Can Thinking About Exercise Make You Think?

We build "abdominal belts" to shock our muscles and give us six packs. We invented the chocolate chip cookie diet to help lose weight while eating fat. We want to get in shape by doing absolutely nothing. We want to be in bed, think about going to the gym, and then poof, get the body of a Greek god. But what if there was another way? One that required a lot less effort? What if you could think that you were fitter? Sounds like an impossible dream? It sounds like maybe not. A notable new study by Brian Clark of Ohio University shows that sitting still while thinking only about movement can make us stronger. Clark and his colleagues recruited 29 volunteers and wrapped their wrists in a surgical cast for a full month. That month, half of the volunteers considered exercising their immobilized wrists. They sat completely still and focused for 11 minutes a day, 5 days a week. All his mental strain of pretending to flex his muscles. When the casts were removed, the volunteers who did mental exercises had wrist muscles twice as strong as those who had done nothing. - just one concept often neglected in neuroscience: our body and brain have developed together. Although we treat our mind and body as two separate entities (brain versus muscle; mind versus matter), they are ultimately intimate. Yes, imagination, a movement that takes place in the same part of the brain where the urge to move arises has physical benefits and is replaced although it is not a real workout (as if!)

Imaginary exercises have been shown to improve the performance of people engaged in physical exercise, such as surgeons, athletes, and musicians. Another study by the Ph.D. Aliya Krum of Stanford University in California in 2007 is an example of this amazing psychological interaction. 87 service staff from 7 hotel rooms participated in the study. Each participant followed the exercise instructions regularly only based on their daily work in their respective hotels. The researchers conducted a 20-minute intervention: in short, they reported to a group of workers who met their daily physical activity needs through physical work and explained the benefits of this active lifestyle. The control team of hotel staff obtained information about the recommended physical activity levels but was not told that they usually maintain the required physical activity levels. After 4 weeks, when the two groups were compared, the blood pressure, weight, body fat, body mass index (BMI), and waist-to-hip ratio of the experimental group decreased. These results seem incredible: a psychological intervention that can improve physical function. Many scientists believe that our brain doesn’t understand the difference between thinking and doing. It reacts in the same way.

By: Bristi Bagchi