Christopher Beedie

CHX Performance (London-England/Chamonix-France)

The ergogenic effects of caffeine on performance are well documented. These effects are more evident in endurance and short-duration, sustained-effort events than in interactive or stop-go sports. Experimentally-induced placebo effects of caffeine on sports performance have also been observed in a number of recent studies. In the present paper it i...

There is a direct relationship between chronically elevated cholesterol levels (dyslipidaemia) and coronary heart disease. A reduction in total cholesterol is considered the gold standard in preventative cardiovascular medicine. Exercise has been shown to have positive impacts on the pathogenesis, symptomatology and physical fitness of individuals...

The strength model suggests that self-control relies on a limited resource. One candidate for this resource is glucose. Counter to the proposals of the glucose hypothesis, this study argues that the resource issue is one of allocation, not of limited supply. It addresses the argument from three perspectives: the evolution of mental processes at the...

This book sheds light on the translation of current mechanistic research on placebo effects to develop comprehensive and adequate strategies for better symptom management and treatment. This book identifies three core aspects to bridge state-of-the-art concepts with day-to-day clinical practice. First, lessons from mechanistic placebo research indi...

Organisations are aware of the need to maintain the mental health of their employees. People’s capacity to recognise and manage their moods and emotions is critical to sustainable mental health, performance, and quality of life, while failure to do so can result in underperformance, disengagement, and in some cases, mental illness. Employees of org...

Background: A large-scale online study completed by this research team found that brief psychological interventions were associated with high-intensity pleasant emotions and predicted performance. The present study extends this work using data from participants (n = 3376) who completed all self-report data and engaged in a performance task but who...

Introduction: Clinical and laboratory studies demonstrate that placebo and nocebo effects influence various symptoms and conditions after the administration of both inert and active treatments. Objective: There is an increasing need for up-to-date recommendations on how to inform patients about placebo and nocebo effects in clinical practice and...

Research over the past 15 years on the placebo effect has substantiated its contribution to the efficacy of established treatments for a range of clinical conditions and identified its underlying mechanisms. There is also evidence that placebo effects contribute to the performance benefits of many ergogenic aids, and that performance can worsen whe...

Placebo and nocebo effects are a factor in sports performance. However, the majority of published studies in sport science are descriptive and speculative regarding mechanisms. It is therefore not unreasonable for the sceptic to argue that placebo and nocebo effects in sport are illusory, and might be better explained by variations in phenomena suc...

Objective: The understanding of placebo and nocebo effects in psychological responses to exercise is improved by measuring expectations. Despite availability of several validated expectancy measures, we argue for using scales that take both positive and negative expectations for exercise-induced changes into account. Design: Cross-sectional survey...

Purpose: To investigate the placebo effect of caffeine on pacing strategy and performance over 1000-m running time trials using a balanced placebo design. Methods: Eleven well-trained male middle-distance athletes performed seven 1000-m time trials (1 familiarization, 2 baseline, and 4 experimental). Experimental trials consisted of the administ...

See description here: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6577953929777164288/ Superb visual abstract created by Adam Virgile

The aim of this review was to determine the magnitude of the placebo and nocebo effect on sport performance. Articles published before March 2019 were located using Medline, Web of Science, PubMed, EBSCO, Science Direct, and Scopus. Studies that examined placebo and nocebo effects of an objective dependent variable on sports performance, which incl...

The placebo effect is traditionally viewed as a positive outcome resulting from a person’s belief that an inert substance is in fact an active drug. In this context, it is often viewed as an intrapsychic phenomenon. However, most placebo effects reported in scientific research result from social interactions. These might be explicit, such as the de...

Despite the apparent strength of scientific evidence suggesting that psychological benefits result from both acute and chronic exercise, concerns remain regarding the extent to which these benefits are explained by placebo effects. Addressing these concerns is methodologically and at times conceptually challenging. However, developments in the conc...

Objectives Cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) is independently associated with health and academic attainment in childhood and adolescence. Yet overweight/obesity remains the focus in public health policy. Surveillance of body mass index (BMI) and CRF considering school deprivation levels is limited. Therefore, we examined this in English primary scho...

Objectives: Cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) is independently associated with health and academic attainment in childhood and adolescence. Yet overweight/obesity remain the focus in public health policy. Surveillance of BMI and CRF considering school deprivation levels is limited. Therefore, we examined this in English Primary Schools. Methods: Part...

