A LOOK INTO THE MENTAL HEALTH BENEFITS OF GREEN EXERCISE IN RELATION TO EXTREME SPORTS

Direct excerpt from the conclusion of my own master’s thesis completed at Leeds Beckett University in Feb. 2020.

Extreme sports “are leisure activities where the most likely outcome of a mismanaged mistake or accident is death” (Brymer, 2009). They are typically represented and viewed as dangerous activities performed by reckless, fearless young men (Brymer, 2010; Creyer et al., 2003; Puchan, 2004) and most of the research is guided by negative narratives of danger, recklessness and risk. However, it is now known that more and more amount of people participate in these sports regardless of gender, ethnicity, education level, age, or financial status (Puchan, 2004), but because of the negative narratives and perceptions surrounding extreme sports, there is very little positive research looking at the benefits of extreme sports. Because of this, this study set out to find and analyze the positive mental and psychological well-being effects of extreme sports as found in qualitative studies of extreme sports. Mental health and psychological well-being were not the primary purpose of any of the studies reviewed as there are no studies looking at the mental health benefits of extreme sports. So we aimed at looking at the benefits that have been found beyond the primary purposes of the studies. Through this study we were able to find that extreme sport participation helps its athletes learn to manage and cope with stress, it offers an escape from daily life, it helps with mental clarity,  with feelings of peace, thrill and joy, it helps provide purpose, increases confidence, vitality, mental strength, and humility, athletes are more able to reflect and make changes, increases abilities of mindfulness and meditation, it facilitates courage and control, and decreases anxiety (Schultheis, 1996; Heller, 2014; Williams et al., 2001; Ewert et al., 2011; Brymer, 2012; Brymer, 2010; Brymer et al., 2009; Celsi, 1993; Kerr et al., 2014).

              For the purpose of this study, to simplify and organize the results, 4 different categories were created. The first dealt with challenging the common perceptions of extreme sports. As mentioned earlier, most of the research has focused on the negative constructs of extreme sports, relating to injury, risk, recklessness, and danger. Therefore this section explained that although the traditional extreme sport narrative is that of being overly extreme, risky, and dangerous and that participation is caused by a need to conquer fear and experience a rush, in reality, extreme sport athletes do everything in their power to make the sports safe and controlled. They train and prepare to mitigate risk and don’t participate if they feel they are off their game or if conditions aren’t right. Athletes actually participate long-term because of the ability to pursue goals, feel accomplished, gain control and gain self-confidence. The second category focused solely on the actual mental wellbeing benefits. It was found that athletes were able to use their sports as an escape from the real world which in turn allowed them to feel everything from peace, serenity, calmness, clarity, joy, and social support. These qualities allowed for a better mindset when dealing with outside difficulties. The third section talks about the qualities gained through extreme sports. The most important and influential qualities were that of humility, mental toughness and courage. These traits helped athletes have better coping strategies, more resilience, more hardiness, more patience, a more balanced sense of self, and the ability to self-reflect and make changes when needed. It was demonstrated that these athletes are better at handling stress than most people because of the pressures they face on a daily basis in their sport. The last section simply provided a simple explanation as to the actual motivations behind extreme sports. It was found that motivations are dynamic. They typically start as a search for adrenaline but quickly become all about achieving goals, achieving flow, being a part of a supportive community, escaping daily life, and to achieve peak experiences and personal development.  

              Not only did it improve the above-mentioned, but many of the athletes also said they felt completely transformed by their sport. This transformation included deep personal changes in how athletes viewed themselves and how they reacted to their environment both inside and outside of their sport. Most literature has found that stress has a ‘U’ shaped relationship with mental health and psychological outcomes (Hardy, 1996; Peifer et al., 2014); yet in extreme sports where high stress levels are very prominent, it did not show to have a negative effect on mental health—on the contrary, it increased mental toughness and resilience (Brymer et al., 2013; Monasterio et al., 2016). The only negative consequences aside from injury that seemed to have been found, particularly when relating to mental health were that of addiction and trauma. Many described their sport as addicting and that they have even become dependent of their activity (Willig, 2008). Others mental health was influenced negatively through the traumatic experiences of seeing friends die while partaking of their sport (Kerr, 2007). However, overall there was an overwhelming amount of evidence to support the general mental and psychological wellbeing improvements and benefits caused by extreme sports. Therefore the previous preconceptions were shown to not be a fully accurate representation of extreme sports.

              It is important to note that the athletes that participated in the semi-structured interviews, recounted stories not only of the actual extreme sport but their own personal lives in nature. For the waterfall kayakers, they had to train swimming in rivers and open water in order to prepare themselves for kayaking down waterfalls. The ski-flying athlete was raised close to the mountains so playing in the mountains and skiing was a part of his childhood. All of the athletes actually had deep experiences as children playing in nature and they all continue to live close to nature (Brymer, 2009). Because of their close relationship with nature, in the interviews, they would sometimes fail to differentiate the difference in feelings from nature itself and nature in relationship to the extreme sports. It is possible that the feelings are the same but it would require more research to accurately assess the feelings specific to the participation of the sport and the being a part of a natural environment. It was also found that many of the feelings and emotions felt in these sports were heightened by the ‘extremeness’ of it all. Because of this, the same emotions that we understand as joy and excitement were felt with more fervor than what we are traditionally used to. Because of this, for future research it would be recommended to analyze the perceptions of nature versus the perceptions of the extreme sport and then their relationship to one another.

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