Mental skills and personal experiment (17): another athlete’s experience
Today I discussed the effect of having stopped my mental training with my workout buddy/coach/partner. He is also experimenting with mental rehearsal and meditation. He told me he had interrupted his mental training for about a month and resuming it was very hard. I asked him to describe what he meant by “hard”. He said he was only able to do it twice a week now.
I have resumed my mental practice for about 5 days already. It is still “hard”, but in my case this means: 1. I can endure only short sessions (about 4 minutes for each lift, 12-15 minutes total); 2. I frequently have headaches; 3. I get those stupid mind-tricks every time again.
In my review of the literature I found evidence that mental rehearsal may be useful for learning new skills (Allami et al 2008) and also that observing others performing or imagining oneself performing, as an observatory, produces positive effects (Cisek & Kalaska 2004). This latter evidence came from animal models (monkeys). I am not sure I agree with the methodological approach: first, in the case where researchers concluded that mental rehearsal is useful for LEARNING a skill, as opposed to IMPROVING or TRAINING it, there was no situation comparing a group where 100% of the training sessions were on imaginary settings (mental). The smallest amount of overt execution was 25%, which is not negligible. I would conclude all these people improved an overtly learned skill.
Allami N, Paulignan Y, Brovelli A, Boussaoud D. 2008. Visuo-motor learning with combination of different rates of motor imagery and physical practice. Exp Brain Res. 2008 Jan;184(1):105-13. Epub 2007 Sep 12.
Cisek P, Kalaska JF. 2004. Neural correlates of mental rehearsal in dorsal premotor cortex. Nature. 2004 Oct 21;431(7011):993-6
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Mental skills and personal experiment (16): negative feedback
I have stopped mental rehearsal for 10 or 15 days. On March 29th I developed a strange illness. According to my physician, it was a flu-like virosis, pretty strong. This Summer has been particularly difficult for many of us in Brazil. We had the hottest temperatures in more than six decades and I learned the hard way that I suffer from “idiopathic heat intolerance”. By the end of the period when I struggled against heat intolerance, I had interesting results from my mental training.
On March 26th and 27th, we tested the protocol through a maximum effort test, which I reported earlier. This test is quite taxing on the athlete’s immune system, and I might have failed to take the necessary precautions, such as extra supplementation, feeding and hydration. Yes: I am sure I failed. It had been my birthday and all was a bit out of control. On the 28th there was a family party – those long ones – where I definitely failed to feed and supplement properly, plus had some alcohol (ok, in general, not good after maxing out and not recovering well). On the 29th I had a very stressful business meeting. By the end of the day I was already feeling the virosis symptoms: sinus pain, nasal congestion, a little head-ache.
What followed then was unusual: joint pain, sickness and fatigue. I had no strength to make myself even sit down and meditate. Work was demanding and by the end of the day I felt miserable.
I lost 8lbs of lean mass, measured by bio-conductivity tests. And I lost about 25% of my maximum strength. I’ve been able to recover some of it on the squat, but not on the bench press yet. My injury is especially annoying now, as well.
Lessons to take home: it seems once you start on this mental training journey, there is no looking back. The loss was worse than when I had not engaged in any special protocol. It seems the price to pay for the gains in control acquired from mental practice is that the losses are equally dramatic.
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Marilia Coutinho, Ph.D.
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Marilia Coutinho, Ph.D.
