Can your brain make you buff? Imaginary workouts can build strength and fuel weight loss
by Jonathan Fields | 10/29/07
Breakthrough research in the field of exercise physiology has yielded stunning revelations about the way we get fit. The big surprise, though, is not what we “have” to do, but what we might “not” have to do.
Our thoughts can literally redefine the size, shape and strength of our bodies.
For decades, exercise scientists have worked to discover how we get fit. Getting stronger, we were told, was about creating enough resistance in a muscle to create millions of micro-tears that would, over days, weeks and months, rebuild themselves, bigger, leaner and stronger. So when we lift weights, sprint or engage in pretty much any kind of exercise, we set this whole process in motion.
The entire cycle is known as hypertrophy and it’s always been considered a pretty mechanical experience. Weight loss has been tossed off with similar assumptions. Regardless of he method used for short-term weight loss, sustained loss always comes back to calories in and calories out.
Nothing foofy, just hard work. Thus, the famed old coach’s chant, “no pain, no gain!” But, what if we could make a change to that slogan?
No pain…huge gains.
It seems there may be a giant kink in this system. And, it has to do with the brain’s role in whole process.
Building muscle, it turns out, is not nearly as mechanical as we thought. And, in fact, a recent study by Erin M. Shackell and Lionel G. Standing at Bishop’s University reveals you may be able to make nearly identical gains in strength and fitness without lifting a finger!
That study measured the strength gains in three different groups of people. The first group did nothing outside their usual routine. The second group was put through two weeks of highly focused strength training for one specific muscle, three times a week. The third group listened to audio CDs that guided them to imagine themselves going through the same workout as the exercising group, three times a week.
And, the results blew everyone away.
The control group, who didn’t do anything, saw no gains in strength. The exercise group, who trained three times a week, saw a 28% gain in strength. No big surprises there. But, the group who did not exercise, but rather thought about exercising experienced nearly the same gains in strength as the exercise group (24%). Yes, you read that right!
The group that visualized exercised got nearly the same benefit, in terms of strength-gains, as the group that actually worked-out.
All of which leaves us with two big questions:
- How in the word did this work? And,
- Does this mean I can really get totally buff without ever working out?
Question 1 – How can your brain make you buff?
Okay, the answer to the first question—how does this work—is…we don’t really know, with certainty. We do know, however, that muscle conditioning and, in fact, all aspects of fitness and performance, are not nearly as purely mechanical as we once thought.
Your mind plays a massive role in at least two distinct ways
Through it’s connection to the endocrine system (the body’s chemical plant), different thoughts and mental states release hormones that can dramatically accelerate or retard muscle growth. In fact, some people, in search of a way to speed the process, ingest or inject extra amounts of these or similar chemicals. We all know what these are—steroids and their various derivatives. Not the smartest choice.
Other chemicals work on different organs to either fire-up or slow-down your metabolism in the blink of an eye, causing your to either burn a ton of calories lightning-fast or nose-dive into a slow burn.
In fact, a Harvard study reported in February 2007 further bolstered the impact of your thoughts on calories burned.
In that study, the housekeeping staff in a major hotel were told that what they did on a daily basis qualified as the amount of exercise needed to be fit and healthy. They made no changes in behavior, just kept on doing their job. Same as always.
Four weeks later, those housekeepers had lost weight, lowered blood pressure, body-fat percentage, waist-hip ratio and BMI. A similar group of housekeepers who had not been led to believe their job qualified as exercise saw none of these changes.
Simply believing their jobs were exercise caused their bodies to change. Unreal!
But, there’s something beyond the link between thoughts and chemistry, when it comes to the specific quest to gain strength. Chemistry may help accelerate the growth of muscle, but, it turns out…
…strength may not be nearly as much about muscle size or hypertrophy as we thought.
In addition to its chemical system, your body has at least one major electrical system—the nervous system. The signal that makes a muscle contract begins as an electrical impulse in your brain. That impulse is transmitted through your body’s electrical circuitry or nerves to your muscle.
How efficiently that impulse is delivered and how receptive your muscle is to that impulse determines, in large part, how forcefully that muscle can contract. The more fully and the faster it contracts, the stronger we say it is. We call this process neuromuscular facilitation.
Now, here’s the rub. You can turbo-charge your body’s electrical impulse system by repeatedly “visualizing” a muscle contracting, without ever actually contracting it. Based on this knowledge, we’ve known, for years, that visualization is a great way to slow down the loss of strength during recovery from an injury.