In June 2017 a group of experts in anthropology, biology, kinesiology, neuroscience, physiology, and psychology convened in Canterbury, UK, to address questions relating to the placebo effect in sport and exercise. The event was supported exclusively by Quality Related (QR) funding from the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE). The...

Background: Many sedentary adults have high body fat along with low fitness, strength, and lean body mass (LBM) which are associated with poor health independently of body mass. Physical activity can aid in prevention, management, and treatment of numerous chronic conditions. The potential efficacy of resistance training (RT) in modifying risk fac...

The aim of the study was to determine whether estimates of the speed–duration relationship are affected using different time-trial (TT) field-based testing protocols, where exhaustive times were located within the generally recommended durations of 2–15 min. Ten triathletes (mean ± SD age: 31.0 ± 5.7 years; height: 1.81 ± 0.05 m; body mass: 76.5 ±...

The placebo effect is widely recognized but important questions remain, for example whether the capacity to respond to a placebo is an evolved, and potentially ubiquitous trait, or an unpredictable side effect of another evolved process. Understanding this will determine the degree to which the physiology underlying placebo effects might be manipul...

Purpose: We investigated associations between athletes' use of sport supplements and their responsiveness to placebo and nocebo interventions. Methods: Participants (n=627) reported their intention to use, and actual use of, sport supplements. They then completed a 5x20m repeat sprint protocol in the baseline condition, prior to being randomized...

It is well known that physical activity and exercise is associated with a lower risk of a range of morbidities and all-cause mortality. Further, it appears that risk reductions are greater when physical activity and/or exercise is performed at a higher intensity of effort. Why this may be the case is perhaps explained by the accumulating evidence l...

Over the past several years, both coaches and athletes have started to realize that strength, speed, and other athletic skills are not sufficient for the production of championship athletes. Athletic performance has three parts: physical preparation, technical skill, and psychological readiness. This model suggests that if any of the above areas ar...

Previous research has reported the validity and reliability of a range of field-based tests of children's cardiorespiratory fitness. These two criteria are critical in ensuring the integrity and credibility of data derived through such tests. However, the criterion of scalability has received little attention. Scalability determines the degree to w...

The present study investigated the effects of online self-help interventions on emotions and satisfaction with performance in a sample of runners ( N = 147). Participants set themselves a running time goal they wished to achieve, and made goal attempts pre and post-intervention. After the first goal attempt, participants were randomly assigned to 1...

Objectives To compare cardiovascular fitness and physical activity of schoolchildren 18 months after London 2012 according to Olympic ‘inspiration’. Design A cross-sectional comparison between groups of schoolchildren categorised according to self-reported Olympic inspiration and a repeated cross-sectional comparison using data collected pre-2012....

It has been proposed that the use of sports supplements by athletes might lead to the use of banned substances. This has been termed the gateway hypothesis. Given this hypothesis, if we accept that athletes use non-banned sports supplements because they believe that they will be effective, a measure of athletes’ beliefs about supplements might allo...

Methods: 9 moderately trained cyclists performed an incremental test to exhaustion to establish the power output associated with the maximum oxygen uptake (p[Formula: see text]max), and 3 protocols requiring time-to-exhaustion trials at a constant work-rate performed at 80%, 100% and 105% of p[Formula: see text]max. Design: Protocol A utilised 24-...

Background: Previous reviews have investigated the effectiveness of telemedicine in the treatment of heart failure (HF). Dependent variables have included hospitalizations, mortality rates, disease knowledge and health costs. Few reviews, however, have examined the variable of health-related quality of life (QoL). Methods: Randomized controlled tr...

The gateway hypothesis posits that athletes who use legal sports supplements may be at risk of transitioning to doping (Backhouse et al., 2013). Anti-doping interventions focused on reducing legal substance use could therefore be effective. Several authors have argued that if athletes were made aware through either direct experience or indirect edu...

In conjunction with BBC Lab UK, the present study developed 12 brief psychological skill interventions for online delivery. A protocol was designed that captured data via self-report measures, used video recordings to deliver interventions, involved a competitive concentration task against an individually matched computer opponent, and provided fee...

Aim Insufficient research examines the treatment effectiveness of real-world physical activity (PA) interventions. Purpose We investigated the effects of 3 interventions on directly measured cardiovascular variables. All treatments and measures were administered in community settings by fitness centre staff. Methods Participants were sedentary indi...

