CARDIFF, Wales, March 31 (UPI) -- A study presented at the British Psychological Society conference in Wales showed that muscles worked more when subjects focused on their muscles' activity.
The research team at the University of Hull wired subjects to monitor levels of electrical activity in their biceps and asked them to think in two different ways while exercising.
When subjects were asked to focus on what their muscles were doing and how they were working, there were significantly higher levels of electrical activity. But when they simply visualized themselves lifting the weight, lower rates of muscle activity were recorded.
The finding seems to contradict earlier studies, which showed that thinking about what muscles are actually doing could make more skillful tasks like throwing a ball more difficult, the BBC reported.
David Marchant, a researcher, explained that soccer players kicking a penalty shot generally focus on the goal because muscles might otherwise become "overactivated."
Jim Golby, an expert in sports and mental toughness at the University of Teesside's Social Futures Institute, said testing subjects with 10 repetitions of weight lifting did not really replicate real-life sporting conditions.
