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. 2019 Nov;24(13):1828-1838.
doi: 10.1177/1359105317705980. Epub 2017 May 3.

Physical recovery, mental detachment and sleep as predictors of injury and mental energy

Yannick A Balk  1 , Jan de Jonge  1   2 , Wido Gm Oerlemans  1 , Sabine Ae Geurts  3
Affiliations

Physical recovery, mental detachment and sleep as predictors of injury and mental energy

Yannick A Balk et al. J Health Psychol. 2019 Nov.

Abstract

Although sports activities are generally considered beneficial to people's health and well-being, they can cause injuries and increased fatigue. Guided by the Demand-Induced Strain Compensation Recovery Model, this study hypothesized that physical recovery and mental detachment from sport-related activities would prevent injury and enhance mental energy. A cross-sectional survey study was conducted among 161 recreational athletes. Structural equation modelling analyses showed that mental detachment was negatively associated with injury and positively associated with mental energy. Sleep deprivation partially mediated the relation between mental detachment and mental energy. These findings imply an important role for mental detachment in maintaining people's health and well-being.

Keywords: exercise; health; recovery; sleep; well-being.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of conflicting interests: The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Structural model of the relations between physical recovery, mental detachment, sleep, injury and mental energy. Coefficients represent standardized estimates. For reasons of parsimony control variables are not displayed, as they did not affect the pattern of significant findings. *p < .05; **p < .01; and ***p < .001.
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