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Mercyhurst University Athletics

Mercyhurst Student Athlete Health and Wellness
Student-athletes may face unique challenges and stressors that impact their academic and athletic success, as well as their overall well-being. Mercyhurst University is committed to helping student-athletes reach their highest potential on and off the field of competition by providing quality health and wellness services and resources. Below are resources to help you manage your stress and maintain your health and wellness.

Nutrition

Athletic performance and recovery for college athletes is enhanced by attention to nutrient intake. Developing an ideal nutrition plan for health and performance includes identifying the right quantity, quality and proper timing of food and fluids needed to support regular training and peak performance. As training demands shift during the year, student-athletes also need to adjust their intake and distribution of essential nutrients while maintaining a properly balanced diet that supports their academic, training and competition needs.

Heat and Hydration 

Adequate hydration before, during and after physical activity is critical to the safe and healthy participation of student-athletes in college sports. Intense exercise, hot and humid weather and dehydration can compromise an athlete’s performance and increase the risk of exertional heat injury. Located below are links to materials and resources for heat and hydration-related issues of college athletes. 

• Mercyhurst Dining Services: Parkhurst

• The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics (AND) www.eatright.org

  • General nutrition topics
  • Allergies and intolerances

• United States Department of Agriculture: MyPlate www.myplate.gov/

• USDA Nutrition.gov: Food allergies and intolerances

• National Eating Disorders Association: Eating disorders and disordered eating resources: helpline, screening tools, prevention

Sleep

NCAA Sport Science Institute

Sleep and Wellness for College Athletes Fact Sheet

Wake-Up Call for Collegiate Athlete Sleep (Narrative Review)

Negative Effects of Sleep Deficiency (3 or more nights with less than 6 hours)

  • Poor sleep is associated with delayed response time, fatigue and poor decision- making.
  • Athletes who are sleep deprived have an elevated risk of musculoskeletal injury and delayed recovery following injuries. 
  • Sleep deprivation impairs cognitive performance and is linked to lower GPA.
  • Inadequate sleep increases the risk for mental health symptoms and disorders, and mental health symptoms and disorders may reduce sleep quality and quantity.
  • You are three times more likely to suffer from lapses in attention
  • Sleep in humans serves the important function of maximizing rest, cell and tissue repair, and healing
  • Muscle growth: depends on the healing properties of sleep to take place, human growth hormone is highly dependent on deep sleep occurring.
  • Sleep loss impairs your ability to make creative thoughtful decisions. 

Sleep Hygiene Help

  1. Set a regular sleep wake cycle and be consistent throughout the week.
  2. Bright light in the morning and gradually decrease light exposure in the evening.  Limit blue light by using night mode on technology or blue light glasses.  
  3. Detox from technology an hour before you plan to be a sleep.
  4. Limit meals in the evening to nutrient dense choices, balanced carbohydrate and protein snacks, and stay away from high sugar content foods and caffeinated drinks at least 4 hours before bed time.
  5. Keep your room at a cool temperature of 60-67 degrees
  6. Avoid alcohol and nicotine 3-4 hours before bedtime.
  7. Move technology to the other side of the room, shut off notifications, have a book next to your bed, or a journal to jot down a bit of gratitude from the day and what you have planned for tomorrow. 
  8. Practice meditation or progressive relaxation techniques and use them at bed time to quiet your mind and relax your body. 
  9. If you can’t get to sleep the best advice is to get out of bed and do a small task or read a couple of pages in a book and then go back to your bed.
  10. Communicate with your roommate if there is a sleep disturbance issue you need to discuss with them.  If you aren’t sure of how to have the conversation, speak with an RA and they will walk you through how to have productive outcome.

Mental Health Student Athlete Resources

What is mental health?

Mental health includes our emotional, psychological, and social well-being. It affects how we think, feel, and act. It also helps determine how we handle stress, relate to others, and make healthy choices.1 Mental health is important at every stage of life, from childhood and adolescence through adulthood

Can your mental health change over time?

Yes, it’s important to remember that a person’s mental health can change over time, depending on many factors.  When the demands placed on a person exceed their resources and coping abilities, their mental health could be impacted. For example, if someone is working long hours, caring for a relative, or experiencing economic hardship, they may experience poor mental health.

NCAA Health, Safety, Performance

Athlete's For Hope

The Jed Foundation
 

Practice Stress Management Skills: What Can You Do? 

Don’t get caught up in the hustle and bustle of life: 

  • Connect with Others – Spend time with positive people who enhance your life. A strong support system will buffer you from the negative effects of stress. 

