Blake Vajgrt HHP 290 – Health Psychology

 Visualization is a technique where individuals practice mental repetitions or see themselves performing desired tasks ◦ This technique has been shown to increase performance, physical strength, and affective responses to exercise ◦ It has wide application to athletes and general population

 Cognitive Specific ◦ Individuals imagining the skills that they will perform  Cognitive General ◦ Imagery of the strategies, routines, and details of programs  Motivational Specific ◦ Visualization achieving goals and success  Motivational General Arousal ◦ Imagery to reduce stress and anxiety and increasing arousal  Motivational General Mastery ◦ Visualization that emphasizes positive outlooks and self-confidence

 This is the most common protocol of visualization taught ◦ Physical ◦ Environment ◦ Task ◦ Timing ◦ Learning ◦ Emotion ◦ Perspective Practitioners view themselves in performance gear and in the setting tasks will take place in real time and at their skill level.

 Internal Perspective occurs when individuals uses images through their own eyes ◦ Beneficial for opens skills that are determined by paces  External perspective focuses on viewing action as if watching someone else perform the task ◦ Beneficial for activities that rely on form and technique

 Strength adaptations occur early in a training cycle and from improved neuromuscular coordination and activation  Visualization activates the cerebral cortical motor areas in the brain just as if movements were being performed  Researchers Lebon, Collet, & Gullilot found that physical training plus visualization leads to greater strength adaptations over a just training group

 Visualization may play an important role in coping, recovering, and preventing losses due to inactivity in injured individuals ◦ The neural stimulation has been shown to maintain skills and abilities in injured athletes unable to practice (Sarafhazi, Abudllah, & Amiri-Khoransni, 2012, 2362). General imagery can increase adherence to exercise programs by increases self-efficacy and motivation Visualization of exercise being enjoyable can increase time to exhaustion

 Researchers Nadar & McDowd found that if rehab patients watched individuals prescribe a rehab protocol it allowed them to retain and perform exercises better. ◦ Watching other perform the same exercises can increase motivation to complete tasks others are able to perform ◦ Subjects who viewed models have better commitments to programs ◦ Having groups perform and watch others do similar exercise can be beneficial for rehab patients