How to Exercise by Imagining Movements

When you shoot some hoops or kick a ball, the areas in your brain responsible for planning, coordinating, and performing movements are active. These are the so-called motor areas. But the motor areas are not only involved when you actually perform a movement, they are also activated when you imagine performing movements. The fact that actual movement and imaginary movement activate similar brain areas can be used to improve motor functions, such as hand or foot movements. When motor areas of the brain are damaged due to an injury, for example, if you hurt your head during an accident, your motor functions might be impaired. So, you have to have physiotherapy to relearn how to perform specific movements and let injured brain areas recover. Recovery can be boosted by additionally imagining moving the affected limb. This therapy is called movement imagery. Movement imagery activates injured brain areas and leads to improvements in motor functions. This is how exercising using movement imagery works.