From Mind to Body: Is Mental Practice Effective on Strength Gains? A Meta-Analysis

Title:From Mind to Body: Is Mental Practice Effective on Strength Gains? A Meta-Analysis

Volume: 14 Issue: 9

Author(s): João Paulo Manochio, Eduardo Lattari, Eduardo Matta Mello Portugal, Renato Sobral Monteiro-Junior, Flávia Paes, Henning Budde, Paulo de Tarso Veras Farinatti, Oscar Arias-Carrión, Mirko Wegner, Mauro Giovanni Carta, Gioia Mura, Nuno Barbosa Ferreira Rocha, Leonardo Ferreira Almada, Antonio Egidio Nardi, Ti-Fei Yuan and Sergio Machado

Affiliation:

Keywords: Mental practice, motor imagery, imagery, strength training, resistance training, muscle strength, strength.

Abstract: Mental practice is an internal reproduction of a motor act (whose intention is to promote learning and improving motor skills). Some studies have shown that other cognitive strategies also increase the strength and muscular resistance in healthy people by the enhancement of the performance during dynamic tasks. Mental training sessions may be primordial to improving muscle strength in different subjects. The aim of this study was to systematically review and meta-analiyze studies that assessed whether mental practice is effective in improving muscular strength. We conducted an electronic-computed search in Pub-Med/Medline and ISI Web of Knowledge, Scielo and manual searchs, searching papers written in English between 1991 and 2014. There were 44 studies in Pub-Med/Medline, 631 in ISI Web of Knowledge, 11 in Scielo and 3 in manual searchs databases. After exclusion of studies for duplicate, unrelated to the topic by title and summary, different samples and methodologies, a meta-analysis of 4 studies was carried out to identify the dose-response relationship. We did not find evidence that mental practice is effective in increasing strength in healthy individuals. There is no evidence that mental practice alone can be effective to induce strength gains or to optimize the training effects.

Cite this article as:

Manochio Paulo João, Lattari Eduardo, Portugal Matta Mello Eduardo, Monteiro-Junior Sobral Renato, Paes Flávia, Budde Henning, Tarso Veras Farinatti de Paulo, Arias-Carrión Oscar, Wegner Mirko, Carta Giovanni Mauro, Mura Gioia, Ferreira Rocha Barbosa Nuno, Almada Ferreira Leonardo, Nardi Egidio Antonio, Yuan Ti-Fei and Machado Sergio, From Mind to Body: Is Mental Practice Effective on Strength Gains? A Meta-Analysis, CNS & Neurological Disorders - Drug Targets 2015; 14 (9) . https://dx.doi.org/10.2174/1871527315666151111125847