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PROVO -- According to BYU head coach Bronco Mendenhall, one question he is continually asked is, "What are you reading right now?"
Whether it's for inspiration, motivation, education or just to unwind, the coach spends time, believe it or not, with books other than the playbook. Let's take our first look inside Bronco's Bookshelf.
Reading is one of Coach Mendenhall's passions and he says that as the head coach, there are a lot of circumstances he is faced with that he's not prepared to handle. As a result, he says he has to "read a lot" to learn how to keep up with those situations.
"The first selection I've got today is a book I just finished." says Mendenhall. "The name of the book is ‘Spark.'"
The volume, according to Mendenhall, is a great resource in identifying the very real and positive effects that regular exercise has on chronic stress. He went on to cite an example in the book where kids in remedial schools, who exercised diligently prior to doing their classwork, actually altered the neural pathways in their brains, allowing them to graduate out of remedial school work. And according to "Spark," exercise "not only wards off the ill effects of chronic stress, it can also reverse them."
As someone familiar with being in stressful situations, Coach Mendenhall states, "It's amazing simply what getting off the couch and building a regime of physical exercise and moving your body does, not only for your physical self but for your mental self."
