Recent study on mental training

[Wastelander]

A study was recently published in The Journal of Neurophysiology by a group of researchers at Ohio University regarding the effect of mental training on physical strength. Their study used wrist strength as their metric, and had three groups of people participating--one group that simply had their wrist strength tested with no interference (control group), one group that had their wrist strength tested before and after wearing a brace that immobilized their wrist for several weeks, and one group that did the same thing but also went through mental visualization exercises. The study found that the group who used the mental visualization exercises lost about half as much strength as the other group that had their wrists immobilized. Here is the article:

http://jn.physiology.org/content/112/12/3219

I found this to be very interesting, for a couple of reasons. First of all, this is great news for anyone who is injured or sick! I've suspected this for quite a long time, actually, so it's nice to see a scientific study back it up. In addition, I know that mental visualization is commonly practiced by high-level athletes (including martial artists) to improve their performance. I recall a quote from Motobu Choki, where he said that he would break a sweat just thinking about practicing kata, and I feel that this trick has been known for a very long time.

[sensei8]

Whew...the study took me a while to read it, but I made it. Mainly because I had to reread many passages because I was like that deer caught in the headlights. So, I reread until I understood.

I wholeheartedly concur with your observations, and there are many important merits to consider for the MAist. I believe that this is the rage of the page in modern MA training, once more see its benefits, and then bring it to the dojo more often.

Taste and see that it's good; discoveries are more important than many might want to admit to.

Thanks for sharing it, Noah!!