You think that’s air you’re breathing?

The first time I saw this 'chair flying' is the Blue Angels briefing room video[0]. Can they actually remember the whole flow with the drawings etc. and imagine the whole scene with their hand movements etc? Absolutely unbelievable. I've never missed them in all the years since I moved to San Francisco. They're so tight in when they fly and they visualize the whole thing in a chair? Crazy to me.

0: https://youtu.be/PFxszP-1tHI?t=81

Race car drivers often make use of this as well.

It can legitimately help you drive a lap faster in e.g qualifying.

There's muscle growth and metabolic changes (including at the level of the cell), but strength is also largely neurological.

Similarly, a headset can "read your thoughts" (inner voice) by detecting subtle activations in the facial muscles. A student at MIT constructed such a headset about ten years ago:

https://youtube.com/watch?v=VnMS8WMDDhs

Came here to share exactly this. Pilot training has long emphasized “chair flying”. At my first airline we sat at paper mockups and repeatedly drilled procedures until you could recite them in your sleep. Fortunately, modern tech has given us “flyable” digital mockups. Not quite a full sim but an arrangement of touch screens where everything functions as a real plane.

During longer periods away from flying I will spend a few days prior to the next flight mentally chair flying normal procedures.

I do think there’s some level of experience necessary for this to be beneficial though. Chair flying a plane I've never flown isn’t likely to be very productive without feedback from an experienced pilot. I would imagine the same is true for a couch potato trying to imagine a difficult squat set.

The oldest study I found on this was with basketball, I believe in the 1950s. The theory was that since the imagination group was able to make perfect shots every time, this accelerated the process.

https://sci-hub.ru/10.1080/10671188.1960.10613109

Clark, L. V. (1960). Effect of Mental Practice on the Development of a Certain Motor Skill. Research Quarterly, 31(4), 560–569.

I feel like I do this anytime I get really into chess, and some other skills. Spend a lot of time mentally practicing it. I don't think it ever actually improves the skill, but it might reinforce what I already know. It can't be a very strong boost though, because I'm still shite at chess.

Thinking about a scary moment can make your pulse race, your eyes dilate, and cause you to sweat. Thinking about a lover can do all that and other things. So clearly the imagination can affect the body. Not saying this study will hold up necessarily, but it's not that far fetched.