Interesting summary poster on the usefulness of motor activity in the treatment of depression by the British Journal of Medicine.
Archive for the 'Libri' Category
How much physical activity is needed for health?
Everyone can benefit from increasing physical activity and reducing sedentary behaviour, including older adults living with chronic conditions or disability. These recommendations are relevant to all, regardless of gender, race, ethnicity, income level, or functional ability.
Every move counts, as any amount of physical activity is better than none, and more is generally better. Benefits can be gained from even low levels of activity and everyone should be encouraged to start slowly and increase their regular physical activity.
All physical activity counts and can be undertaken in many different ways that contribute to the health benefits and across multiple settings. For example, walking and cycling, every-day household tasks, gardening, dancing, exercise, and sport all count as physical activity.
It’s never too late to start being active, and certain activities, such as multicomponent exercises done as part of weekly physical activity can help prevent falls among older adults.
Too much sedentary behaviour can be unhealthy and can increase the risk of obesity, poorer fitness and cardiometabolic health and behaviour, and affect sleep duration. Limiting and replacing sedentary time with physical activity of any intensity provides health benefits.
(Source: OMS 2023)
“Grit” is a relatively new concept used to describe a particular attitude or mindset that combines determination, perseverance, passion, and inner strength.
Here are some key elements associated with grit:
- Determination - Grit is often characterized by a strong commitment to pursuing a long-term goal, without being discouraged by difficulties. Those with grit are willing to work hard and overcome obstacles to achieve success.
- Passion - Grit often arises from a deep passion for what one is trying to achieve. When a person is passionate about what they do, they are more likely to make the necessary efforts to succeed.
- Resilience - Grit also involves the ability to withstand adversity and failures. Those with grit don’t easily give up when things go wrong but instead look for ways to overcome obstacles and continue to make progress.
- Focus - Grit often entails intense concentration on goals and the ability to remain focused despite distractions. Those with grit are determined to stay on the path to success.
- Intrinsic Motivation - Grit is often driven by intrinsic motivation, meaning an internal desire to achieve something meaningful for oneself through one’s efforts.
In summary, grit is an attitude characterized by determination, passion, and resilience in pursuing goals. It is a quality that can be extremely useful for overcoming challenges and achieving success in various areas of life, including work, sports, and personal growth.
More info:
Frontini, R., Sigmundsson, H., Antunes, R., Silva, A. F., Lima, R., and Clemente, F. M. (2021). Passion, grit, and mindset in undergraduate sport sciences students. New Ideas Psychol. 62, 100870
Lee J. The Role of Grit in Organizational Performance During a Pandemic. Front Psychol. 2022 Jul 7;13:929517.
L’ARTE DEL SALTO TRIPLO
Allenare la motivazione per vincere nello sport e nella vita
Giorgio Merola
Erickson, 2023, pp. 310
I risultati eccezionali e le imprese compiute dai grandi atleti derivano da un miglioramento graduale nel corso degli anni. Questa frase esprime solo apparentemente un concetto semplice, tessendo l’elogio della perseveranza e della continuità dell’impegno attraverso il tempo. In realtà, serve a orientare il lettore a conoscere quali siano le ragioni che spingono un giovane a impegnarsi con intensità per tutto l’arco della giovinezza e oggi spesso anche sino alle soglie dei 40 anni. Questo è il segreto dello sport, quello che nella psicologia del buon senso si traduce nella domanda che ogni atleta ha ricevuto: “Chi te lo fa fare di fare tutta questa fatica?”.