The present study investigated the effects of emotion regulation strategies on self-reported emotions and 1600 m track running performance. In stage 1 of a three-stage study, participants (N = 15) reported emotional states associated with best, worst and ideal performance. Results indicated that a best and ideal emotional state for performance comp...

A placebo treatment is traditionally administered in a double-blind randomized controlled trial to control for the "real" effects of the treatment under investigation. In the present article, a broader view of the placebo is proposed, one in which the idea of a potentially "useable" placebo component of a sports or exercise medicine treatment is pr...

that many studies examining the treatment effectiveness of exercise in the real world adopt laboratory style methods and controls that would be impractical and uneconomic in real-world interventions. Data resulting from such studies merely add to the efficacy data set. We argue that despite metaphorically drowning in evidence of efficacy and implem...

The case for getting everybody active every day could not be clearer. Inactivity is responsible for 1 in 6 deaths and wider health, social and economic costs for individuals, families and communities in England. However, it is less clear ?what works? to tackle inactivity, especially interventions that can be implemented with pace and scale. A colla...

Purpose: To test the validity and reliability of field critical power (CP). Method: Laboratory CP tests comprised three exhaustive trials at intensities of 80, 100 and 105 % maximal aerobic power and CP results were compared with those determined from the field. Experiment 1: cyclists performed three CP field tests which comprised maximal effort...

Sedentary lifestyle is associated with cardiovascular and metabolic diseases. A compelling body of evidence demonstrates the amelioration and prevention of such conditions with increased levels of physical activity (PA). Despite this evidence, many public health initiatives aimed at increasing PA have failed to demonstrate clinically relevant effec...

Type 2 Diabetes is an increasingly prevalent condition with complications including blindness and kidney failure. Evidence suggests that Type 2 Diabetes is associated with a sedentary lifestyle, with physical activity demonstrated to increase glucose uptake and improve glycemic control. Proposed mechanisms for these effects include the maintenance...

The purpose of this study was to investigate the level of agreement between field-based and laboratory-based estimates of critical power (CP) in cycling. Subjects were fourteen trained cyclists (age 40 ± 7 yrs; body mass 70.2 ± 6.5 kg; max 3.8 ± 0.48 L·min-1). Laboratory-based CP was estimated from three constant work-rate tests performed on a cycl...

Recent data suggest that the final average 30 seconds power of a 3-min all-out test is equivalent to Critical Power (CP) using the linear ergometer mode. The purpose this study was to identify whether estimation of CP from a 3-min all-out test is also possible using the SRM ergometer in ‘isokinetic mode’. Thirteen cyclists performed: 1) a ramp test...

The purpose of this study was to investigate the level of agreement between laboratory-based estimates of critical power (CP) and results taken from a novel field test. Subjects were fourteen trained cyclists (age 40±7 yrs; body mass 70.2±6.5 kg; V̇O2max 3.8±0.5 L · min-1). Laboratory-based CP was estimated from 3 constant work-rate tests at 80%, 1...

Recent datas suggest that the mean power over the final 30 s of a 3-min all-out test is equivalent to Critical Power (CP) using the linear ergometer mode. The purpose of the present study was to identify whether this is also true using an "isokinetic mode". 13 cyclists performed: 1) a ramp test; 2) three 3-min all-out trials to establish End Power...

Research into emotion regulation in sport has predominantly focused on intrapersonal regulation of emotion response systems (i.e. subjective experience, cognitions, behaviours or physiological responses). However, researchers in social psychology have suggested that the emotion regulation process is inherently social and interpersonal. This shift r...

The effects of a 4-week lower body injury prevention program on knee muscle torque-angle relationship were examined in soccer players. Twenty men were randomly allocated to either a control (n = 10) or training group (n = 10). The training group underwent three training sessions per week, comprising 3 sets of 8 repetitions of one open-chain exercis...

Introduction Measurements of Critical Power (CP) and W’, total work that can be performed above CP, requires a set number of time-to-exhaustion (TTE) trials. Recovery periods of 24h between trials are common, making this protocol impractical. The aim of this study was to compare estimates of CP and W’ derived from protocols using 24h, 3h and 30min...

Beedie, C. (2012). Should I tackle my emotions or let them pass?. In P. A. Totterdell, & K. Niven (Eds.), Should I Strap A Battery To My Head?: and Other Questions About Emotion. (pp. 173-182). CreateSpace.com.

