What exactly is FLOW and what does it mean for mountain biking?
Short, concise and simple: what does neuroscience do?
Neuroscience essentially uses different methods to look at the brain to find out how it behaves and when.
Fun, Fear, Focus: What is the FLOW state?
The FLOW state is the brain's state of peak productivity. All top performers in fields such as high-performance sports, musicians, and artists learn how to get their brains into flow state. The beauty of it is that this state feels incredibly good and, incidentally, helps manage stress.
When you get into the flow, three neurotransmitters are released: Dopamine, noradrenaline and acetylcholine.
Dopamine aka joy (FUN):
Simply put, you can only reach the flow state if you're having fun and have a positive attitude toward what you're doing. And let's be honest: It just feels good to be out on a beautiful, flowing trail on your mountain bike.
Noradrenaline aka fear (FEAR):
Yes, that's necessary too. If you want to reach the flow state, you need a touch of overwhelm! Does the task seem just a little too difficult, or are you perhaps even a bit nervous or excited? That's exactly when we release noradrenaline. This energizes us! Flow is nothing more than a short-term state of stress. If I'm bored or the activity seems pointless, I'll never reach the flow level.
And here, too, we all know it: We're standing at the start of a new, unfamiliar trail. Or we know the trail and know there are two or three bosses or favorite sections. Perfect conditions for reaching the flow on two wheels in the next few minutes.
Acetylcholine aka. Focus (FOCUS):
Did you know that multitasking takes 50% longer and makes 50% more mistakes than when you focus on one thing? Even the smallest distractions prevent us from reaching flow state. Whether it's a ringing phone, thoughts about the shopping list, or a smudge of dirt on our goggles: These things literally bombard our brain and prevent us from reaching flow state. So, the goal is to switch off distracting thoughts and the phone: Then we release acetylcholine. We're awake, alert, highly focused, and our thoughts are razor-sharp on the trail. We can process visual information from our environment better, solve tasks faster, and that tricky section on the trail...just flows more smoothly. Sounds easy, right?
Eduardo from the Trail Crew Switzerland on the cover is probably experiencing one of those FLOW moments on the Modzon Trail in Moleson.
If you don’t know it (the trail) yet, you should definitely try it out, off to Western Switzerland!
…here the trail as a POV run with Chris from the Trail Crew in full length. Just watching it triggers many neurotransmitters.
