Background: An increasing number of studies have examined the efficacy of meditation, showing performance enhancement in a variety of sports fields, but few attempts have been made to derive outcomes based on evidence from the preexisting groundwork. The present study empirically reviews reports on meditation in athletes to investigate (a) the efficacy of these interventions in augmenting athletic attainment, (b) the methodological quality of studies (risk of bias), and (c) a possible conceptual framework for how meditation affects athletes' performance.
Methods: A systematic search was conducted in Ovid MEDLINE (Ovid Medline(R) In-Process & Other Non-Indexed Citations and Ovid Medline(R)); EMBASE; EBSCO; CINAHL; SPORTDiscuss; and SCOPUS from June 16, 2019 to July 18, 2019. All studies published were screened and included if they met the eligibility criteria. Two independent reviewers assessed the risk of bias and extracted the data. The available evidence was summarized.
Results: Our initial search returned a total of 734 articles. After screening abstracts and full texts, 6 studies were included. Participants reported changes that might be considered positively in sports events after experiencing planned intervention. However, in the methodological quality assessment measured in seven domains of Cochrane criteria, the risk of bias of each study was generally high.
Discussion: From the results derived, the theoretical insights of imagery, relaxation and self-talk, which can catalyze the development of a new form of meditation program, were obtained. However, given methodological defects of RCTs, further precisely designed RCTs are needed.
Keywords: Complementary approaches; Meditation; Performance enhancement; Sport psychology; Systematic review.
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