The Mind-Body Connection

[AllIveEverTouched]

Often books refer to the connection your mind has with your muscles as you work out. How important is this? What do you do to create that connection?

 

Personally I've found that as a muscle in my body gets bigger I find it easier to mentally locate and flex it, so I'm curious.

[willpeavy]

Yeah I do the same. I mentally locate and flex. Or sometimes I visualize doing exercises

[MartinVegartin]

Some sports people visualise doing the movements that they would do in the activity they're imagining. I think that muscles make micro movements when you imagine using them. There is that old study of basketball players doing imaginary shooting practice. They were supposed to have improved as much as another group who did physical practice. I would think that imagining lifting a weight will stimulate all the muscles involved, and could teach the muscles what is expected of them.

 

This sort of visualisation is, at the very least, a good way to train the mind. And it just might help the body.

 

I think that Timothy Galwey's 'inner game' ideas has some connection with this. - well, it's a mind/body thingie. He found that distracting the conscious mind during a game of tennis helps the player to play better. I've never used this myself so I can't comment on its effectiveness. Some people say it works and some say it doesn't.

[Gorilla]

Visualisation definitely works!

 

Plus concentrating on contracting the muscles being worked, rather than simply moving the weight, is crucial.