But, the big news is that simply visualizing an exercise may provide a nearly equivalent strength-building benefit as actually working-out.
More studies will go along way toward confirming this. And, if it’s for real, wow, can you imagine the opportunities. Now, what about that second question…
Question 2 - Does this mean I really can get totally buff without ever working out?
The short answer is—probably not…yet! Exercise, gains in muscle size and weight loss are all extremely complex processes. There is a ton going on all at once, which is why almost every study done on exercise is causative, not correlative.
It’s much easier to say weight loss and strength gains are “correlated” with exercise, than to say they are “caused” by exercise. Because, it’s nearly impossible to isolate what elements of exercise or “thinking about” exercise are doing what.
So, for now, a really well conceived “visualized” workout may yield similar gains in strength. But, we are not yet able to say it is possible to think your way thin or think your muscles bigger. The key phrase in that sentence, though, was “for now.”
I am incredibly excited about the potential of highly-efficient, virtualized workouts in the near future.
Applications include everything from accelerating rehab to slowing disease-related muscle degeneration, and, yes, even delivering the ultimate, sweat-free, lazy-man/woman’s workout.
A final word of caution, though. Exercise, actual body-moving, sweat-drenching, joint-freeing breath and movement are not only mission-critical to keeping your joints, muscles and connective tissue healthy, but, when chosen with the right criteria, can actually be a source of a lifetime of fun. And…
…if fun and exercise don’t sound like they belong in the same sentence together, hold onto your hat!
This article is just the first in what will soon grow into an ongoing series on creating, choosing and enacting an approach to exercise that is so fun and effective, it’ll have you reworking your calendar to find ways to exercise more.
So, let me leave you with these two questions:
- If I created an mp3 with a 30-minute, full-body visualized workout to test this research, would you be willing to commit to listening to it 3 times a week for a month and then reporting back your results? If so, let me know in the comments below and if there is enough interest, we’ll run our own study. And…
- I am curious to know whether you believe there is a way to exercise that is fun. Let me know in the commen section and I’ll include the results in a future article.
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Please do NOT enter a keyword phrase, business, product or service name as your name in the comment section. Doing so will get your comment labeled as spam and deleted. You MAY, however, use a real-person's name/nickname/handle, along with a brief identifying phrase, like "Jonathan Fields, Career Renegade."
October 29th, 2007 | 5:19 pm
[...] unknown wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptBreakthrough research in the field of exercise physiology has yielded stunning revelations about the way we get fit. The big surprise, though, is not what we “have” to do, but what we might “not” have to do. … [...]
October 29th, 2007 | 7:54 pm
[...] Jonathan Fields wrote an interesting post today on Can your brain make you buff? Stunning research reveals impact of …Here’s a quick excerptBreakthrough research in the field of exercise physiology has yielded stunning revelations about the way we get fit. The big surprise, though, is not what we “have” to do, but what we might “not” have to do. … [...]
October 30th, 2007 | 11:39 am
[...] Jonathan Fields put an intriguing blog post on Can your brain make you buff? Stunning research reveals impact of …Here’s a quick excerptBreakthrough research in the field of exercise physiology has yielded stunning revelations about the way we get fit. The big surprise, though, is not what we “have” to do, but what we might “not” have to do. … [...]
October 30th, 2007 | 2:10 pm
Yes I would love to participate in your study.
October 30th, 2007 | 2:16 pm
Jonathan,
Count me as a volunteer lab rat!
Hiking and biking are my favorite ways to exercise.
Mike
October 30th, 2007 | 2:23 pm
Exercise can be fun, but for me its when it doesn’t feel like exercise (ie sports, walking, hiking). I also like to do cardio on machines that allow me to listen to music or read. In that case I may spend very little time actually concentrating on what I’m doing. I wonder if that takes away from the benefit… Anyway, I’d definitely participate in workout visualization. Much cheaper than going to the gym
October 30th, 2007 | 3:25 pm
@ EggDog and Mike - great, I’ll keep reaching out to see if we can get enough people to make it even remotely scientific. Would be a lot of fun!
@ Amanda - Totally agree, rule number one is have fun. I’ll write a lot more on this very soon.
October 30th, 2007 | 4:19 pm
If this is true It can help me ’cause Im very busy I only get to exercise on the weekends.. I can listen to workout stuff during my work. hahaha!
Count me in! I wanna test this if it’s true.
October 30th, 2007 | 4:32 pm
@ Amazed - great, let’s see if we can rally more people.
