This priming area has been the subject of a great deal of interest in terms of getting that pre-competition edge for your athletes. Have you integrated video into your warm-up 15 minutes prior to competition? If not, this may interest you.
Cook and Crewther (https://lnkd.in/g9D8Cas) explored the acute effects of 4 min video clips (sad, erotic, aggressive, training motivational, humorous or a neutral control clip) on salivary testosterone and cortisol concentrations and subsequent voluntary 3RM squat performance in 12 highly trained male athletes.
In sum, different video clips were associated with significant increases in testosterone (erotic, humorous, aggressive and training videos), cortisol (aggressive) and 3RM strength (erotic, aggressive and training clips), as shown in the figure.
It seems watching short video clips can acutely modify hormones and voluntary performance during a subsequent workout. However, note that there is large individual variability in these responses. Not one shoe fits all! Implications for competition? Do you find responders to visual stimuli?
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