Taking time off to heal

[Gerry Seymour]

Visualization.

I'll explain. I screwed up my shoulder and had to have it operated on. Judo practice was ruled out by the surgeon for some reason, so I was in a similar situation and not wanting to go nuts.

My Aikido teacher suggested that I visualize myself in class, go through the entire class in my imagination. He meant aikido class, but I used it for judo as well. It worked, and through the practice stumbled into the same sort of visualization type of practice used by lots of professional & Olympic atheletes. It worked well for me to bridge the gap while I was healing up.

Good point. I completely forgot about that, though it's something I use all the time. There's some good science backing up the practice, too.

 

[JP3]

Good point. I completely forgot about that, though it's something I use all the time. There's some good science backing up the practice, too.

Yes, I've recently got very interested in neuroplasticity, epigenetics, psychoimmunology... all that stuff. Very interesting how all of that works together. I started off by reading Dr. Joe Dispenza's book, Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself. Very good read. He goes into visualization quite a bit, including people who got physically stronger by visualizing lifting weights, and not actually physically performing the exercise. Published scientific papers back that up.

 

[Gerry Seymour]

Yes, I've recently got very interested in neuroplasticity, epigenetics, psychoimmunology... all that stuff. Very interesting how all of that works together. I started off by reading Dr. Joe Dispenza's book, Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself. Very good read. He goes into visualization quite a bit, including people who got physically stronger by visualizing lifting weights, and not actually physically performing the exercise. Published scientific papers back that up.

Yeah, there was a study I read some years ago that used running visualization. And I think there was another that used a specific basketball skill, but I've either made that one up or forgotten every detail involved.

 

[JP3]

Yeah, there was a study I read some years ago that used running visualization. And I think there was another that used a specific basketball skill, but I've either made that one up or forgotten every detail involved.

You visualized it.

 

[JR 137]

Yeah, there was a study I read some years ago that used running visualization. And I think there was another that used a specific basketball skill, but I've either made that one up or forgotten every detail involved.

I’ve seen this visualization being attempted before...

 

[Gerry Seymour]

You visualized it.

Well played.

 

[Orion Nebula]

I had another good class on Monday. The knee still has a little pressure in it, but I can move pretty good now. We had a few visitors from another dojo and did a lot of sparring and sparring drills. It's nice to spar with new people. One in particular gave me a lot of good advice to improve my skills, particularly my foot work.

Now that the pressure has gone down in my knee, I'm having a little bit more pain. Not constant or sharp pain, but just some dull soreness at different times throughout the day. So I decided to look up some stretches and exercises for knee bursitis and do them. It made a big difference. Wish I knew about them sooner! I'm beginning to wonder if maybe the doc underestimated the injury a bit, because a PT session probably would have been beneficial to teach me some of these.

Good point. I completely forgot about that, though it's something I use all the time. There's some good science backing up the practice, too.

Yes, I've recently got very interested in neuroplasticity, epigenetics, psychoimmunology... all that stuff. Very interesting how all of that works together. I started off by reading Dr. Joe Dispenza's book, Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself. Very good read. He goes into visualization quite a bit, including people who got physically stronger by visualizing lifting weights, and not actually physically performing the exercise. Published scientific papers back that up.

As a scientist, I am always happy to hear about techniques backed by scientific studies. That's really bizarre that people got stronger without actually doing the exercise. I'll have to look up some of that literature. Maybe visualization can make my hips a little more flexible In all seriousness, though, I am intrigued by the use of visualization to improve my karate. There are things I was very good at as a teen that I just can't seem to do right in my restart. Perhaps some visualization can help me work it out.

 

[Gerry Seymour]

I had another good class on Monday. The knee still has a little pressure in it, but I can move pretty good now. We had a few visitors from another dojo and did a lot of sparring and sparring drills. It's nice to spar with new people. One in particular gave me a lot of good advice to improve my skills, particularly my foot work.

Now that the pressure has gone down in my knee, I'm having a little bit more pain. Not constant or sharp pain, but just some dull soreness at different times throughout the day. So I decided to look up some stretches and exercises for knee bursitis and do them. It made a big difference. Wish I knew about them sooner! I'm beginning to wonder if maybe the doc underestimated the injury a bit, because a PT session probably would have been beneficial to teach me some of these.





As a scientist, I am always happy to hear about techniques backed by scientific studies. That's really bizarre that people got stronger without actually doing the exercise. I'll have to look up some of that literature. Maybe visualization can make my hips a little more flexible In all seriousness, though, I am intrigued by the use of visualization to improve my karate. There are things I was very good at as a teen that I just can't seem to do right in my restart. Perhaps some visualization can help me work it out.