  • Do Something You Enjoy Every Day – Make time for leisure activities that bring you joy, whether it be stargazing, playing the piano, playing a video game, or singing. 

  • Keep Your Sense of Humor – This includes the ability to laugh at yourself. The act of laughing helps your body fight stress in a number of ways 

Start a stress journal: 

  • What caused your stress (make a guess if you are unsure) 

  • How you felt, both physically and emotionally 

  • How you acted in response 

  • What you did to make yourself feel better 

  • Look at how you currently cope with stress. Think about ways you currently manage stress in your life. Your stress journal can help you identify them. Are your coping strategies healthy or unhealthy, helpful or unproductive? 

Make healthy lifestyle choices: 

  • Give your body time to recover and don’t overtrain 

  • Eat a healthy balanced diet 

  • Reduce caffeine and sugar 

  • Avoid alcohol, cigarettes, and drug misuse 

  • Get enough sleep 

  • Maintain positive relationships 

  • Set boundaries 

  • Set time aside to have FUN and RELAX 

Other helpful tips for student athletes: 

  • Set Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, Time Bound Goals 

  • Avoid Procrastination 

  • Prioritize Your Time 

  • Schedule Time to Study 

  • Work Ahead 

  • Use Your Time when Traveling 

  • Use the Resources  

  • Practice Stress Management Skills: 

Grounding Skills: Be in tune with your senses 

The purpose of grounding techniques is to allow a person to step away from negative thoughts to help better manage their emotions. 

Sight: 

  • Visit a place that brings you peace and take in the sights around you 

  • Go for a walk and pay attention to the different colors that you see 

  • Draw or paint, 

  • Look at pictures of a peaceful scene. 

Smell: 

  • Visit a place where the scent is pleasing to you 

  •  Buy fresh cut flowers 

  • Bake your own food 

  • Diffuse essential oils. 

Taste: 

  • Mindfully eat your favorite meal taking breaks between bites to savor the flavor and textures 

  • Chew gum or eat sour candy 

Touch: 

  • Carry something soft, velvety or silky 

  • Take a hot or cold shower 

  • Get a massage 

  • Play with your pet or volunteer at an animal shelter. 

Hearing: 

  • Listen to music, podcasts or books on tape, 

  • Open your window and listen to the sounds you hear 

  • Listen to the sound of a water fountain, 

  • Play a guided meditation 

Abbreviated progressive muscle relaxation (APMR) 

  • Is designed to induce feelings of deep relaxation by systematically tensing and relaxing 16 muscle groups, focusing on and discriminating between the feelings of tension and relaxation.5  

  • A study on APMR among first-year university students found that APMR can significantly reduce cortisol secretion, which suggests that it can reduce the physiological response to stress.  

  • Cortisol is a primary stress hormone and is often used to measure stress levels.  

  • Researchers also found decreased reports of perceived stress among participants, with physiological changes maintained a week after the training.  

  • These researchers noted that university health services should consider making APMR types of interventions more available in order to help with student stress and help lower the incidence of stress-related mental health problems 

  • To follow a 12-minute Progressive Muscle Relaxation Exercise: YouTube Tutorial 

Basic Diaphragmatic Breathing (DBR) Exercise  

  • Breathing technique that moves air downward into the body by using the contraction of the diaphragm muscle. Commonly known as Belly Breathing. 

  • Researchers have found that DBR is one of the most useful techniques to achieve reductions in stress and anxiety perceptions and symptoms in addition to having a relaxing and stabilizing effect on the autonomic nervous system.  

  • It also aids in concentration, relaxation, raising body temperature, pain management, and stabilizing heart rate and blood pressure.  

  • As a relaxation technique, researchers have found a significant amount of evidence supporting the effectiveness of DBR, and no negative side effects. 

  • How to perform DBR: 

  • Lie down on your back or stand up in a comfortable position. 

  • Place one hand on your belly and one on your chest. 

  • Breathe in deeply through your nose, pushing your belly out (your hand should move out with your belly). Try to only move the hand on your belly, not the hand on your chest. 

  • Breathe out, as though you are blowing out a candle. 

  • Take 3 to 10 breaths – however many your body needs. 

  • Notice how your body and brain feel at the end of the exercise. 

4-7-8 Diaphragmatic Breathing Meditation 

  1. YouTube Tutorial 

  1. This exercise uses the same technique as the basic DBR exercise, but it is a bit more advanced with the addition of counting. Lay down on your back or stand up in a comfortable position.  Place one hand on your belly and one on your chest. 