We’ll need about 35 or so to make it even remotely scientific. So, keep it coming everyone!
October 30th, 2007 | 4:38 pm
The power of the mind is an awesome thing. Count me in!
October 30th, 2007 | 6:52 pm
Let me know if you get enough people and count me in! I recently experienced something similar when I fractured my elbow. The fall also torqued my neck and back and I couldn’t do many regular exercises - but I thought about them! I didn’t appear to lose any muscle strength and my clothes actually fit better than before my accident. No change in diet and less exercise. When I read this article a light bulb went off in my head - hey, I think this works.
October 30th, 2007 | 7:46 pm
I’m in, and I reckon I could recruit a few more.
October 30th, 2007 | 8:29 pm
@ Diane, Schelli & Allan - awesome guys! I’ll put the word out through a few other places, too, and see what we can get going. This should be a lot of fun!
Thanks!
October 30th, 2007 | 10:10 pm
I’ll try and spread the word.
October 31st, 2007 | 6:02 am
Count me in too… I can’t wait!
October 31st, 2007 | 7:48 am
Happy to participate! As a yoga teacher, I spend a good 50 percent of my class asking people to “come back into your body” to witness the tapes that run in the mind and then to turn back to breath. I’m going to read excerpts from this blog as part of my opening meditation Thursday night.
Thanks for you enthusiastic and thoughtful postings! I’d love to have you as a quest speaker and teacher at the studio.
MEgan
November 1st, 2007 | 6:24 am
count me in! i will do the lazy woman’s workout.
excersize can be fun if you feel like you don’t have to do it. you have to trick yourself into believing that you want to do it. yoga does that for me.
November 1st, 2007 | 8:05 am
I found your article extremely interesting. I would be willing to commit time to your research.
I have tried lots of different ways of exercising - gym, home video workouts, etc. By far my favourite is dancing.
November 1st, 2007 | 9:40 pm
I’d love to participate in your experiment too.
Running used to be my favorite form of exercise, but since I started getting migraines, I can’t do anything too strenuous anymore. Walking is about the only exercise I can do anymore; but I do enjoy it.
November 1st, 2007 | 11:21 pm
Sounds great. Count me in as a guinea pig!
November 2nd, 2007 | 2:06 am
I’m in!
November 2nd, 2007 | 6:52 pm
Count me in, please.
November 2nd, 2007 | 7:26 pm
I’d be happy to try that out.
November 4th, 2007 | 4:06 am
Who are the study’s authors, and where has it been published?
November 4th, 2007 | 4:13 am
Ah, found it!
“Mind Over Matter: Mental Training Increases Physical Strength.Find More Like This” by Shackell, Erin & Standing, Lionel G, in North American Journal of Psychology; 2007, Vol. 9 Issue 1, p189-200.
November 4th, 2007 | 8:15 am
I would like to participate in your study.
Favorite exercises are nordic walking, yoga, pilates and stretching and swimming.
Best regards,
John Pollabauer
Moncton, NB CANADA
November 6th, 2007 | 4:10 pm
I would like to take part in your study
November 6th, 2007 | 4:32 pm
I’d love to join this study.
Fave exercises: Dancing, biking, hiking, walking, yoga, stretching..
November 7th, 2007 | 10:16 pm
Yes; I would love to participate in this study. I hope I am not too late.
November 8th, 2007 | 3:55 pm
Yes,I would love to take part in your study.
November 8th, 2007 | 4:49 pm
I’d love to give it a try!
November 8th, 2007 | 8:17 pm
I’m also interested in participation on this study.
That could be helpfull since I’m actually helping people that needs serious motivation to respect their training program using a different approach… inner motivation instead of usual outer blablabla (non ordinary state of consciousness, EFT, reality creation process, etc).
Thanks for offering this possibility Jonathan!
November 10th, 2007 | 2:00 pm
I would be glad to participate in a study group. I develop meditation programs for life development. I have read about this and have had an interest in trying this for some time.
November 10th, 2007 | 10:29 pm
Hello there.
Count me in. As I am really interested to loose my weight. This is the thing that I thought last night. LOA brought me here today
November 10th, 2007 | 11:49 pm
[...] Pagi ini, lepas balik breakfast di Ampang Point, saya terus on komputer dan mula cek email. Sungguh tak di sangka-sangka, saya terima email yang merupakan subscribtion bulanan saya. Kebiasaannya, saya cuma sekali pandang saja dan takkan baca. Tapi kali ini saya rasa nak baca. Lepas saya baca, alangkah seronoknya bila saya terjumpa dengan source ini dari artikel-artikel itu. Anda boleh baca dengan klik di sini [...]
