Pilots do this too: "chair flying," rehearsing procedures in your head before the real flight. It works well for checklists, but chair flying a workout still sounds funny to me.
The first time I saw this 'chair flying' is the Blue Angels briefing room video[0]. Can they actually remember the whole flow with the drawings etc. and imagine the whole scene with their hand movements etc? Absolutely unbelievable. I've never missed them in all the years since I moved to San Francisco. They're so tight in when they fly and they visualize the whole thing in a chair? Crazy to me.
There's muscle growth and metabolic changes (including at the level of the cell), but strength is also largely neurological.
Similarly, a headset can "read your thoughts" (inner voice) by detecting subtle activations in the facial muscles. A student at MIT constructed such a headset about ten years ago:
Came here to share exactly this. Pilot training has long emphasized “chair flying”. At my first airline we sat at paper mockups and repeatedly drilled procedures until you could recite them in your sleep. Fortunately, modern tech has given us “flyable” digital mockups. Not quite a full sim but an arrangement of touch screens where everything functions as a real plane.
During longer periods away from flying I will spend a few days prior to the next flight mentally chair flying normal procedures.
I do think there’s some level of experience necessary for this to be beneficial though. Chair flying a plane I've never flown isn’t likely to be very productive without feedback from an experienced pilot. I would imagine the same is true for a couch potato trying to imagine a difficult squat set.
I have no proof but I really think this is going to be another one of those pop-science "facts" that is eventually proven false. One of those ones like "playing classical music makes plants grow faster", it just doesn't sound right.
The headline implies something that would be misleading if you don't know how strength works. It's not about increasing the abilities of your muscles, it's motor learning or the ability to use your muscles. Your strength isn't just what your muscles are physically capable of doing. It's also your ability to use those muscles. You need to train your brain and motor pathways how to optimally use them. This is the mind body problem or mind body connection: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mind%E2%80%93body_problem
My personal anecdote is that this is quite effective. Anyone trying to lift heavy weight is going to psych themselves up beforehand. Part of that is thinking about the lift, how they'll do it, and how they'll succeed. It definitely helps.
Thinking about a scary moment can make your pulse race, your eyes dilate, and cause you to sweat. Thinking about a lover can do all that and other things. So clearly the imagination can affect the body. Not saying this study will hold up necessarily, but it's not that far fetched.
It's not too odd to me to think that the brain could have the ability to influence how much muscle mass the body wants to create. Obviously being able to think your way to being a full on bodybuilder is a bit far but...
I've for example been lying in bed before with cold toes and by focusing on heating them up in my mind I swear my blood circulation improves much faster than if I don't.
Just anecdotal of course, but considering the role the brain plays in the body I don't see it too far fetched that it can to some extent influence either of the above.
I don't know - I've done physical therapy before, and a surprisingly big component includes neurological exercises (vs exclusively strengthening and stretching, like you might expect).
It's feasible to me that thinking/visualizing a motion could improve your ability to recruit those muscles
Martial Arts have been doing these for centuries if anything it is more like modern science rediscovering it. Although I believe it is much more Neural adaptation that muscles hypertrophy.
If I remember correctly I read a paper a few years ago that tested this with people learning piano.
The control just did their lesson and the second after the lesson sat and just imagined them playing what they learned no finger movement allowed just thinking.
The oldest study I found on this was with basketball, I believe in the 1950s. The theory was that since the imagination group was able to make perfect shots every time, this accelerated the process.
I was gonna do a top level comment if nobody else mentioned it.
One thing that a LOT of pro basketball players do is visualize their movements before the game or whatnot. I'm sure athletes in all sports do this but I played bball for 30 years so that's my reference.
It works.
My guess is that it works on our ability to visualize/map where we are in space. It primes the hippocampus.
It’s called creative visualization. It was used by a music instructor I had back in the 80s. I’d be given a new piece of music, asked to look it over and imagine myself playing it, but without moving my body. This meant imagining exactly how my body would move but without actually moving at all. After five minutes or so of imagining, I’d play the piece and get through it nearly perfectly and have it mostly memorized.
