Chiropractors are concerned with the relationship between the brain and all the
cells, organs and glands of our body. Our brain sends an impulse to the body
causing an action and the body responds to the brain relaying its actions. There
is a certain quantity of impulse within every action as is required for that
action.

Muscles move in response to impulses from nearby motor neurons. The firing of
those neurons in turn depends on the strength of electrical impulses sent by the
brain.

Given this information it would be reasonable to assume that the physical
quantity of impulse is all we need to have optimal function – not so, say the
researchers.

They say that we can increase our muscular strength just by thinking the muscles
strong. Simply thinking about a larger signal going to a certain area (in this
case a muscle) you can increase muscle strength just as you would with
resistance exercise.

Investigators reported at the Annual Meeting of Society for Neuroscience
conference in San Diego, California November 2001 that they have already found
that a mental visualisation exercise was enough to increase strength in a muscle
in the little finger, which it uses to move sideways. Now this team has turned
its attention to a larger, more frequently used muscle, the biceps.

They asked 10 volunteers aged 20 to 35 to imagine flexing one of their biceps as
hard as possible in training sessions five times a week. The researchers
recorded the electrical brain activity during the sessions. To ensure the
volunteers were not unintentionally tensing, they also monitored electrical
impulses at the motor neurons of their arm muscles.

Every two weeks, they measured the strength of the volunteers’ muscles. The
volunteers who thought about exercise showed a 13.5 per cent increase in
strength after a few weeks, and maintained that gain for three months after the
training stopped. Controls who missed out on the mental workout showed no
improvement in strength.

Chiropractors have long recognised that the quality of the nerve impulse is an
essential ingredient for health. Whilst this study might be taken as an easy way
to exercise, it says a lot more. The way we visualise our body has a profound
effect upon its function. If we see strength and robustness throughout every
cell, tissue and organ we are increasing our chances of enjoying corresponding
function of those areas.

Consider the quality of the impulse because you are the driver of it.