Did you know that many surgeons usually do mental practice before arriving at a complicated operation? Did you know that for athletes, imagining the movements they perform on the courts or in the fields is almost a normal routine? And I don’t mean making plans but rather imagining in detail the way in which physical movements are performed.
Well, in 2008 a very interesting study was carried out in which the fundamental question was whether performing mental practices could really improve skills in the operating room. To answer this question, the researchers recruited medical students who were already doing clinical practices. Half of them were trained to use imagery (that is, to reproduce the movements of the operations in their minds) and the other half underwent the normal course taught by schools.
As you can imagine, those students who imagined the movements in their minds performed better surgeries than the others. Another similar study carried out more recently, in 2011, once again demonstrated that imagery improved the skills of surgeons who had to perform laparoscopy.
If we move away from the operating rooms, we will see that imagery is also common in sports. In fact, athletes such as tennis player Roger Federer and Formula One driver Jenson Button have publicly acknowledged that they use this technique and that it gives them very good results.
How does imagery work?
To answer this question we must return to a study carried out in 2004. In this experiment the participants were divided into four groups:
1. They imagined contractions of their little finger.
2. They imagined contractions of their arm.
3. They did not train.
4. They trained by actually moving their little finger or arm.
People did this for four weeks. After that, the strength in their little finger and arm was evaluated. Obviously, those who had not undergone any training (group 3) showed no increase in strength and those who trained physically had an increase in strength of approximately 53% (group 4).
But… what happened to the first and second group; That is, with people who only imagined that they were moving their little finger or their arm? Well now comes the interesting part: in group 1, an increase in strength in the little finger of 35% was seen and in group 2, an increase in arm strength of 13.5%.
At this point, researchers have no doubt: mentally imagining an exercise down to its smallest details and doing it every day can lead to real changes in your physique.
Sources:
Arora, S. et. Al. (2011) Mental practice enhances surgical technical skills: a randomized controlled study. Annals of Surgery ; 253(2): 265-270.
Sanders, C.W. et. Al. (2008) Learning basic surgical skills with mental imagery: using the simulation center in the mind. Medical Education 42(6): 607-612.
Vinoth, K. et. Al. (2004) From mental power to muscle power—gaining strength by using the mind. Neuropsychology ; 42(7): 944–956.
