Effects of Overt and Covert Motivational Self-talk on Performance and Perceived Exertion Rate of Wrestlers in Progressive Exhaustion Exercise

The aim of this study was to examine the effect of overt and covert motivational self-talk on perceived exertion and performance in a progressive exercise until exhaustion in wrestlers. The population consisted of wrestlers in Urmia and 15 volunteer subjects were selected. This study was performed in three sessions with a one-week interval. The first session was held without self–talk while the second and third sessions were held covertly and overtly respectively. Bruce aerobic exercise test was used in this study as well. The time to exhaustion was considered as performance. Burg scale was used every 3 minutes in order to measure subject's exhaustion. To analyze the data, ANOVA with repeated measures and TUKEY post hoc test was used. The results showed that only covert self-talk had a significant effect on subjects’ performance (P=0.002). Also, overt motivational self-talk (P=0.001) significantly decreased the subject's perceived exertion rather than covert self–talk. There was no significant difference between covert self-talk and without self–talk (P=0.121). In conclusion, overt motivational self-talk decreased the perceived exertion of the subjects in the progressive exercise until exhaustion while covert motivational self-talk improved subjects’ endurance.