William P. Morgan

Psychological monitoring of overtraining and staleness.

It is widely agreed that overtraining should be employed in order to achieve peak performance but it is also recognised that overtraining can actually produce decrements in performance. The challenge appears to be one of monitoring stress indicators in the athlete in order to titrate the training stimulus and prevent the onset of staleness. The present paper summarises a ten-year research effort in which the mood states of competitive swimmers have been monitored at intervals ranging from 2-4 weeks during individual seasons for the period 1975-1986. The training cycle has always involved the indoor season which extends from September to March and the athletes who served as subjects were 200 female and 200 male competitive swimmers. The results indicate that mood state disturbances increased in a dose-response manner as the training stimulus increased and that these mood disturbances fell to baseline levels with reduction of the training load. Whilst these results have been obtained in a realistic setting devoid of experimental manipulation, it is apparent that monitoring of mood state provides a potential method of preventing staleness.

Affective beneficence of vigorous physical activity.

Vigorous exercise is associated with a sensation of well-being, and this subjective state has been objectively quantified with psychometric, cardiovascular, and neurophysiological data. Reductions in state anxiety have been demonstrated to follow acute physical activity, and this response persists for 2-5 h. Chronic physical activity has been associated with reductions in anxiety and depression, as well as increases in self-esteem. This research has been limited to designs of a correlational nature, and the issue of causality vs mere association has not been resolved or addressed. Three hypotheses based upon distraction, monoamine metabolism, and endorphin release are discussed in this paper. Investigators have traditionally attempted to illustrate the mechanism involved in improved mood following exercise by testing one of these or related hypotheses, but it is likely that advances will not be made in this area until these hypotheses are examined in a multiple or synergistic manner. It is concluded that each of the hypotheses reviewed remains tenable.

Anxiety reduction following exercise and meditation

The purpose of this investigation was to compare the influence of acute physical activity and meditation (“noncultic”)on state anxiety. Seventy-five adult male volunteers served as Ss with 25 Ss randomly assigned to either an exercise, meditation, or control group. Physical activity was performed at 70% of self-imposed maximal exercise heart rate for 20 minutes by Ss in the exercise group; Ss assigned to the meditation group practiced Bensons Relaxation Response for 20 minutes; and Ss in the control group simply rested quietly in a “Lazyboy” chair for 20 minutes. State anxiety was measured with the Spielberger Scale, and it was assessed (1)prior to, (2)immediately following, and (3)10 minutes following each treatment. Oxygen consumption, heart rate, skin temperature, and blood pressure were also measured as confirmatory variables under selected conditions. The data were analyzed by means of a two-way repeated measures ANOVA, and this analysis revealed that a significant reduction in anxiety occurred for each treatment. This held for both those Ss falling within the normal range for state anxiety and those Ss regarded as high-anxious. It was also noted that none of the physiological variables differed significantly following the control and meditation treatments. The present evidence suggests that acute physical activity, noncultic meditation, and a quiet rest session are equally effective in reducing state anxiety.

Exercise and self-esteem: rationale and model

Positive emotional and psychological benefits are commonly believed to result from chronic physical exercise. While reviews of research have failed to substantiate this general proposition, they have identified enhanced self-esteem as an empirically supported exercise outcome. Unfortunately, research in this area has tended to be simplistic in self-esteem theory and measurement and has remained incapable of addressing how or why change may occur. This paper summarizes pertinent self-esteem theory and presents an empirically based rationale for self-esteem enhancement through exercise participation. It constructs a model for examining exercise and self-esteem interactions in which components of self-structure are hierarchically organized on a basis of generality. The self-esteem model contains dimensions of competence and self-acceptance, and it is operationally defined.

PSYCHOLOGIC CHARACTERIZATION OF THE ELITE DISTANCE RUNNER

The stress imposed during marathon competition is arduous, to say the least, and marathoners have previously been observed to possess unique anatomical and physiological characteristics. The unique biological nature of the marathoner is further outlined throughout this present volume. However, it has been noted by Costill 1 that “. . . many athletes appear to meet the anatomical and physiological prerequisites for the marathon, while only a select group of men achieve success in this demanding sport.” A preliminary study of the personality characteristics of marathoners reported earlier by Morgan and Costill * suggested that athletes from this particular subgroup display unique psychological profiles. For example, these marathoners were characterized by introversion, stability, and low anxiety levels. However, none of these variables were found to correlate significantly with marathon performance, and this lack of statistical significance was undoubtedly due in part to the homogeneity of the sample (nine males). As a matter of fact, aerobic power was not found to be correlated with performance either, and this also was related to the “problem” of homogeneity, since Costill et al.3 subsequently demonstrated that aerobic power and endurance performance are significantly correlated in heterogeneous groups. The study by Morgan and Costill should be replicated for several reasons. First of all, while the marathoners reported on were introverted, as measured by the Eysenck Personality Inventory, one member of the group who had previously won the Boston Marathon, scored very high on the extroversion measure. His extroversion score, as well as his overall psychological profile, was more like that of the world class wrestlers previously described by M ~ r g a n . ~ In other words, it would seem imperative that additional data be generated prior to making an attempt at presenting a psychological stereotype intended to characterize marathoners. It should be noted, however, that an extensive body of literature exists in the field of sport psychology suggesting that individual sport athletes (e.g., runners) are more introverted than team sport athletes, and also, noncontact athletes (e.g., runners) have typically been observed to be more introverted than contact athletes.5 Hence, the earlier findings of Morgan and Costill do fit with theoretical expectations to a certain degree. A second reason why their earlier findings should be viewed with caution, however, is that personality structure in sport may well differ as a function of ability level. Indeed, the recent work of Johnson and Morgan 6 involving successful and unsuccessful college athletes tested during the first week of their college careers reveals that

