The exciting and growing field of brain supplements has a number of benefits from improving brain health,
to enhancing mental and athletic performance. Nootropics, or brain supplements
if you prefer, have been shown to enhance cognition by increasing one’s ability
to understand, and use knowledge, while stimulating creativity and producing
energy necessary for intense activities.
From a mental health point of view, studies have shown that brain supplements can aid in with mood while reducing anxiety, and stress levels. Athletes
have also seen improvements in focus, concentration, clarity, and reducing
fatigue. These brain supplements may be the key to unlocking human brain
potential.
Who Should Take Brain Supplements?
The simple answer to this is that everyone can benefit from brain supplements, in one way or
another.
Choline (a type of brain supplement)
is great for all athletes. Choline cannot only reduce fatigue levels and improve athletic
performance, but it can also help brain function (R).
Can brain supplements affect performance or increase the power of
the mind on a daily basis? The short answer to this is that any mental or
physical activity can only benefit from the consumption of brain supplements.
For example, if you are studying for an exam or want to better focus at work
without reducing the level of your performance, brain supplements can help you
remain “in the zone” for longer.
People call brain and focus supplements smart drugs and this promising field
can aid in improving your creative and cognitive abilities.
Athletes – Improving Brain and Physical Performance
Being around highly skilled professionals like doctors, music
artists, surgeons, or athletes, is that they are all incredibly physically
skilled. As you would expect, their skill sets differ depending on what they do
but their physical skills are always remarkable to watch.
This transition from a beginner to a novice, and ultimately to an
expert, has to do with repeating the technique until your mind and muscles have
embedded it. In essence, there is a neuromuscular connection that gets trained,
strengthened, and improved by practicing a task correctly and repeatedly.
Now, the only challenge here would be to effectively train that
skill and become an expert. Professionals believe there is a specific number of
reps necessary to become an expert in a particular skill or activity. As with
almost everything in life, it doesn’t happen overnight, and that number will
most likely take years to accomplish. The physical aspect of the training is
easy though. Everyone knows that. It’s the mental side of things that will make
or break someone. Can you remain focused on the task at hand whatever the
circumstances? Are you determined to do 5,000 or 10,000 reps to master the
skill? That is the crucial part.
Let’s say you have indeed done 10,000 repetitions which is quite
impressive! This however doesn’t mean that you become the world’s expert; there
is probably still a long way. Once you achieve a certain level of expertise in
the sport or activity of interest, performance is about 10% physical and 90%
mental. This means that at the expert level, the physical skills are a given.
You would also need to keep practicing it and improving it with solid mental
focus and resilience.
Being able to master or even regulate your mental state will
determine your success. And what do we mean by mental state? Mental state may
refer to attitude, concentration, recall, controlling nervousness or
performance anxiety, clarity, processing of tasks, anticipation and reaction
time. Every expert, athlete or not, has adopted a similar state. They have a
firm belief in themselves, confidence, motivation, memory and ability to see
the outcome ahead of time. They have a willingness to try, and if they fail, to
keep trying until they succeed. It is the power of our minds that sets us
apart.
The difference resides in the brain.
