Effect of Mindfulness Meditation on High-Performance Sports: A Scoping Review

To describe the practice of sports as merely a physical endeavor is an oversimplification. Numerous studies have increasingly illuminated the critical role of the mind in achieving optimal performance in competitions. The acquisition of psychological skills, akin to the mastery of technical and tactical abilities, necessitates regular practice and systematic refinement. This study aims to conduct a scoping review of the existing literature on the effects of mindfulness meditation on both the psychological and physiological responses of high-performance athletes of both genders. A comprehensive search was conducted in May 2024 across the Nursing and Allied Health (CINAHL), Cochrane Library, PubMed (R), (R) , and Scielo databases, yielding 32 articles that met the inclusion criteria and were subsequently analyzed. This review included athletes of both sexes who utilized mindfulness as their primary approach. The outcomes assessed encompassed physiological performance metrics (cortisol concentration, creatine kinase, lactate dehydrogenase, testosterone levels, immune response, heart rate variability, resting heart rate, and maximum oxygen uptake), psychological responses (levels of anxiety and depression), and muscle performance indices (number of maximum repetitions, total training volume, and load capacity during maximum repetition tests). Findings indicated that mindfulness meditation led to improved sleep quality, enhanced pain tolerance, reduced serum cortisol levels, increased confidence, and decreased stress and anxiety. While the literature is beginning to explore the relationship between meditation and physical-sport performance in greater depth, additional research is essential to provide a more robust scientific foundation that supports high performance sports effectively and safely. Based on the outcomes of this systematic review, mindfulness meditation emerges as a promising strategy for integration into the sports domain, particularly due to its positive impact on athletes' psychological capabilities.