Evaluation of the Ergogenic Properties of Ginseng

Ginseng has been used in the Orient for several thousand years as an ‘adaptogenic’ as well as a ‘restorative’ agent. It has been used to treat nervous disorders, anaemia, wakefulness, dyspnoea, forgetfulness and confusion, prolonged thirst, decreased libido, chronic fatigue, angina and nausea. Although the mechanisms underlying the alleged effects of ginseng remain to be elucidated, there is an extensive animal literature dealing with the effects of ginseng on the cardiovascular system, central nervous system, endocrine system, metabolism, and immune system. In our previous review dealing with the efficacy of ginseng, we concluded that while studies with animals show that ginseng, or its active components, may prolong survival to physical or chemical stress, there is generally a lack of controlled research demonstrating the ability of ginseng to improve or prolong performance in fatigued humans. In this review, we extend our earlier analysis on the potential efficacy of ginseng use in the enhancement of physical performance and modification of fatigue states. Our analysis reveals that published literature appearing since our earlier review has not resolved the equivocal nature of research evidence involving animals or humans. Also, the lack of unanimity in this research can be explained on the basis of various methodological problems such as inadequate sample size and lack of double-blind, control and placebo paradigms. In addition, the absence of acceptable approaches to the problem of ‘sourcing’, in concert with an absence of compliance data in human research, further complicates the interpretation of this research literature. Nevertheless, the use of ginseng continues to grow, and current sales are estimated to be over

Influence of exercise and quiet rest on state anxiety and blood pressure.

US300 million annually. There is clearly a need for systematic research dealing with the efficacy of ginseng, and this research needs to take into account basic, fundamental design considerations if there is to be any hope of establishing whether or not ginseng possesses efficacy.

Mood state and salivary cortisol levels following overtraining in female swimmers

A series of investigations was performed in which Ss rested quietly for 40-min and performed aerobic exercise on separate occasions. Blood pressure (BP) and state anxiety were assessed prior to and following the conditions. In the first experiment, 15 normotensive Ss were assessed during the 3-h following the treatments. The results revealed that state anxiety and BP were reduced following both conditions. The exercise-induced BP reductions remained significant for 2 to 3 h (P less than 0.05), whereas the BP reductions returned to baseline within 20-min following cessation of quiet rest. The second experiment involved an evaluation of the effects of exercise and quiet rest on 15 pharmacologically controlled hypertensive Ss. A significant reduction in systolic BP (P less than 0.05) was observed following exercise and quiet rest. State anxiety was reduced following quiet rest and exercise (P less than 0.05). It is concluded that exercise and quiet rest have similar effects on state anxiety, and both conditions are followed by a transitory reduction in blood pressure. These anti-anxiety effects, however, are sustained for a longer period following exercise.

Psychological components of effort sense

Mood, as measured by the Profile of Mood States questionnaire, and resting salivary cortisol levels were examined in 14 female college swimmers during progressive increases and decreases in training volume, and were compared to the same measures in eight active college women who served as controls. Training volume increased from 2,000 yards/day in September (baseline) to a peak of 12,000 yards/day in January (overtraining), followed by a reduction in training (taper) to 4,500 yards/day by February. The swimmers experienced significant (p less than 0.01) alterations in tension, depression, anger, vigor, fatigue and global mood across the training season compared to the controls. Salivary cortisol was significantly (p less than 0.01) greater in the swimmers compared to the controls during baseline and overtraining, but was not different between the groups following the taper. Salivary cortisol was significantly correlated with depressed mood during overtraining (r = .50; p less than 0.05) but not at baseline or taper. Global mood, depression, and salivary cortisol were significantly (p less than 0.05) higher during the overtraining phase in those swimmers classified as stale, compared to those swimmers who did not exhibit large performance decrements.

The effect of imagery perspectives on the psychophysiological responses to imagined exercise

The perception of effort is multidimensional and it is governed by many physiological, psychological, and experiential factors. This paper deals with a discussion of selected psychological states and traits that are known to be correlated with the expression of effort sense. It has been shown that anxiety, somatic perception, depression, and neuroticism are associated with perceived exertion. Extroversion has been found to be inversely correlated with perceived exertion, and positively correlated with preferred exercise intensity. These empirical findings are congruent with theoretical expectations in each case. It has also been found that perception of effort can be increased and decreased in a systematic manner with various psychological interventions such as hypnotic suggestion, dissociative cognitive strategies, and imagery. Changes in effort sense can also be systematically modified by titrating exercise volume (e.g., overtraining, tapering), and this exercise-induced alteration in perception covaries with affective changes. The research reviewed in this paper supports the conclusion that effort sense is best conceptualized as a complex psychobiological construct as originally proposed by Borg three decades ago.