In questo libro Giorgio prova a fornire una risposta a questa curiosità, che permette di spiegare questa scelta quasi monacale che fanno gli atleti di livello assoluto, in un mondo che va invece nella direzione opposta, dove si vorrebbe avere tutto e possibilmente subito. Giorgio Merola è la persona adatta per scrivere questa storia, non solo come psicologo dello sport, ma anche perché 16 anni fa quando gli dissi che una scuola per atleti a Bolzano cercava uno psicologo a tempo pieno lui si buttò anima e corpo in questa esperienza, che continua tutt’oggi con soddisfazione professionale. L’atleta compie le stesse scelte, è disposto a cambiare se ritiene che quello che gli viene proposto potrebbe migliorarlo. L’obiettivo è la soddisfazione e migliorare le prestazioni sacrificando ciò che si è fatto sino a quel momento, per un modo di allenarsi diverso, per un allenatore con idee più nuove, per un club che gli fornisce opportunità migliori.
E’ l’approccio del miglioramento continuativo, difficile per un atleta che è già al top della sua carriera sportiva, Quindi la grinta, la resilienza, la percezione di autoefficacia o la mentalità orientata alla crescita temi di questo libro sono centrali non solo per l’adolescente che vuole emergere nel mondo sportivo ma anche per i campioni. Infatti, se come afferma Novak Djokovic lo stress è un privilegio, bisogna però saperlo vivere con questo significato esistenziale, non è qualcosa per cui nascondersi, bisogna accettarlo sapendo che le sconfitte sono all’ordine del giorno, che queste possono ridurre la motivazione e che i social sono un’arma contro gli atleti che si trovano in un momento di difficoltà.
Lo stesso concetto espresso da Djokovic è stato espresso da Albert Bandura quando ha detto che togliendo le sfide, vince la noia. Insegniamo, allora, agli atleti a comprendere in che mondo oggi vivono, perché non si sentano impreparati di fronte a queste nuove sfide. Insegniamogli a esser consapevoli che la dimensione tecnico-tattica e la forma fisica sono certamente aspetti decisivi del loro essere atleti, ma che la dimensione psicologica non può essere ignorata o solo capita, la si deve allenare come ogni altra abilità. Quanto scritto in questo libro sarà per loro assolutamente utile per migliorare come persone che ricercano la soddisfazione personale attraverso lo sport.
Sole che il vento accoglie
Romanzo di Massimo Oliveri
Edizioni Vallescrivia, p.109, giugno 2023
L’azione di correre contiene in se stessa gli elementi che costituiscono questa storia scritta da Massimo Oliveri. Il tempo è una dimensione chiave di questo romanzo che narra la storia di Pietro Bosa. E’ presente non solo nello scorrere delle singole giornate in cui è organizzato il libro ma ritorna anche negli episodi della sua vita. Correre si può fare da soli e per Pietro è una pratica epica ed eroica che gli permette di dimenticare per un po’ quello che non gli piace della sua vita. Correre è un modo per darsi il tempo di conoscersi, ma anche nella corsa come nella vita vive la contraddizione da una parte di volere accettare il proprio ritmo e dall’altra di non essere capace di concedersi questa opportunità. La corsa è, quindi, solitudine in cui come si dice Pietro ricordando le parole di Jesse Owens hai a disposizione “solo il coraggio dei tuoi polmoni”.
E’ una narrazione che si svolge con un passo veloce. I ricordi di Pietro si susseguono rapidamente come in un sogno, in cui gli episodi della sua vita lo incalzano senza tregua e con esiti in larga negativi. La fine del romanzo con la morte improvvisa di Pietro durante un allenamento è determinata da un malore fisico ma mette in evidenza ciò che Freud definiva come la caducità della vita. Infatti, a una persona apparentemente sana come un runner che si appresta a correre 21km, il destino ha deciso per quel giorno di venire a chiedere il conto di una vita insoddisfacente e alla ricerca costante di un luogo a cui appartenere senza averlo trovato se non per brevi momenti.
E’ una storia da leggere ed è di grande attualità in un periodo in cui i social ci spingono a vivere solo scampoli di presente della durata di un like. Questo romanzo ci ricorda, invece, come indipendentemente dal contesto e dai ruoli, che sia il rapporto con il padre e la madre, l’esperienza professionale con i giovani a scuola, l’amore o la corsa, il modo di vivere queste diverse situazioni evidenzia gli aspetti più profondi di una persona, rivelando una costanza del modo di presentarsi dell’essere umano quale che sia l’altro verso cui ci rivolgiamo. Ciò che mi resta dentro di questo romanzo è che non possiamo nasconderci a noi stessi e tantomeno continuare a sfidarci.
