Injured on One Side? Recover Faster.

author : Team BT

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New research shows mind-blowing shortcut to rehab using a phenomenon in our brains. And a mirror.

New research is showing that exercising your uninjured leg, for example, will prevent atrophy in your injured leg, even if your injured leg is immobilized.

A fascinating research review in Frontiers in Physiology explains how more sophisticated understanding and imaging of the brain, as well as better measurement of muscle function, allows scientists to declare for certain that exercising the opposite-side muscle from the injured or immobilized one can have great benefits for the non-moving muscle.

As astonishing as it sounds that flexing your right arm can strengthen your left arm, that's nothing compared to the mirror effect:

The same article examines studies in which a mirror is placed strategically to obstruct the view of the injured limb and replace it with a view of the healthy limb. For example, if the right knee is injured but an athlete wants to maintain strength in that leg, she could place a mirror along the inside of the left leg and look into it while exercising the left leg. This tricks the mind into "seeing" the right leg exercising. 

Shockingly, the strength gains in the injured leg nearly DOUBLED when the mirror effect was used.

If you are nursing an injury or out for the season, these fascinating developments could keep you from losing hard-won fitness. Read the entire study and speak with your physical therapist about these techniques.

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date: January 31, 2018