I feel like I do this anytime I get really into chess, and some other skills. Spend a lot of time mentally practicing it. I don't think it ever actually improves the skill, but it might reinforce what I already know. It can't be a very strong boost though, because I'm still shite at chess.
I think it would be hard to imagine what a heavy lift feels like if you never done it. The pinky example might have helped just because it gave the test subjects an example of what muscle it works, firing the pinky and the ring finger at the same time would be a stronger pull because they share the flexor digitorum profundus. They also would have had to test it first to establish a baseline.
I think that one reason people have trouble with pullups is that they just don't understand how to tense up their entire body torso to pull themselves up.
I have learned that merely thinking about deadlifting a personal record can produce more adrenal response than the act itself. I think it might be better to draw the mind trip out a little bit before you do the lift each time. I feel like it reduces the chance of injury when you give your body a few moments to prepare for the onslaught.
Am I doing the same sort of exercise prep when I write out a plan before executing the actions?
I did think from the title it would be a silly story, but it does make me thing about how mentally reviewing something before trying to do it does help out the result.
I think this makes sense.. mind-muscle connection, coordination, efficiency of lifts.. you can lift more and do it more efficiently without your muscles necessarily actually being bigger.
0: https://youtu.be/PFxszP-1tHI?t=81
Similarly, a headset can "read your thoughts" (inner voice) by detecting subtle activations in the facial muscles. A student at MIT constructed such a headset about ten years ago:
https://youtube.com/watch?v=VnMS8WMDDhs
It can legitimately help you drive a lap faster in e.g qualifying.
During longer periods away from flying I will spend a few days prior to the next flight mentally chair flying normal procedures.
I do think there’s some level of experience necessary for this to be beneficial though. Chair flying a plane I've never flown isn’t likely to be very productive without feedback from an experienced pilot. I would imagine the same is true for a couch potato trying to imagine a difficult squat set.
The headline implies something that would be misleading if you don't know how strength works. It's not about increasing the abilities of your muscles, it's motor learning or the ability to use your muscles. Your strength isn't just what your muscles are physically capable of doing. It's also your ability to use those muscles. You need to train your brain and motor pathways how to optimally use them. This is the mind body problem or mind body connection: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mind%E2%80%93body_problem
My personal anecdote is that this is quite effective. Anyone trying to lift heavy weight is going to psych themselves up beforehand. Part of that is thinking about the lift, how they'll do it, and how they'll succeed. It definitely helps.
I've for example been lying in bed before with cold toes and by focusing on heating them up in my mind I swear my blood circulation improves much faster than if I don't.
Just anecdotal of course, but considering the role the brain plays in the body I don't see it too far fetched that it can to some extent influence either of the above.
It's feasible to me that thinking/visualizing a motion could improve your ability to recruit those muscles
Time will tell and should it turn out to be be a con, the con will have moved on.
[1] https://statmodeling.stat.columbia.edu/2017/10/18/beyond-pow...
The control just did their lesson and the second after the lesson sat and just imagined them playing what they learned no finger movement allowed just thinking.
The second group over all learned faster.
https://sci-hub.ru/10.1080/10671188.1960.10613109
Clark, L. V. (1960). Effect of Mental Practice on the Development of a Certain Motor Skill. Research Quarterly, 31(4), 560–569.
One thing that a LOT of pro basketball players do is visualize their movements before the game or whatnot. I'm sure athletes in all sports do this but I played bball for 30 years so that's my reference.
It works.
My guess is that it works on our ability to visualize/map where we are in space. It primes the hippocampus.
I think that one reason people have trouble with pullups is that they just don't understand how to tense up their entire body torso to pull themselves up.
I did think from the title it would be a silly story, but it does make me thing about how mentally reviewing something before trying to do it does help out the result.
But hey, this makes meditation oddly interesting now. swole the mind!