Many individuals do not engage in sufficient physical activity due to low perceived benefits and high perceived barriers to exercise. Given the increasing incidence of obesity and obesity related health disorders, this topic requires further exploration. We used the Exercise Benefits/Barriers Scale to assess perceived benefit and barrier intensities to exercise in 200 non-exercising female university students (mean age 19.3 years, SD = 1.06) in the UK. Although our participants were selected because they self reported themselves to be non-exercising, however they reported significantly higher perceived benefits from exercise than perceived barriers to exercise [t(199) = 6.18, p < 0.001], and their perceived benefit/barrier ratio was 1.33. The greatest perceived benefit from exercise was physical performance followed by the benefits of psychological outlook, preventive health, life enhancement, and then social interaction. Physical performance was rated significantly higher than all other benefits. Psychological outlook and preventive health were not rated significantly different, although both were significantly higher than life enhancement and social interaction. Life enhancement was also rated significantly higher than social interaction. The greatest perceived barrier to exercise was physical exertion, which was rated significantly higher than time expenditure, exercise milieu, and family discouragement barriers. Implications from this investigation for the design of physical activity programmes include the importance, for females, of a perception of high benefit/barrier ratio that could be conducive to participation in exercise. Applied interventions need to assist female students to ‘disengage’ from or overcome any perceived ‘unpleasantness’ of physical exertion during physical activity (decrease their perceived barriers), and to further highlight the multiple health and other benefits of regular exercising (increase their perceived benefits).

This investigation examined precompetitive sleep behaviour of 103 athletes and how it relates to precompetitive mood and subsequent performance. Results revealed that on the night before competition athletes slept well under the recommended target of eight hours of sleep for healthy adults, with almost 70% of athletes experiencing poorer sleep than usual. It was found that anxiety, noise, the need to use the bathroom and early event times were amongst the most commonly reported causes of disrupted sleep in athletes on the night prior to competition. The negative moods of fatigue and tension were both significantly negatively correlated with precompetitive relative sleep quality (r = −0.28, P = 0.004, r = −0.21, P = 0.030, respectively) and total sleep time (r = −0.23, P = 0.023, r = −0.20, P = 0.044, respectively). Additionally, tension was positively correlated with number of awakenings (r = −0.20, P = 0.045). Vigour was seen to be significantly positively associated with relative sleep quality (r = 0.24, P=0.013). The relationships between relative sleep quality and fatigue, tension and vigour accounted for approximately 4 − 5% of the variance in mood scores. Disrupted sleep did not demonstrate any significant relationship with relative sporting performance. Conclusions from the present investigation are that athletes may be at particular risk of disrupted sleep on the night prior to competition, and this disruption can negatively relate to an athlete's precompetitive mood states.

Minimal research has examined psychological processes underpinning ultra-marathon runners’ performance. This study examined the relationships between mental toughness and self-efficacy with performance in an elite sample of ultra-marathon runners competing in the 2019 Hawaiian Ultra Running Team’s Trail 100-mile endurance run (HURT100). The Mental Toughness Questionnaire (SMTQ) and the Endurance Sport Self-Efficacy Scale (ESSES) were completed by 56 elite ultra-marathon runners in the HURT100 (38 males, 18 females; M_age = 38.86 years, SD_age = 9.23). Findings revealed mental toughness and self-efficacy are highly related constructs (r(54) = 0.72, p < 0.001). Mental toughness and self-efficacy did not significantly relate to ultra-marathon performance (mental toughness and self-efficacy with Ultra-Trail World Tour (UTWT) rank F(2, 53) = 0.738, p = 0.483; mental toughness and self-efficacy with likelihood would finish the HURT100 χ² = 0.56, p = 0.756; mental toughness and self-efficacy with HURT100 placing and time F(2, 53) = 1.738, p = 0.186 and F(2, 30) = 2.046, p = 0.147, respectively). However, participants had significantly and meaningfully higher mental toughness (M = 45.42, SD = 4.26, medium and large effect sizes) than athletes from other sports previously published. Our interpretation is that these results taken in conjunction, suggest a threshold of mental toughness that performers require to be of the standard needed to be able to prepare for and compete in elite ultra-marathon events such as the HURT100; once this mental toughness threshold is met, other factors are likely to be more influential in determining elite level ultra-marathon performance.