The old adage of ‘mind over matter’ may be truer than first thought, after scientists concluded that subliminal messages can have a significant impact on exercise endurance.

Researchers at Bangor University and the University of Kent have found that being shown positive or negative images subliminally, or so fleetingly participants weren’t aware they’d seen them, had an effect on when individuals reached their point of exhaustion while exercising.

In a small study of 13 physically active adults, the researchers instructed them to cycle for as long as possible. They found it took participants three minutes longer to reach exhaustion when subliminally shown happy faces, as opposed to sad faces. This finding was then replicated, but with words replacing the images. The participants again took longer to reach their point of exhaustion when subliminally shown action-related words such as “GO” compared to inactive words such as “STOP”.

“Our findings add to the emerging evidence regarding the mind’s influential role on endurance as well as the research investigating the role of non-conscious cues on behaviour,” said co-author of the study Dr Anthony Blanchfield.

“While these are initial findings, one particular implication might be that those who are struggling to stick to that New Year exercise plan may be wise to surround themselves with happy people and action orientated words in order to reap the health benefits of exercise.”

The research, recently published in Frontiers in Human Neuroscience comes at a time when unlocking the key to exercise motivation is a major topic for health club operators. Fitness First is currently in the middle of a £270m (US$408m, €346m) four-year transformation centred on the science of group motivation, while The Gym Group recently published research identifying five core personality types that reflect the motivation of gymgoers.

The scientists behind the subliminal message now aim to carry out further study to find out why subliminal messages affect our endurance.

“We want to determine whether the happy images and action words actually lead to an improvement or whether the sad images and inaction words were responsible for undermining performance,” added co-author James Hardy of Bangor University.

“At the moment, we only know that there’s a difference between these two primes and not which is “driving” the result; knowing this might allow us to intervene in a more targeted manner.”