  1. Breathe in deeply through your nose, pushing your belly out. Silently count to 4. 

  1. Hold your breath and count from 1 to 7. 

  1. Count from 1 to 8 as you breathe out through pursed lips, as though you are blowing out a candle. Try to get all of the air out of your lungs by the time you reach 8. 

  1. Do this for 3 to 7 breaths – however many your body needs. 

  1. Notice how your body and brain feel at the end of the exercise. 

Box Breathing 

Can be done on the bench, in the locker room, the bus, or on the playing field when time allows. 

Practice breathing in for 4 seconds, hold for 4 seconds, breath out for 4 seconds and continue. Pro Tip: Physically trace the box with your finger or draw a box on a piece of paper to get the added benefit of grounding yourself in the moment.  

picture of box breathing exercise

Meditation is a Mind Body Connection 

  • Used to increase physical relaxation and calmness, improve psychological balance, cope with illness, and enhance overall health and well-being.9 

  •  Mind and body practices, including meditation, focus on the interactions among the brain, mind, body, and behavior.  

  • Meditation can be helpful for managing stress in addition to a number of other health benefits.  

  • Managing stress can help an athlete to achieve an optimal state of functional arousal, enabling them to improve performance and engagement in academics and sport.  

4 Common Elements of Meditation: 

  • A quiet location with as few distractions as possible (bedroom, quiet space in the library, backyard, public land) 

  • A specific, comfortable posture (sitting, lying down, walking, relaxed jog, child's pose, or other) 

  • A focus of attention (a chosen word or set of words, an object, or the sensations of the breath) 

  • An open attitude (letting distractions come and go naturally without judging them).9 
    Meditation Resources:  

Mindfulness 

  • Mindfulness is the ability to be aware of moment-by-moment experiences (e.g., thoughts, smells, perceptions, moods, and physical sensations) in a nonjudgmental and nonreactive manner.15  

  • Much of an athlete's life is spent rushing around from one task to another. Mindfulness helps you tune into what you are sensing and experiencing in the present moment.  

  • When practicing mindfulness, you are paying careful attention to your thoughts, feelings, and bodily sensations, without judging them as good or bad.  

  • Research suggests that it can reduce stress and increase the experience of positive emotions. 

  • APPs and Resources: 

Positive Self Talk and Imagery 

  • Using positive self-talk and mental imagery helps athletes to stay confident in moments that are difficult. In using skills learned during maintaining a positive attitude you have learned to talk to yourself in a neutral or positive manner. When talking to yourself respond the way you would to your friend in a respectful, understanding, and natural manner.  

  • If you often struggle with negative thoughts or self-talk as most athletes do try rephrasing your thought. For example, if your negative thought is “I can’t do this” try rephrasing to “I can’t do this yet”. From there keep working on that thought, following the given example, take the thought “I can’t do this yet” to “I can practice”, eventually work towards taking the automatic thought from “I can practice” to “I can do this because…”  

  • When you are practicing or performing use positive mental images before, during, and after your workout that you associate with different attributes that you want to focus one. Images such as ones that create the feeling of speed, strength, or power. 

  • This short instructional video guides you in how to use self-talk. 

  • Being able to control your feelings, thoughts, and behaviors during practice and performance will allow you to keep focus on what you are doing in the moment rather than what has happened in the past or what could happen in the future.  

  • Practicing and using mental imagery such as picturing yourself performing well in different parts of a competition in a detailed way actually engages your muscle memory and allows your body to do what it knows and prevents from mind from getting in the way almost as a form of brain hacking. Beginners Guide to Mental Imagery 

Negative to Positive Self Talk 

Journaling and S.M.A.R.T. Goals 

  • Find a journal that you can write in, create a list composed of areas that you do well in as well as those you struggle with such as endurance, nutrition, strength, etc. Next to these attributes on a scale of 1-10 write the score you believe you have in that area now and what you what that score to be in the future. Next to your scores write down the actions you need to take in order to reach the score you want in that area. Track these numbers as frequently as you see fit (days, weeks, months, etc.)  

  • Using SMART goal setting as discussed previously allows for you as an athlete to visualize and fully understand the goal that you have, why you have it, and how to reach it. Use the printable template for setting SMART goals is available here or create your own in a journal or piece of paper. Create one or two goals that are long term, that will take a couple of months possibly to reach. Also write one or two goals that are short-term, that can be completed in a couple of weeks. You can make these goals build on one another or they can be separate.  

  • For example, a short-term goal could be to hit a max bench of 150 pounds which is only three pounds heavier than you current max. This short-term goal could build into a long-term goal of reaching a max bench of 160 pounds 

Other Resources: