{"id":35996,"date":"2015-01-08T07:15:48","date_gmt":"2015-01-08T12:15:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dailyburn.com\/life\/?p=35996"},"modified":"2016-07-14T16:02:40","modified_gmt":"2016-07-14T20:02:40","slug":"mental-trick-maintain-strength","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dailyburn.com\/life\/fitness\/mental-trick-maintain-strength\/","title":{"rendered":"The 5-Second Mental Trick That Could Help You Maintain Strength"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"The
Photo: Pond5<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Having an injury can be a serious bummer. You\u2019re stuck on the couch instead of training for your next race. You\u2019re forced to \u201ctake it easy\u201d instead of crushing workouts. But a recent study<\/a> from the Ohio Musculoskeletal and Neurological Institute at Ohio University shows that a simple visualization exercise could help you retain strength \u2014 even while you\u2019re out of commission.<\/p>\n

RELATED:<\/strong> The 5 Keys to Exercise Recovery<\/a><\/p>\n

In a study published in The Journal of Neurophysiology<\/em><\/a>, researchers immobilized 29 individuals by putting their non-dominant hands in wrist casts for four weeks. Throughout the month, half of the participants participated in mental imagery exercises while the other half went about their normal lives.<\/p>\n

Participants who completed mental imagery exercises lost 50 percent less strength than those who did not.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Five times each week, the 14 subjects in the visualization group were verbally guided through mental exercise sessions, which instructed them to imagine flexing their immobile wrist as hard as possible for five seconds. Participants heard instructions such as: “When we tell you to start, we want you to\u00a0imagine<\/em>\u00a0that you are pushing in against a handgrip as hard as you can and continue to do so until we tell you to stop.\u201d For two minutes, they alternated between five seconds of visualization and five seconds of rest, completing 13 rounds of the exercise.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey [were] urging themselves to contract a muscle as opposed to watching themselves contract a muscle,\u201d says study author Dr. Brian Clark, PhD, director of the Ohio Musculoskeletal and Neurological Institute and professor of physiology at Ohio University.<\/p>\n

Based on the results, brains and brawn might be more connected than you\u2019d think. Dr. Clark and his team found that the participants who completed mental imagery exercises lost approximately 50 percent less strength than the participants who did not perform any visualization. \u201cThe magnitude of the effect was a surprise,\u201d says Dr. Clark, and highlight the fact that mind and body are more connected than most people initially believe.<\/p>\n

Mind Over Matter: Can You Think Yourself Fit?<\/strong><\/h3>\n
\"Mental
Photo: Pond5<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Why such a difference? During the visualization exercises, participants were able to activate muscles using their nervous system, even though they weren\u2019t able to physically flex. \u201cMuscles are basically puppets of the nervous system,\u201d says Dr. Clark. In previous studies, mental exercises were shown to activate areas in the cortex, including the premotor and M1 regions that are also switched on during actual motor behaviors.<\/p>\n

RELATED: <\/strong>Hatha Yoga: The Best Workout for Your Brain?<\/a><\/p>\n

After all, muscle mass isn\u2019t the only determinant of strength, Clark says. Research indicates that your nervous system also plays an important role in raw power \u2014\u00a0as well as athletic performance. That\u2019s why many professional, amateur and Olympic competitors visualize success before they compete. Even public speakers \u201chunker down\u201d and get in the zone<\/a>, says Dr. Clark. \u201cWe all do this, it\u2019s just not something we [acknowledge often],\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, according to Dr. Clark, lying in bed and thinking about push-ups<\/a> won\u2019t tone your arms. But, it could help you bounce back<\/a> from an injury or illness that takes you out of the gym for a while. You snooze, you lose when it comes to keeping your nervous system sharp. Previous research shows that physical weakness is often correlated with the nervous system\u2019s inability to full activate muscles.<\/p>\n

RELATED: <\/strong>Are You Crazy for Working Out While Sick?<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019ve got someone with a medical condition where exercise isn\u2019t necessarily an option, something like imagery could speed up the recovery process,\u201d Clark says. The visualization of exercises will remind the brain how to communicate with the body. \u201cYou\u2019re trying not<\/em> to forget how to do those things,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Turns out mind over matter is legit. Research shows that mental exercises can have an effect on muscle strength. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":36004,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,6,14],"tags":[144,281,341,343],"class_list":["post-35996","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exercise","category-fitness","category-strength-training","tag-injury","tag-strength-training","tag-tax1living-well","tag-tax2exercise"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyburn.com\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35996","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyburn.com\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyburn.com\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyburn.com\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyburn.com\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35996"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyburn.com\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35996\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyburn.com\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36004"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyburn.com\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35996"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyburn.com\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35996"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyburn.com\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35996"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}