![]() He added: "FIT is based on two decades of research showing that mental imagery is more strongly emotionally charged than other types of thought. Professor Jon May is one of the co-creators of FIT, and co-author on the paper. It's in three years' time, so I'm starting training early and really embracing the challenge." Having never run before, my ultimate aim is now a running trip in South America which will take a couple of months. "FIT has been a huge mindset shift, and I now use imagery as a way to reset to ground me and help me to focus on being present, appreciating why I am here while also prompting me to cue my immediate, medium- and long-term goals. Completing the event successfully, she said: "My honest reason for starting running in the first place was just to see if I could do it. Melissa King, aged 38 from Newquay in Cornwall, was allocated the FIT intervention as she prepared for the Exmoor Ultra Marathon earlier this year. "It shows that multi-sensory imagery is the key difference between those who reach the starting line and then go on to finish, and those who do not - showing it is critical to maintaining changes and pushing the boundaries of physical and mental performance." Trialling Functional Imagery Training on historically self-professed non-runners was a real test of its efficacy, and to see that it made a difference was a promising finding. ![]() Lead author Dr Jon Rhodes, who has worked with professional athletes to improve their resilience, said: "An ultra-marathon requires a huge amount of mental, as well as physical, strength - even from people who run regularly. It teaches people new ways of thinking about their immediate future to help them stay motivated as they achieve each small step towards their goal - with users describing it as a 'mindset shift', where they exercised because they wanted to, rather than feeling they had to.įor example, at difficult points in the race, a participant in the new study - a teacher - pictured the conversation they would have at work on Monday morning: visualising the staff room, holding a coffee in hand, imagining the smell and the taste, talking about the challenges with a peer, then using this self-developed image to imagine the feeling at the finish line, as they go from little exercise to ultra-athlete. While researchers acknowledge the small population size, the study, published in the Journal of Imagery Research in Sport and Physical Activity, adds to the growing body of evidence that FIT can significantly reinforce a person's motivation to complete a challenging goal.įIT has also previously been shown to boost weight loss, with another Plymouth-led study showing that overweight people who used it lost an average of five times more weight than those using motivational interviewing alone.ĭeveloped at the University of Plymouth, FIT is a unique approach to behaviour change that uses mental imagery to motivate change. Meanwhile, all seven of the FIT group started, and six finished - showing that those assigned to the technique were five times more likely to complete the challenge. Of the eight participants in the MI only group, four started the race, and two finished. ![]() Functional Imagery Training builds on MI, as it teaches clients how to elicit and practice motivational imagery themselves, with participants encouraged to utilise all their senses to visualise how it would feel to achieve their goal. MI is a technique that sees a counsellor support someone to develop, highlight and verbalise their need or motivation for change, and their reasons for wanting to change. Seven were randomly assigned FIT, while eight continued with just MI. After this period all were contacted and asked if they would consider completing an ultra-marathon.įifteen participants went on to express an interest in attempting an ultra-marathon as they continued to improve their fitness. Participants were then left for five months to do whatever they presumed would benefit their fitness and health. The study, led by the University of Plymouth, started by examining the motivation of 31 non-runners who wanted to get fitter, by giving them a recognised behaviour change technique, often used by counsellors, known as Motivational Interviewing (MI).
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