Play Sports for a Quieter Brain: Evidence from Division I Collegiate Athletes

I train 20 hours a week for my sport, on top of full time study at University and running my own freelance business on the side.

While I advocate for sport, nothing beats meditation for increased focus!

I have tracked my stress levels over the last few years. During stretches of when I meditated, and did not.

I have absolutely noticed a difference in my internal thoughts and actions.

Before, my thoughts felt like I was in a forest surrounded by fog, visibility was impossible.

But now, I feel like the fog is slowly lifting, I am able to see the outline of the surroundings.

Give it a shot, It only takes a couple weeks of meditation to notice a difference :)

I used to run pretty competitively, however I'd always train with music / an ipod. In fact I still run with my iPod classic. Even with music I still daydream almost every run.

Concentration is a muscle that has to be trained like any other. There's probably a ton of selection bias in that individuals who can't focus don't go to D1 programs.

I trained pretty heavily for a couple different endurance sports through college. I definitely felt that I was overall much calmer and less anxious when I was training hard. I was just too tired to be stressed out about anything. I recently picked up boxing (mainly for the workout, not doing many fights) and felt the same effect.

I read this not as “playing sports gives you a quieter brain” but as “playing sports gives you a better ability to ‘turn down the noise’”.

As a former collegiate athlete I’d love to agree with this.

It’s probably a mental positive until you get hit hard in the head. Here in the US the association of football with universities is just so bizarre.