Clinical Pilates in Practice: Describing Movement & Motor Learning
This small study contributes to the body of literature linking motor imagery and motor learning. While there are drawbacks to this study, the authors extrapolate that verbally describing movement may be a useful tool for those patient populations who may not otherwise be able to use motor imagery training: patients with acquired brain injuries or Parkinson’s disease1.
Kawasaki, Tsubasa, Masashi Kono, and Ryosuke Tozawa. "Efficacy of Verbally Describing One’s Own Body Movement in Motor Skill Acquisition." Brain Sciences 9, no. 12 (2019), 356. doi:10.3390/brainsci9120356.
Key Points: Describing Movement for Motor Learning
Verbal description of one’s own body movement shows overlapping brain activity with motor execution and motor imagery2.
Verbally describing movement improves motor performance of a task, with short-term retention.
Error was decreased for a motor task when verbally describing one’s own movement, but only the day after practice.
Motor imagery is related to the motor learning process when describing one’s own body movements for a given task.
Clinical Pilates in practice
Ask patients to describe what their body is doing/how their body is moving as they learn a new task.
Utilise this tool for neurological populations who may have difficulty conceptualising imagery and visualisation.
Get a patient to practice a movement in various positions, and ask them to describe what their body is doing in each orientation, to facilitate their motor learning.
→ Supine Triceps Press at the Cadillac.
→ Kneeling Triceps Press on the Reformer.
→ Seated Triceps Press at the Wunda Chair.
References
1. Kawasaki, T., Kono, M. and Tozawa, R. (2019). Efficacy of Verbally Describing One’s Own Body Movement in Motor Skill Acquisition. Brain Sciences, 9(12), pp.356-364.
2. Stout, D. and Chaminade, T. (2012). Stone tools, language and the brain in human evolution. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 367(1585), pp.75-87.