Enhancing endurance performance with combined imagined and actual physical practice.

Purpose: The perception of effort exerts influence in determining task failure during endurance performance. Training interventions blending physical and cognitive tasks yielded promising results in enhancing performance. Motor imagery can decrease the perception of effort.

Effects of prolonged local vibration superimposed to muscle contraction on motoneuronal and cortical excitability.

Acute effects of prolonged local vibration (LV) at the central nervous system level have been well investigated demonstrating an altered motoneuronal excitability with a concomitant increase in cortical excitability. While applying LV during isometric voluntary contraction is thought to optimize the effects of LV, this has never been addressed considering the acute changes in central nervous system excitability. In the present study, nineteen healthy participants were engaged in four randomized sessions.