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How Being in Love Can Help You to Be a Better Athlete

We all know the stereotypes of being in love, where everything feels like it's going right, you're seeing stars and you're just so darn happy. Turns out those feel-good emotions of love help on the athletic field, too. A new study presented at the American Psychological Association meeting found that being in a loving relationship helps boost athletic performance for both men and women in a variety of sports.

While being in love doesn't ensure a victory on the football field or basketball court, researchers say that being in a committed and loving relationship brings athletes increased energy and, because athletes have someone to share household duties with when in a relationship, it may also allow athletes to better focus on their sport (instead of doing dishes and tons of laundry by themselves).

Of the almost 400 athletes studied, 55 percent said that being in love boosted their athletic performance, and men were actually more likely than women to say that love helped their performance. Additionally, individual sport athletes (like boxing and snowboarding) ranked love as better enhancing their athletic performance than athletes who played team sports like basketball and hockey.

Pretty interesting stuff! Apparently love and sports is a winning combination.
