Competitive athletes tap into extra energy reserves to win

AN ATHLETE’S ability to push themselves to the limit is created by the brain’s need to win, says a new scientific survey.

Dr Jo Corbett, senior lecturer in applied exercise physiology at the University of Portsmouth, has found that the brain of an exhausted athlete can tap into the body’s anaerobic energy sources to fuel that final push for victory.

In his study, published in the journal Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, sportsmen racing against someone else managed to find an extra burst of energy that increased their performance by 1.7 per cent.

In top-level sport this can be the difference between winning and being unplaced.

Dr Corbett said: “Most sportspeople know they perform harder and better when they are competing, but until now we didn’t know precisely why.

“Whenever you do exercise you’re likely to think ‘how much am I willing to hurt myself?’ and there’s usually a point which holds you back because you don’t want to do yourself irreparable damage.

“But when racing someone head-to-head, the athlete’s brain can manipulate this signal and keep on going.”

Participants were instructed to complete a 2,000 metre cycle in the quickest time possible, in front of a computer screen showing an avatar of themselves doing the ride on a virtual race-course. They had to repeat this exercise on five different occasions. On the final occasion, the cyclists were told to race against another individual whose avatar was also being projected onto the same virtual race course in front of them. .

Out of 14 cyclists participating, 12 were significantly faster in the final race, when they believed they were competing against an opponent.

Dr Corbett said: “In each race the participants cycled vigorously until they were completely exhausted but it was only in the last race, when they were unknowingly competing against themselves, they were able to race even harder.

“When an athlete finishes exercising they are almost always left with a physiological energy reserve but our results show that head-to-head competition provides the motivation to tell the brain to eat into a greater part of this reserve.”