Likely an important part of the process that lead to those strength increases is that part of our limit of strength is neurological. Our system apparently holds back from 100% power to prevent injuries. This is why someone who lifts their 1-rep max every now and then will be significantly stronger than someone who doesn't - their system isn't primed to recognize that large weights are safe to lift. Visualization has been shown to activate many of the same areas of the brain as the activity being visualized. Thus, visualizing lifting likely gives the brain the input needed to relax those safeties a bit.

 

[JR 137]

Likely an important part of the process that lead to those strength increases is that part of our limit of strength is neurological. Our system apparently holds back from 100% power to prevent injuries. This is why someone who lifts their 1-rep max every now and then will be significantly stronger than someone who doesn't - their system isn't primed to recognize that large weights are safe to lift. Visualization has been shown to activate many of the same areas of the brain as the activity being visualized. Thus, visualizing lifting likely gives the brain the input needed to relax those safeties a bit.

Same thing with punching and striking. Hitting the bag is most likely doing more neurologically than muscularly. Hitting the bag hard, and repeatedly (as in often, not just one “sitting”) will train the neurological system to let go and let the body do its thing. Hit at max power every now and then; it’s good for you

 

[JP3]

I had another good class on Monday. The knee still has a little pressure in it, but I can move pretty good now. We had a few visitors from another dojo and did a lot of sparring and sparring drills. It's nice to spar with new people. One in particular gave me a lot of good advice to improve my skills, particularly my foot work.

Now that the pressure has gone down in my knee, I'm having a little bit more pain. Not constant or sharp pain, but just some dull soreness at different times throughout the day. So I decided to look up some stretches and exercises for knee bursitis and do them. It made a big difference. Wish I knew about them sooner! I'm beginning to wonder if maybe the doc underestimated the injury a bit, because a PT session probably would have been beneficial to teach me some of these.





As a scientist, I am always happy to hear about techniques backed by scientific studies. That's really bizarre that people got stronger without actually doing the exercise. I'll have to look up some of that literature. Maybe visualization can make my hips a little more flexible In all seriousness, though, I am intrigued by the use of visualization to improve my karate. There are things I was very good at as a teen that I just can't seem to do right in my restart. Perhaps some visualization can help me work it out.

I'm sort of a cynical person by nature about things that seem hocus-pocus... so I feel you on that. However, I really do recommend a read of Dispenza's books, he cites directly to the studies by the scientists & physicians from whom he pulls his model, and assembles it logically & understandably. It's definitely worth the Audible.com credit to get one or two.

 

[Gerry Seymour]

I'm sort of a cynical person by nature about things that seem hocus-pocus... so I feel you on that. However, I really do recommend a read of Dispenza's books, he cites directly to the studies by the scientists & physicians from whom he pulls his model, and assembles it logically & understandably. It's definitely worth the Audible.com credit to get one or two.

I have some driving coming up next week. Might pick one of those up to add to my listening list.

 

[Orion Nebula]

I'm sort of a cynical person by nature about things that seem hocus-pocus... so I feel you on that. However, I really do recommend a read of Dispenza's books, he cites directly to the studies by the scientists & physicians from whom he pulls his model, and assembles it logically & understandably. It's definitely worth the Audible.com credit to get one or two.

I looked into Dispenza's books on Amazon... interesting topics. They did pique my curiosity, but I'm having trouble getting past the author's credentials. His background is presented in such a vague and nebulous way that I'm not sure he really has any academic background in the topics he's writing about. Granted he doesn't necessarily need a formal education in neuroscience, physics, etc. to understand and apply them, but it feels intentionally misleading. Maybe it's all marketing.

I also saw a few reviews that checked some of his citations and the results were not good. For example, someone pointed out that he cited a satirical journal article as if it was legitimate science. Some others familiar with certain fields said he cherry picked and twisted conclusions from the literature to fit his narrative. So I'm feeling pretty skeptical, but the Kindle versions are cheap enough that I might give one a try to see for myself.

 

[JP3]

I also saw a few reviews that checked some of his citations and the results were not good. For example, someone pointed out that he cited a satirical journal article as if it was legitimate science. Some others familiar with certain fields said he cherry picked and twisted conclusions from the literature to fit his narrative. So I'm feeling pretty skeptical, but the Kindle versions are cheap enough that I might give one a try to see for myself.

I noted some of that, too. But, if you've got an Audible.com account, giving one of the books a read is worth your time, or a discounted Kindle read, that works too.

He Does do a lot of taking this piece from over here, and putting it together with this piece and that one from very different disciplines, and when reading the books there are some times when he makes conclusory statements without bridging from premise to conclusion well. However, in reading all four of the books, I can tell you that, one at least one occasion, I've found the explanation to one conclusion explained in a previous book, so there's that.