Thinking about a scary moment can make your pulse race, your eyes dilate, and cause you to sweat. Thinking about a lover can do all that and other things. So clearly the imagination can affect the body. Not saying this study will hold up necessarily, but it's not that far fetched.

It's not too odd to me to think that the brain could have the ability to influence how much muscle mass the body wants to create. Obviously being able to think your way to being a full on bodybuilder is a bit far but...

I've for example been lying in bed before with cold toes and by focusing on heating them up in my mind I swear my blood circulation improves much faster than if I don't.

Just anecdotal of course, but considering the role the brain plays in the body I don't see it too far fetched that it can to some extent influence either of the above.

Martial Arts have been doing these for centuries if anything it is more like modern science rediscovering it. Although I believe it is much more Neural adaptation that muscles hypertrophy.

I don't know - I've done physical therapy before, and a surprisingly big component includes neurological exercises (vs exclusively strengthening and stretching, like you might expect).

It's feasible to me that thinking/visualizing a motion could improve your ability to recruit those muscles

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The first time I saw this 'chair flying' is the Blue Angels briefing room video[0]. Can they actually remember the whole flow with the drawings etc. and imagine the whole scene with their hand movements etc? Absolutely unbelievable. I've never missed them in all the years since I moved to San Francisco. They're so tight in when they fly and they visualize the whole thing in a chair? Crazy to me.

0: https://youtu.be/PFxszP-1tHI?t=81

There's muscle growth and metabolic changes (including at the level of the cell), but strength is also largely neurological.

Similarly, a headset can "read your thoughts" (inner voice) by detecting subtle activations in the facial muscles. A student at MIT constructed such a headset about ten years ago:

https://youtube.com/watch?v=VnMS8WMDDhs

Race car drivers often make use of this as well.

It can legitimately help you drive a lap faster in e.g qualifying.

Came here to share exactly this. Pilot training has long emphasized “chair flying”. At my first airline we sat at paper mockups and repeatedly drilled procedures until you could recite them in your sleep. Fortunately, modern tech has given us “flyable” digital mockups. Not quite a full sim but an arrangement of touch screens where everything functions as a real plane.

During longer periods away from flying I will spend a few days prior to the next flight mentally chair flying normal procedures.

I do think there’s some level of experience necessary for this to be beneficial though. Chair flying a plane I've never flown isn’t likely to be very productive without feedback from an experienced pilot. I would imagine the same is true for a couch potato trying to imagine a difficult squat set.

The oldest study I found on this was with basketball, I believe in the 1950s. The theory was that since the imagination group was able to make perfect shots every time, this accelerated the process.

https://sci-hub.ru/10.1080/10671188.1960.10613109

Clark, L. V. (1960). Effect of Mental Practice on the Development of a Certain Motor Skill. Research Quarterly, 31(4), 560–569.

I feel like I do this anytime I get really into chess, and some other skills. Spend a lot of time mentally practicing it. I don't think it ever actually improves the skill, but it might reinforce what I already know. It can't be a very strong boost though, because I'm still shite at chess.

You think that’s air you’re breathing?