The importance of exercising and staying active is hard to ignore. Doctors and experts are constantly expressing the importance of getting up off your couch and going outside. The benefits of exercising are rewarding, when you’re up and regularly moving about you already feel better. With the addition of fresh air and increased activity, you get a rush of blood, releasing endorphins which are chemicals that make us feel good. The majority of people enjoy a light exercise session such as going for a walk, swim or the odd exercise class, while others enjoy hitting their local gym every day. But, the training, hard work and dedication these people put in to become professional athletes is astonishing, their sport becomes their livelihood and in turn becomes their lifestyle.
The benefits of sports and activity on mental health is inarguable, through team sports you meet and converse with new people in addition to exercising and doing something you enjoy. However, when you decide to become a competitive athlete, it changes your outlook on the sport. For many, this decision to go professional comes at a young age with certain sports training their competitive athletes before their teenage years. Many of these professional/competitive athletes start their journey enjoying the sport recreationally before they realise that they are talented enough to consider going professional. Once an athlete decides to become involved competitively everything changes, firstly their training becomes more intense which leads to more hours spent developing and learning new skills. The average hopeful Olympic gymnast trains between 6-8 hours a day, leading to around 45-50 hours of training per week.
What implications do these intense training sessions and competitions have on the mental health and well-being of these athletes? Many athletes start training and competing at a young age especially in sports such as gymnastics and trampolining, with some athletes competing at the Olympic games as young as 16. If these athletes wish to compete at an international level, often this means having to forgo a normal childhood in exchange for the bright lights of the gymnastics training hall where they spend hours training with the possibility of unfortunate injuries. These athletes are often home schooled as it fits better around their training schedule, sometimes leading to a smaller social circle, along with this many athletes are on strict meals plans, these athletes give up a regular life, they miss out on coming of age moments, such as school dances, being part of school team and going to parities all in the hopes of being a competitive athlete. These athletes often push their bodies and their minds to the limits all for the sport they love.
With professional athletes whether they are Olympic hopefuls or play within leagues such as the NFL, the NBA or other sporting leagues often admit to that sport becoming their whole life. The sport they compete or play in is their identity, it often becomes their worth and they base themselves on how well they compete, on how many medals or trophies they won. The athletes if they failed would place pressure upon themselves to perform better and train harder. Olympic hopeful athletes often have to make a tough decision whether to accept sponsorship during their career, if they choose to accept these paid sponsorship in some sports it disqualifies them from accepting college scholarships or competing at a collegiate level.
Do these professional athletes suffer mentally from the pressures they face? The obvious answer would be yes. While keeping active is great for your body and your mental health do these athletes push it too far? Whether it’s the crazy training hours, strict diets, or lack of free time these athletes must follow these in order to make it to the top. Not only do these athletes face pressure to perform well in front of their coaches and in competitions, they’re constantly being spoke about specifically on their performance. Overall professional athletes face a lot of pressure to to achieve their goals and perform to the best of their ability. Ultimately, is it sustainable and is their mental health suffering as a result?
Beyond Sport 