Human beings were born to run, running is a sport, all should be sport persons. This syllogism allows us to illustrate a discovery that has brought new light on the relevance of movement to human beings and their evolutionary development. It has already been 20 years since the results of research were published in 2004 in Nature, one of the most prestigious scientific journals, stating, on the basis of fossil findings dating back 2 million years, that endurance running played a significant function in the development of our species. No other primate has, in fact, developed this skill; one of the evidences lies in the long tendons connected to short muscle bands that are able to generate force economically, thus saving 50 percent of the metabolic cost of running.
The hypothesis is that Homo developed resistant running to hunt animals and to carry off prey carcasses quickly. Bramble and Liebermann, authors of this study, argue that resistant running made possible a diet rich in fat and protein responsible in Homo for the development of a large body, small gut, large brain and small teeth. Today we know that in our modern society endurance running is no longer necessary to secure daily food for ourselves and our clan, it has changed function: for many it is a ‘recreational and wellness-promoting activity, while for others it has turned into a competitive sporting event. We must not forget, however, that millions of years ago it was one of the sparks that formed the basis for the evolution of the human being we are now.
Movement and running have not only been the foundation of the development of the human species but play an equally important role in the development of each individual human throughout his or her life span. Observing children, one can easily see that they rarely walk and much more often run. Children are tireless athletes, from the time they crawl they are in constant motion, going in and out of rooms, getting on and off sofas and armchairs, they love to throw themselves on the floor and get back up, they like to go on swings because feeling the speed is exciting. From the time one is born until the first three years of life, one is faced with a continuous evolution toward physical and psychological autonomy, culminating in knowing how to run and move in environments where there are no adults. This conquest of the world happens only because of young children’s ability to be able to move more and more freely and in knowing that when they return to adults, they, are there and continue to love them even though they had moved away.
The adult’s task is, therefore, to foster this development by providing emotional support to the child but also by teaching the child how to learn and how not to get hurt. In these moments, the adult acts as a teacher who educates the child to take risks that he can control. He or she may, for example, teach a child to ride a bicycle on two wheels as early as age two; this activity involves the risk of falling, and the parent must minimize this eventuality. This mode can be applied to any other attempt at autonomy in movement; the adult who forbids and yells for fear that the child will hurt himself may, on the contrary, inhibit his motor development and help him develop a sense of fear attached to any autonomous action he takes. In addition, those children who are left alone to watch television for hours or who are still being carried in a stroller at age four are examples of how a sedentary lifestyle can develop. Moreover, it must be equally clear to the adult that any new learning requires, on both sides, time and dedication; one explanation or a few rehearsals is not enough; one must insist and stay with the child until he or she has learned.
The adult must, therefore, also be educated and not left alone, since he is often afraid that the child will fall and hurt himself and does not know that this attitude of his is contrary to the natural maturation of a function, such as walking. In fact, children learn through dozens and dozens of attempts, and it is enough to observe how much joy they express when they are able to stand on their own feet or take their first steps, to understand that they are composing the first simple sentences of what can be defined as motor literacy, of which sports champions represent the culmination and finest point of evolution that human beings can achieve.
Movement is, however, not only the basis of development in the early years of life but also enables the young person, child or adolescent, to manifest those specific skills that will accompany him or her throughout their entire existence and form the motivational basis for continuing to be a sportsperson in adulthood. The skills identified are the following: deriving pleasure from motor or sports action, moving with thought, knowing how to take calculated risks, and knowing how to live in a group.
