The impact of mindset and lifestyle on metabolism and immunity for sports performance: a concise systematic review

Abstract

Introduction: In the scenario of athletes' mindset and performance, the athlete's lifestyle becomes an integral part of this development. It is necessary to focus on the athletes' mindset, exploring the perspective of elite athletes through a qualitative approach, to understand the lifestyle and other factors to which they attribute their success. It is also necessary to manage the training load with a mindset of performance and training progression. Objective: To present the main studies on the positive influence of mindset on athletes' performance, as well as the entire lifestyle scenario for this development. Methods: The present study was followed by a systematic literature review model, according to the PRISMA rules. The research was carried out from July 2021 to September 2021. The quality of the studies was based on the GRADE instrument. The risk of bias was analyzed according to the Cochrane instrument. Results and Conclusion: A total of 94 articles were found, 58 articles were evaluated and 37 were rejected for not meeting the GRADE classification, and only 21 articles were used in this study to compose the textual part. Studies have shown that certain mindsets, such as believing in yourself after failure (called the building mindset) are very beneficial to athletes' perseverance, motivation, and performance improvement. Studies also associate the positive influence of mindset on athletes' performance, showing that mental skills training can lead to better performance in competition. Thus, champion athletes attribute their good mindset (psychological) as the main predictor of competitive success. However, more education needs to be facilitated for coaches and support staff in the area of athletes' psychological skills.