Is it really possible to build muscle and get stronger without doing any physical exercise, but instead just by thinking about doing the exercise?
The science says yes. Perhaps it’s easier to understand when we consider how the brain must be involved in developing a muscle once it has been worked and that it is also quite easy to fool the brain into experiencing physical events. What tells a muscle to get bigger, stronger? What activates the muscle cells to grow, if not the brain? And what controls the hormones that drive the mechanisms for muscle development?
We’ve long been supporters of the use of hypnosis in running training. But, it’s usually been used more obviously for psychological gains: developing mental strength for example to use towards the end of a marathon. Or, maybe, to increase motivation to actually get out and train when we really don’t feel like it.
Most runners know how important having a strong body is to run well and injury-free, but many still shirk the body conditioning and strength exercises that are recognised and proven now to be so important for runners; they’d rather be out there running.
If you are like the many who probably would admit to neglecting the non-running training, then maybe some mental training will help you. The study that’s linked above, saw a staggering 24% increase in muscle strength just by visualising an exercise. How much faster could you run with just half of those gains? How much more injury resistant would you be?
Of course, the stronger this visualisation, then the greater the effect. And as we all know, hypnosis is a great way to produce maximum gain from your mental training. Uncommon knowledge produce very high quality, professionally produced hypnosis downloads that you can listen to again and again, check out their muscle strength production and start literally thinking your body stronger.
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