Understanding the body mind connection

 When you train your muscles, you tap into your mind-body connection through your neuromuscular system. Before you can contract a muscle fiber, the nervous system must run a communication network from the brain through the spinal column and out to the individual muscle fiber. In the early stages of training, before you start seeing visible external results, your body is laying down this neural network. The more extensive your neural network, the more individual muscle fibers contract.Studies show that by concentrating on the muscles that you’re training, you can get results faster. In one study, a group of people performed a simple exercise, another group of people imagine

d doing the exercise but didn’t actually do it, and a third group served as the control and didn’t do anything. Of course, participants who actually lifted the weight gained the most strength. However, the people who simply imagined doing the exercise had more gains than those who did nothing. Physical therapists are also conducting studies on the use of motor imagery with patients who’ve lost neuromuscular control due to stroke or Parkinson’s disease. Patients visualize walking with a perfect gait, as well as practice specific gait exercises. Studies show that this visualization helps improve performance. The bottom line, therefore, is that you have nothing to lose and possibly more effective training results to gain by focusing your mind on your target muscles as you do your exercises.