Imagined Workout Can Up Muscle Strength: Study

Reuters, via Yahoo! News ^ | Today | Joene Hendry, of Reuters

[clikker]

Monday November 12 1:47 PM ET

Imagined Workout Can Up Muscle Strength: Study

By Joene Hendry

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - People can strengthen their muscles by imagining that they are exercising them, according to study findings presented Sunday at the Society for Neuroscience's annual meeting in San Diego, California.

``Just thinking about exercise can help maintain muscle strength,'' Dr. Vinoth Ranganathan of the Cleveland Clinic Foundation in Ohio told Reuters Health.

Ranganathan and his colleagues decided to test whether an imaginary workout could build strength. Past studies have shown that exercise training on one side of the body produces results on the other side, suggesting that the brain's signal to the unexercised part of the body is increased even though actual exercise doesn't occur.

To investigate, the Ohio researchers divided 30 healthy young adults into three groups. One group imagined using their little finger muscle, one group imagined using their elbow flexor muscle and the third group did no imaginary exercise. The ``exercises'' were performed for 15 minutes a day, 5 days a week for 12 weeks.

``We asked the subjects to think as strongly as they could about moving the muscle being tested, to make the imaginary movement as real as they could,'' Ranganathan said in a prepared statement. An instrument was used during the exercise sessions to make sure that the study participants were not actually moving their muscles.

Muscle strength was measured before, during and after the training sessions. Among those who imagined moving their pinky, the finger's muscle strength increased by 35%. Elbow strength in the second group increased 13.4%. Those who did not do any imaginary exercise showed no muscle strength gain.

The researchers also found highly visible brain signals in recordings of the brain's electrical activity-electroencephalograms--performed while the study participants were doing the mental exercises. Post-training brain scans found greater and more focused activity in the brain's prefrontal cortex when compared with scans taken before training.

These findings suggest that the study participants' strength gains were due to improvements in the brain's ability to signal muscle, the investigators explain.

A follow-up study is under way in healthy people aged 65 and older to determine whether the method might help them, Ranganathan told Reuters Health.

Then, the researchers hope to use the mental training in stroke and spinal cord injury patients, he added.

``We believe that anyone who has difficulty doing physical exercises can use our mental training method to improve the muscle strength they have lost or maintain the muscle strength they have,'' Ranganathan added in the statement.

[clikker]

I saw this on Rush Limbaugh's site, and just had to post it. (I hope no one did before I -- I searched!)

This seems just too good to be true. But, hey, they're the scientists, not me. Lazy people of the world rejoice!

[DoughtyOne]

I've been doing study along these lines. I just think about food and gain five pounds.

[True Capitalist]

...only problem is, i'm so lazy, i can't even THINK about working out!

[justabig]

And if I imagine I am really, really rich, my checks won't bounce.

They should package this in a cable TV info-mercial and get some muscle-bound dude or babe to sell out and sell it. Sorry, wish I may and wish I might, you gotta put in the sweat and hours to get results.

What a great country we live in!

[gcruse]

...only problem is, i'm so lazy, i can't even THINK about working out!

Me, too. Every time I feel the urge to exercise,
I go and lie down until it passes.

[real saxophonist]

Good - I'll just imagine it's 1989, and I'm back on Parris Island...

[larryjohnson]

FReepersonaltrainer here. Do not try this at home.I suppose this is supported by taxpayer funds which irritates me even more.The reference to moving one limb with sympathetic muscle growth in another has been shown but it is chemicals getting where the body needs them. Lift weights folks and accept no substitutes.

[RJayneJ]

Following this logic, then if I imagine eating a Twinkie will make me gain weight, therefore I might as well go ahead and eat one.

Click the icon for My Two Cents! A new essay out this morning!

[gcruse]

I've been doing something like this most of my life.
During the Carter administration, we learned that
lusting after a woman in your heart is as big
a sin as lusting after her out loud.  If you
think about committing a sin, apparently
that is a sin.  So now, when I am in church
and they pass the plate around, I just
think about putting money in.

[irish guard]

All Homer Simpsons of the world shall rejoice! Donuts for everyone!

[Oschisms]

Having all the proper feelings about working out is equal to or superior to actually getting off your tuckus?

Must be the Democrat workout. :)

Now I'm off to the gym. Wed.= Abs, Back, Biceps & Forearms

[bluefish]

I seem to recall that if you have a broken leg, exercising the good one helps prevent the broken one from experiencing as much muscle atrophy while the bone heals. I wonder if the same effect is somehow in play (mental effort causing physical results), or if the exercising of the good leg causes some type of biological action.

[justabig]

"Dr. Vinoth Ranganathan" Does he work for the Taliban in Afganiththan? I detect a connection. If the Taliban imagine they are winning and strategically redploying to defeat the American infidels, does it mean they are winning? Sorry, Dr. Ranganathan, no personal offense intended. Just caught up in arrogance and couldn't resist piling on.

[america76]

Old saying- Make a wish in one hand, take a dump in the other. See which one fills up first.

[justabig]

Used to be every time I felt the urge to exercise, I would have a few beers and it would pass. Now I think about having a beer and pass. Too many calories. Have to exercise to burn it off.

Wait. I'm jihaving a pilsner moment. Guess I should imagine the beer will make me lose weight!

[ImaGraftedBranch]

I think they got a sex study mixed up with a muscle study and an imagination study. However, if they are speaking of dreams of beautiful women, it explains the "exercise, the muscle being exercised, and the reality of the dream after waking." er...uh.. yeah.

[RaceBannon]

Every day, in every way, I am getting better and better....

[justabig]

I think, therefore I am. (I think, one thinks)

The bigger you think, the bigger you are. (You think, one thinks to oneself)

The smoker you drink, the player you get ... (Joe Walsh)

[Marie]

Hey guys, this works. I have a strange condition where if I exercise too much I will seizure. I hate it and I would love to be strong and healthy. Because of this desire to be strong and healthy, I spend a lot of time imagining myself working out. I still have no endurance, and if I push it too hard I will go down, but I'm at least three times as strong (in short bursts) as any of my friends who have more active life styles. I weigh 150 and I can carry a 180 pound person if I have to. If someone wants something carried, they come to me. If they need the 5 gallon water bottle replaced on their cooler, they come to me. And I NEVER work out.

IT WORKS! ;-)