Comments on: ‘Exercise’ is mindset as well as activity

By: Frits Bakker

Frits Bakker — Sun, 28 Nov 2010 20:38:54 +0000

The results don’t surprise me, I hope this is a explanation of positive psychotherapy outcome where every professional psychotherapist is wondering about what did the client helped to bring some changes into his life. As psychotherapy outcome research did show there is a substantial percentage of non-specific factors to be responsible for positive outcome. Perhaps this ‘mindset’ is a fruitfull way to explain it.

By: mrG

mrG — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 02:47:00 +0000

Did they control for extra-curriculars? We know from other mindset studies how expectations on a person will influence them to perform better or worse, so I do wonder if the expection of being fit (instead of 'exhausted') after a day of room-cleaning induced the participants to become more active in their off-hours; the sudden improvement may be due not to them doing the same work, but by the sudden increase in other activities deemed now doable because they believe they are, 'logically' more fit to do them. BTW, has psychology no professional sense of ethics in withholding or falsifying information given to its test subjects?

By: dlende

dlende — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 20:19:01 +0000

This research still blows my mind (though, unfortunately, it does nothing for my gut) after I read about it in that Times article. I still don’t quite know how to make sense of it. As you say, what’s the mechanism or process? Why the heck do they burn more calories simply by being aware that what they did qualified as “exercise”? Did they fold the sheets harder? Did their basal metabolic rate go up because suddenly they felt like they were doing exercise, and thus mentally, had to be prepared for that, which had a cascade-effect down on the body’s handling of energy? Or is it simply being “mindful”, which somehow burns more energy in itself, or perhaps reduces stress, thus lowering blood pressure but also taking cravings away, so snacks were avoided during breaks?