November 11th, 2007 | 6:25 am
I would like to participate in your study! I healed myself from 20 years of fibromyalgia by reading one of John Sarnos books and I am extremely interested in the connection between mind and body! Looking forwartd to trying your exercise!
November 12th, 2007 | 9:02 am
I would like to participate as I have had a series of surgeries that hav had a physical and emotional impact. Please include me in this project
November 12th, 2007 | 4:56 pm
Why repeat an experiment that’s already been done?
I’d very much rather have access to where this study is located, so I can read about it myself, before I would commit to participating in another - similar - study. I do believe the mind can do more than is generally agreed upon but I also believe one must act in harmony with one’s intent. It would be interesting to see how much that’s true (or not).
As others have said here, exercise for me must be productive: Gardening, hiking for a view, doing something other than repetitive motions in a gym.
November 14th, 2007 | 11:43 am
@Zephyr
Repeating this experiment would prove to the people participating in it how true(or not) the study is. One experiment is good but doing it a second time is better because it can give you more accurate results.
November 15th, 2007 | 12:39 pm
yes please count me in! I was diagnosed in 2001 with “motor neuron disease - amyotrophic lateral sclerosis”, and the only exercise I can do is with visualizing.
November 17th, 2007 | 12:31 pm
I would try the experiment. While I was reading the article, I thought I might try to record my own guided meditation for my own use but I don’t know that much about making them and usually perfer to work from some sort of script and input my own words.
November 19th, 2007 | 3:16 pm
[...] Can your brain make you buff? Imaginary workouts can build strength and fuel weight loss [...]
November 19th, 2007 | 11:32 pm
I’d like to be in this study. Fascinating idea. The thing is, though, I LIKE lifting weights and wouldn’t want to give that up. It’s about the favorite part of my week (just three times per week about 45 minutes each time). It has really helped me to stay strong and healthy and retain a youthful body shape at age 50.
Other exercise I enjoy: raquetball, tennis, yard work.
November 20th, 2007 | 11:41 am
I would love to participate in your study. My fav way to exercise is XBox 360 which would explain why I need to have some ideas that help me to lose some weight.
November 20th, 2007 | 5:49 pm
yup, count me in if it really exsits and costs me no money. I walk and walk and walk. Id love visualizations for many different things including weight loss, ie pain reduction, skin disorders, you name it. Maybe teaching people how to make their own specific visualisations puts them more in power of themselves and their own health.
November 21st, 2007 | 6:42 am
I would loooove to try this
November 28th, 2007 | 11:07 am
Oh this sounds too fun not to try - add me to the list of guinea pigs, if you haven’t already closed this out that is.
December 1st, 2007 | 6:22 am
@ Everybody - Hey gang, it looks like we have a nice group of people to have some fun. So, lets give this experiment a try.
I will record a short exercise visualization and e-mail a link to everyone in the beginning of the week along with some instructions to try to make it a bit more scientific. I believe the original study was a 2-week one, I will confirm this, so we’ll do the same thing.
LAST CALL - I f anyone else would like to join in, You’ve got until, lets’ say, Monday, Dec 3, 2007 to let me know in the comments and make sure you include your e-mail address.
Woohoo, this should be fun!
December 1st, 2007 | 2:41 pm
Sounds exciting!
December 2nd, 2007 | 1:41 pm
This will be fun!
December 4th, 2007 | 10:58 am
Hoping I can sneak in under the wire, Jonathan! (It must still be December 3rd somewhere, right?)
December 5th, 2007 | 9:57 pm
Isn’t it possible that the people who are going through the mental exercise of strength training by imagining themselves performing the exercise according to proper instructions are actually just learning good form? If you have ever lifted weights before you know that your form plays a huge factor in your ability to lift.
December 6th, 2007 | 12:31 pm
I would love to be a part of your study.
December 13th, 2007 | 12:57 pm
Hi I would love to be included in the study..I was online looking for a supportive visualization process…a guided visualization for my ideal fit form…kewl ey? And have just recently become involved with a weight training program. Would love to hear from ya to be involved in the project. Cheers.
