You are in : Training > Training Categories > Life Skills Training

Soft Skills

Exercise your mind

Fri, 27 Jan 2012 11:19

By Cindy Payle

In her blog Mental Training vs Physical Training Diane Collier (Dynamic Growth Training) discusses the untapped power of the brain and the ability to achieve success in the physical world by utilising the creative mind.

Subtitled How we get stronger by doing a mental workout, the piece specifically looks at the connection between physical and mental exercise.

Collier argues that the mind has deep wells of possibility and potential that has not yet been accessed. Her analysis is based on a study conducted by Justus Liebig University Giessen in Germany and led by Mathias Reiser and published in Frontiers in Psychology in August 2011.

The research compared five groups of people who were instructed to exercise both mind and body in varying degrees. The aim was to discover the best way to lose weight and tone up. Some were placed on a wholly physical exercise regime. Others spent part of their fitness plan envisioning themselves working out.

In the final analysis it was revealed that the group who completed 100% of a physical training program and the group who completed 25% physical training and 75% mental training displayed only a marginal difference in the results.

What does this test reveal about our brains? Merely that for centuries humans have underestimated what can be accomplished through our thinking power, limiting brain functions to the more analytical and academic processes.

As Collier says “It lays to rest any ideas of the mind being only a problem solving tool whose sole role is to think thoughts and to analyse life circumstances.”

More importantly this test removes any guilt about missing that walk and gives us a reason to stay in bed a little longer.

Visit Diane's blog for a more in-depth look at the power of the mind.