The study investigated responses to false feedback in laboratory cycling. Seven male competitive cyclists (age; M = 34.14 years, SD = 7.40) completed two ergometer time-trials, one each with false negative and false positive feedback (time ± 5 %). MANOVA indicated main effects for condition [F(17, 104) = 9.42, p < 0.001], and mile [F(153, 849) = 1....

Emotions experienced before and during sports competition have been found to influence sports performance. Emotion regulation is defined as the automatic or deliberate use of strategies to initiate, maintain, modify or display emotions (Gross & Thompson, 2007) and is proposed to occur when a discrepancy exists between current and desired emotions....

The present study investigated relationships between emotions and emotion regulation strategies employed by runners. Given that athletes and exercisers strive toward personally meaningful goals, sport and exercise settings represent a potentially fruitful context in which emotion regulation could be studied. Volunteer runners (N = 1025) reported re...

Objectives: Stemming from a broader study on interpersonal emotion regulation in sport, this presentation addressed the following research questions: a) how is fighting used as an interpersonal emotion regulation strategy in ice hockey? b) What are the factors that moderate this process? Design: Embedded within an action research project, partici...

Novice soldiers (N = 95) reported their emotions and their use of emotion regulation strategies across a range of domains. Results indicate significant differences between emotions and emotion regulation strategies across situations. Prior to parachuting, participants reported feeling intense anxiety and happiness whilst also feeling energetic, a p...

An online survey was used to explore emotion regulation strategies used by runners (N = 506, mean age = 37.69 years, SD = 8.84 years) in the hour prior to training or competition. Content analysis of responses identified 28 categories of emotion regulation strategy, with the most popular being goal setting (23%), distraction (12%), recall of past p...

Beedie, C. (2012). The Psychology of Cycle Training and Competition: A Brief Introduction. In J. Hopker, & S. Jobson (Eds.), Performance Cycling: The Science of Success. (pp. 147-165). Bloomsbury Publishing.

Soldiers (N = 95) reported emotions and emotion regulation strategies experienced in their first parachute jump and other challenging situations. Results indicated an emotional profile characterized by feeling anxious, energetic, and happy before parachuting and playing sport. However, this pattern was not similar to the emotional responses experie...

Evidence suggests athletes will try to regulate pre-competition emotions to a state that helps goal pursuit (Hanin, 2003) and supposedly unpleasant emotions such as anger and tension have been found to associate with successful performance. The present study focused on emotional states associated with optimal performance. Male athletes (N = 222) we...

The Emotion Regulation of Other and Self scale (EROS: Niven, Totterdell, Stride, & Holman, 2011) was origi-nally designed to assess strategies used to increase both pleasant and unpleasant emotions in a range of situations and over a 4 week period. The aim of the present study was to cross-validate the scale in a specific situation and over a short...

Lane, A. M., Beedie, C., Devonport, T. J. (2011). Measurement issues in emotion and emotion regulation. In J. Thatcher, M. Jones, & D. Lavallee (Eds.), Coping and Emotion in Sport. (2nd ed., pp. 79-101). London: Taylor & Francis.

This study examined relationships between beliefs about emotions (meta-emotion beliefs), emotion regulation strategies, and pre-competition emotional states using an instrumental model of emotion regulation. Three hundred and sixty runners reported meta-beliefs about the influence of anxiety and/or anger on performance, completed a short emotion sc...

The objective of the study is to examine the impact of accurate and inaccurate 'split-time' feedback upon a 10-mile time trial (TT) performance and to quantify power output into a practically meaningful unit of variation. Seven well-trained cyclists completed four randomised bouts of a 10-mile TT on a SRM™ cycle ergometer. TTs were performed with (...

Metadata only The current study tested Lane and Terry’s (2000) proposal that depressed mood moderates anger-performance and tension-performance relationships. One hundred and thirty-six male sport students completed the 24-item Brunel Mood Scale followed by a concentration grid test. Participants were dichotomized into depressed mood (n = 59) and n...

This study examined the therapeutic effects of an inert placebo gel on experimentally induced muscle pain in a sports therapy setting. It aimed to investigate the degree to which conditioned analgesia, coupled with an expectation of intervention, was a factor in subsequent analgesia. Participants were sixteen male and eight female sports therapy st...

Our research assessed whether mood and emotion can be measured as distinct constructs. Development and validation of the Emotion and Mood Components of Anxiety Questionnaire (EMCA-Q) is reported. We based the questionnaire on a subjective-contextual model of emotion-mood distinctions, which specifies that differentiation of the emotion of anxiety f...