December 13th, 2007 | 1:07 pm
Having read about the housekeepers having believed their activity was enough to make them fit, I thought that the thoughts shifted the quality of their energy and movements… and perhaps as they moved with more conscious awareness and confidence in their movements given what they were told, they utilized their bodies in different ways - therefore receiving outcomes as noted. The power of the mind and ones intention and feelings often will evoke shifts in our overall energetic being and the way we relate with our bodies and our environments.
December 16th, 2007 | 10:48 am
If I am not too late, please count me in on your experiment. My train of thought is leading to the same place as yours.
December 20th, 2007 | 12:27 am
Oooh, I like guided audio meditations so this would be an interesting thing.
I find dance to be a really fun way to get a good workout. On Oprah yesterday I saw a dance group called Pilobilos (sp?) which does shadow dancing - they all dance behind a white screen and their shadows project pictures. They are so amazingly agile and strong - the girls carry the guys around easily!
Circus arts are also great - I’ve only done one-day workshops but MAN you get a great workout. Tumbling, balancing, handstands - fun and random, but takes a lot of core strength. I’ve watched people do aerial performances with hanging cloth and hoops and it looks so effortless (I asked one of the performers about it and she said it does feel like flying) but it does take a lot of strength to pull yourself up and hang from a piece of cloth.
In that same vein, pole dancing is also good. It’s got a bad rap because of the stripper association, but it takes abs and muscles to hoist yourself on the pole. Once you get over the awkwardness (it helps to not go to a sleazy joint in the first place) it’s tons of fun.
Cheerleading would be good too. I did an demo intro to cheerleading class and OY. It’s not easy. It’s fun and not hard to pick up, but you definitely need a lot of exercise. Which you get, thankfully, when you learn!
December 20th, 2007 | 2:25 pm
I would love to participate.
I enjoy a game of hoops with friends.
December 21st, 2007 | 11:21 am
I was thinking about this article a few hours after I first read it.
And, I thought of this. What if you visualized/imagined yourself repeatedly lifting a car. Or how about juggling multiple cars. What about visualizing leaping tall buildings. Imagining what it might feel like in your muscles as you do this. Assuming this works, I wonder what the impact of that would have.
Just a rambling.
-Trav
December 21st, 2007 | 11:21 am
Count me in to participate. I want to get buff with my mind! This would be incredible if it really works, the mind is really just that amazing.
December 21st, 2007 | 11:34 am
I know it’s way past the 3rd, but if you’re still accepting volunteers, I’m in. Thanks.
December 21st, 2007 | 2:38 pm
Sure I’d like to be a part of this study. I’m already working out however, there is about 3 times a day that i do not work out and i can listen to the audio. and if it will help me get to my goal quicker that be great!
January 2nd, 2008 | 7:58 am
I am sure the brain is an immensely powwerful organ.
I am more than happy to be part of any objective observation. Any physical benefit is a bonus.
January 2nd, 2008 | 5:08 pm
sure, im in. lets get this started.
i have used this technique before, but i never really dedicated myself after i got results, and then i was going to try it again recently.
im willing to dedicate myself for scientific purposes, but in all honesty, in the light of reading this article, i might just go make my own mental script for this, instead of waiting. maybe even using some video to also help the stimulation. about 2 months ago i was going to make a list of songs i only listen to when i workout, and when im visualizing working out, or dancin, and then see if i can program these into my mind enough, that just listening to the tracks would cause a chemical reaction, and neural reaction within my body that would be somewhat equivalient to actually pumping iron, or running, etc…. i would also mix in some imagination/visualization with listening to the track, but all in all, the goal was to just use triggers to intiate responses within my body that would cause the same desired effects as if i was working out.i was gonna also use this for adrenaline release, and endorphin release. ultimate goal is to make the triggers easier, so i can do it without using music. using mudras, or mantras. although big science words are thrown around, this goes back to the same old metaphysical theories made popular thousands of years ago by yogis, spiritualist, etc.. that the mind is the ultimate tool of life. they would use mudras and mantras to induce certain states of body and mind, and still do use these techniques. interesting. okay, done ranting. long story short, i didnt end up going through with it, but as my social life is slowing down a bit, i think i want to take it alot more serious. im so tired alot, and i think its because im stressed from work, and its making me inactive. i need a new toy to play with for a while.
January 8th, 2008 | 10:29 am
I’ve believed for a long time that the mind/brain can do much more than we realize. As I dislike exercise, unless I can talk and move, I look forward to using my mind to help out.
January 12th, 2008 | 10:18 am
Yes. I am definitely interested. Let me know when you decide to do the study.
