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In their new paper, Julia Schüler, Johanna Stähler, & Wanja Wolff (all from the Chair of Sport Psycholgy) developed and validated a new scale to measure "Mind over Body Beliefs". They show that holding such beliefs (example item: "no pain, no gain") is linked with higher athletic level, but also with exercise addiction. The paper has been accepted for publication in Psychology of Sport and Exercise.

The abstract of the paper: “We assume that athletic success is associated with certain beliefs that on the one hand promote performance-enhancing behavior (training volume), but on the other hand can also be detrimental to health (sports addiction). These beliefs are succinctly characterized by the title of the 9-item “Mind-over-Body” scale presented here. They are the three beliefs that 1) athletic performance requires a high level of effort, 2) that willpower plays an important role in athletic success, and 3) that athletic success requires pain tolerance. A total of six web-survey-based studies with a total of 1121 participants (approximately gender parity), including individuals with different levels of athletic performance (no competition; amateur sport; regional, national, or international competition), examined the psychometric network and construct and criterion validity of the MoB scale. Exploratory graph analyses, which included the studies with the largest sample sizes, showed that the three belief components (effort, willpower, pain) form separable communities within the MoB network and that the MoB items form communities distinct from self-control and self-efficacy. Meta-analyzed correlations across all six studies showed low positive correlations with self-control and self-efficacy. In terms of criterion validity, MoB beliefs were positively correlated with training volume and exercise addiction. We discuss MoBs as “on the edge of unhealthy” and place MOBs within a framework of related but distinct concepts.”

The full paper can be accessed at: Mind-over-body beliefs in sport and exercise: A driving force for training volume and performance, but with risks for exercise addiction - ScienceDirect