition. This is the first time that head nodding has been shown to improve physical performance compared with no head movements during encouraging and self-assuring self-talk. Relevantly, these findings emphasize the importance of focusing on athletes’ nonverbal behavior (e.g., head movements) when engaging in positive (motivational) self-talk to perform better.