How to unlock the power of mental imagery to lift performance and aid recovery

Try this: lift your arm up over your head as high as you can. Put your arm down, and now imagine a jar on the top shelf of a cupboard. Take it down and hand it to me, please.

Did you notice that you did two very different movements? Not only is the range of motion different in the arm, the quality of the movement is different.

In the first instance, the mind (nervous system) recruits the arm to lift to the range the mind believes the arm is capable of extending at the shoulder. In the second instance, the mental preparation is completely different; the goal is to lift the object off the shelf, so the mind brings the shelf within reach of shoulder girdle extension, with full body intention – slight rotation of the trunk recruiting the abdominals, back extensors – and preparation to receive the load as the object is picked up, thereby creating greater shoulder, elbow and wrist stabilisation.

Try it on someone who hasn’t read this article and observe the difference in movement, as well as the belief in performing the movement successfully. You will witness the difference between simple muscular conditioning and neural training through imagery.

Economy, longevity and effectiveness of movement are not possible without mental presence. Presence during movement happens effortlessly and naturally if one actually enjoys the movement – which often happens when the mind recalls a positive movement experience, and relates it to the “exercise” at hand. Through visualisation, the brain recalls and reconstructs pieces of information stored in memory into a meaningful image.

Another important characteristic of imagery is that it is multisensory, involving all five senses. Although the terms imagery and visualisation are sometimes used interchangeably, imagery is more than just visual recall. In fact, the more senses are invoked, the more powerful the image and neural recall. Of particular importance is kinesthetic recall (how a muscle feels as it moves), as well as touch (tactile), sound (auditory), smell (olfactory), and taste (gustatory).

For example, not only do athletes visualise the environment in which they train (pool, track, field, etc), they “feel” in their mind the sensations in their muscles as they perform certain moves. They may also feel their running shoes on their feet, smell the pool, the grip of a basketball in their hands. In some instances, emotions involved in a game or training may also be invoked, affecting the nervous system almost identically to the actual experience.