January 18th, 2008 | 2:44 pm
Just read your blog on exercises and mind. Well i truly beleive it would work, provided no negative belief would interfere with the imagination. I’m interested in this kind of practice and your study.
January 20th, 2008 | 3:55 am
…did I overlooked something, or ‘why are we waiting?’
January 28th, 2008 | 1:17 am
I’d love to take part in your study. I keep fairly fit playing soccer/football and squash at 53 years young - but carrying a few extra pounds!
Please count me in and keep me informed.
Richard
February 1st, 2008 | 1:25 am
We manifest daily into our lives situations whether we want them or not through focused attention, no reason why this wouldn’t work. Would love to take part
Amanda
February 6th, 2008 | 3:00 am
[...] breakthrough research in the field of exercise has also proven the power that the mind has to transform the body. This study has proven that the act of imagining and believing that you have [...]
February 6th, 2008 | 5:29 am
Is there room for more? You can certainly count me in. I’d love to build muscle or shed some fat just by thinking about it. What a dream!
This reminds me of an article that I read several months back……
something along the same concept…
apparently the phrase “I can gain weight just by looking at food” really is true for some people. Just by seeing/thinking about certain foods, a chemical in the brain is released that actually functions much the same way as “eating” the food. It’s amazing?
February 29th, 2008 | 11:52 am
Yes I would love to do the study.
March 11th, 2008 | 8:40 pm
It seems I’ve stumbled upon this article too late to meet your Dec. 3rd deadline. That is unfortunate, however, I would still like to recieve the mp3 audio file if possible. I would make such a recording myself, except I wouldn’t know where to start, as I don’t completely know what “visualizing” a workout means. If I could be the recipient of your file I would track the results myself for my own personal gain. I’d love to find out if such a thing acually works or not. I’m a competitor in high school track and It’d be great to gain an edge on the competition :D. Please respond. Thanks
March 12th, 2008 | 10:57 am
I’m in!!
March 13th, 2008 | 12:03 pm
I`d say im a LITTLE bit late, but i would love to receive the mp3 anyways ^^
March 16th, 2008 | 7:15 pm
This was very interesting. I always suspected the brain can do far more than we realize. I may be rather late on this, but if you still need guinea pigs for your MP3 experiment, I have an iPod and can easily devote the time to listening to the exercise routine.
March 23rd, 2008 | 9:45 pm
Hmmmm… I’m off to start on my tin foil hot!
April 2nd, 2008 | 12:41 am
Definately. It’d be nice to use my mp3 player for something like this.
April 4th, 2008 | 9:13 am
Sounds cool enough to give it a try?
Did something ever came to be off this? Did you run the experiment? What were the results? Is there a place we could download the mp3 file and give it a go??
Cheers on your cool website
April 18th, 2008 | 1:53 pm
Very exciting. Please, update us on the status of the study. And send me the virtual workout!
Dancing is an excellent and fun way to exercise.
April 28th, 2008 | 3:27 am
yea i would definitaly participate in your study…and playing sports, or in my case soccer, is the funnest way to get fit
April 29th, 2008 | 8:11 pm
I am currently loosing weight, i have lost about 12kg so far, and my excersise is mostly walking my dog, which at first was a drag, and i could only do it once a day, and had to drag myself along. now 6 months in and those 12kg lighter, i do the same walk twice a day, and i enjoy it, and if i don’t do it i miss it, and my legs ache, and i end up walking on the spot for about 10 min just to move a bit.
i also do yoga, and use an excersise bike a few times a week. and when i am lyeing in bed i visualise excersising, and i have been able to increase my heart rate and breathing by doing this. so i am convinced that it does some good. it can be hard to concentrate, so i would love to try out an MP3 of a visualised work out.
May 7th, 2008 | 11:52 pm
I understand that the study is closed, but I still want to satisfy my curiositiy about this topic. I want to know what instructions were given for the studies so i could experiment on my own. Supposedly a large percentage of your thoughts from the previous day will be reciprocated the following day, so in a way you definitely do create your own reality. I’m really curious to hear what the different studies/techniques were…
June 18th, 2008 | 10:01 am
What this article is saying is definitely correct. Our brain has so much both psychological and concrete effects for our body’s capabilities. I remember that when you are being chased by a dog, you would run faster than you can ever imagine.
June 18th, 2008 | 10:09 am
When you have less confidence, you’ll get sick faster. This is approximately something that you cannot deny. The power of our brain is much bigger than we can imagine, it’s true. We can lose more calories if we know and believe that our brain controls our body cells.