The power of visualization

[faridaro]

Fascinating study - this is just an excerpt, but here is the link to full article:

saveourbones.com/how-to-har...

"A study published in the Journal of Neurophysiology tested the impact of visualization on muscle strength. The researchers placed casts on the wrists of 29 participants for four weeks to induce muscle weakness. Half the participants received no special instructions, but the other half practiced visualizations of physical exercises five times a week during the study.2

The exercises they imagined were maximal contractions of the muscles in their immobilized arm. The researchers monitored the participants’ muscles using an electromyogram to ensure that they were not actually activating their muscles, only imagining doing so. In each session, they performed 52 imagined contractions in four sets of 13 imagined contractions with one minute of rest between each set.

In both groups of participants, immobilization significantly decreased strength and impaired VA. But visualizing wrist exercises reduced the loss of strength and VA by about 50%. That means that when the casts came off, the group that imagined the exercises had wrist muscles that were twice as strong as of those who did not practice visualization.2

This finding aligns with more research that has found that mental imagery of maximal muscle contractions increases strength. Another study compared the effects of mental visualizations of exercises to physical exercises and to a control group that performed neither. The participants who performed the physical exercises increased their strength the most, but the visualization group also saw significant gains.3

The study authors concluded that the mental training “enhances the cortical output signal, which drives the muscles to a higher activation level and increases strength.”3

Visualization is not a replacement for physical exercise, but it is a complementary method for increasing strength that is available even when physical activity is restricted or impossible."

This study makes you wonder if this would work for visualization of fast walking for people with mobility problems.

[jayb12]

Exelent THANKS! more on the power of our mind iqdcalls.com/tms.html This helped my pain issues big time!

[faridaro in reply to jayb12]

Glad it worked for you. Our bodies are powerful pharmacies, we just need to learn how to use them.

[NanCyclist]

I did essentially the same thing to get rid of my tremor several years ago. I lay flat on my back listening to soft . music while my hand flapped wildly. I thought "Peace" as I breathed in and "Quiet hand" was I breathed out. In 1/2 hour the flapping stopped. Later in the day, hand flapping, I tried it again and it stopped in 15 minutes. A couple if hours later, 10 minutes, then 5 and pretty soon I could skip the music and being on my back and I could just will it to stop. I seldom have a tremor any more.

[ion_ion in reply to NanCyclist]

Really? Interesting but hard to believe!

[NanCyclist in reply to ion_ion]

I find it hard to believe too. Years ago a friend gave me a new age cd and asked me to give it a try. I'm not a new age type person and the only reason I did it was so I could honestly say I had tried it. I was quite sure it was a waste of my time. So, go figure. As always, what works for one person with PD is not going to work for all, but it's worth a shot.

[faridaro in reply to NanCyclist]

Love it - thank you Nan for sharing!

[NanCyclist in reply to faridaro]

Hope it helps someone.