Taking pleasure from movement or sports action is extremely important as it fulfills one of the crucial motivations, which is to learn to get excited and expend energy through movement. Developing a physically active lifestyle, on the other hand, is a primary component of human life that in recent decades, unfortunately, has been waning, pushing humans toward an increasingly sedentary lifestyle. Conversely, motor activity as well as sports make it possible to recover a physically active lifestyle, and for this to happen, it is necessary that the activity be carried out with respect for everyone’s motivation and skills and be included in the school curriculum.
Moving thinking, on the other hand, requires learning to serve one’s thoughts during the activity being performed. Teaching young people to be psychologically autonomous is the goal of every educator. This attitude must be built up from the time they are children by having them perform exercises in which they have to make decisions, reinforcing not only the correctness of their choices but especially the ability to make choices. Therefore, young people must not only be taught to act in accordance with the instruction they have received, but situations must also be created in which they are confronted with motor or sports problems that they will have to solve.
Moving with thought is well related to knowing how to take calculated risks. It means being confident in one’s motor skills and being convinced that one knows how to deal with a given motor situation because one has done it before or because it is similar to others already known. At the same time it implies being aware not to face situations that one considers too difficult or that may put one’s physical safety at risk. The young person through motor and sports experience, which should have been and is rich and differentiated, learns to decide quickly what/how to do but also to stop.
The last dimension to be developed concerns the ability to live in a group. Feeling part of a certain social context, the school group, the sports group or the group of friends is one of the primary needs of every young person, and sharing one’s motor experiences with other peers plays an important formative function. Only living in a group teaches one to respect its rules, to cooperate even in a competitive environment, to learn to put one’s personal goals before those of the team/group, and, in more global terms, teaches one to live in one’s social context by playing a positive role toward oneself and others.
In conclusion, underlying the establishment of Homo Sapiens was the ability to develop the ability to run and thus to hunt prey by chasing them for long periods and to move rapidly in arid and hostile environments. This allowed the spread and development of human beings as we know them today. Moreover, each individual repeats in part the history of humankind and through the process of motor literacy becomes autonomous and copes with the world around him. In this area adults, play an essential role, they either promote this process of motor and psychological independence or they can if not inhibit it at least impair it.
In summary, let us not forget that man was born to run even though unfortunately we live in the age of the stroller, play stations and social media.
Bramble, D., e Liebermann, (2004). Endurance running and the evolution of Homo. Nature, 432, 345-352.
Fame di storie
Gianni Minà
Minà nelle sue interviste non è mai stato un giudice o un pubblico ministero, perché glielo hanno insegnato i suoi maestri, Ghirelli e Barendson. Con il suo mestiere è stato solo il ponte tra una situazione, una personalità che può essere quella di un campione sportivo come può essere quella di un politico o di un altro artista e la gente e il mondo. “Il giornalismo”, ha sempre detto, “deve solo servire affinché che la gente capisca, conosca, abbia nozione, non sia narcotizzata dal solito tran tran che lo sport spettacolo e non propone per fare in modo che la gente non pensi”.
Yesterday I spoke about this topic has a Course for Psychologists who will work in tennis.
Cherr Offizehr, cominciò babuska con la sua inconfondibile pronuncia aspirata e in una lingua ibrida, ma convinta di parlare tedesco, signor ufficiale, sia così gentile, mi dica che cosa devo fare? Ho visto gli avvisi con le instruktzies per gli ebrei , ma fatico a camminare, non riesco a camminare così svelta. Le risposero con una rivoltellata: la noncuranza d’un atto di routine – senza interrompere la conversazione, senza voltarsi del tutto, così incidentalmente. Oppure non, no. Magari lei aveva chiesto: Sia gentile, Cherr Offizehr, potrebbe dirmi per cortesia come si arriva a Babij Jar? Una richiesta davvero seccante. Chi mai ha voglia di rispondere a domande così stupide?”.
(Source: MaybeEsther, by Katia Petrowskaja)
(I did not translate the text do not ruin it with my words)
A book for the day of the memory: La piuma del Ghetto by Antonello Capurso
The story of Leone Èfrati, Jew, boxing champion and partisan.
