Comparing the Effect of Mental Imagery and Real Exercises on Strength and Hypertrophy of Elbow Flexor Muscles

Muscle damage has always been a serious problem following accidents and spinal cord injuries. Mental imagery or motor imagery is a treatment in which a patient evokes a movement to improve performance. There are limited studies in this field, so, this study aimed at investigating the effect of mental imagery on increasing the strength of elbow flexor muscles.

This study was performed in 20 healthy individuals, non-athletes aged 22-25 years old. The strength of the elbow flexor muscles was measured by a dynamometer and a special tape measure was used to measure the hypertrophy of the biceps muscle. The experimental group performed strength training designed for the superior hand using free weights and at the same time performed this exercise mentally with the non-superior hand (three days a week/12 weeks). Mann-Whitney U test was used to compare the changes between superior and non-superior hand and Wilcoxan test was used to compare the amount of changes in maximum muscle contractile force.

Findings showed increased elbow flexor strength and hypertrophy in both the superior hand and non-superior hand.

Although real exercises were more effective in improving strength and hypertrophy of flexor elbow muscles, but mental imagery also affected muscle strength and hypertrophy as much as real exercises.