Brain Power Equals Muscle Size

Picking up where I left off yesterday on morphing how the greats trained, brain power can increase muscle size. With that being said, what is the next step in this progression? How infrequent will training become? Will we even touch weights anymore? HA! Blasphemy folks! No, not really. Picture this: mental training, working out in your thoughts. Starting this millennium several studies have pointed to the fact that simply thinking about exercise can equal to gains in size and strength. Researchers that feel this concept to be true have pointed to studies that suggest that training a muscle on one side of the body does result in muscular gains in the matching muscle on the opposite, untrained side of the body. Weird, huh? I believe it to be true myself. So if you break you arm train the unbroken arm to keep the one out of commission in better shape, it’s the least you can do for the poor cracked wanker! So the fact that nerves are signaling growth in untrained muscles even when uni-lateral training is utilized lends itself to the point this article is trying to make. Next step: stimulate muscle growth just by thinking and activating the growth receptors without actually moving a muscle at all.

The theory was tested. 30 subjects divided into three groups. The first group thought of training their pinky finger muscles. The second group thought of training their triceps and the third group served as the control and did no imaginary heavy lifting. The training sessions were 15 minutes a day, five days a week, for 12 weeks. During the mental training the subjects were hooked up to an electroencephalograph machine (say that three times fast). The machine measures brain waves and found high activity and focus in the prefrontal cortex area of the brain in group one and especially in group two. The activity was low prior to the imaginary workouts. Finger strength was measured before and after the training periods. Increases in strength topped out over 30% for the finger group. The triceps group had a little over a 10% gain. Now that’s using your brain power. The control had zilch…surprise, surprise.

What this all points to and what does it mean for us? Well simply put the mental training exemplifies the connection between strength gains and the all holy mind-body connection. This is a prime example that you can control your muscles using your brain power…no duh? Don’t stop training! Just implement what anyone great has done in any field whether it be piano performances, giving a speech, a first kiss, shooting the game winning jump shot, or doing a killer set of deadlifts: VISUALIZE. See yourself doing the action. Feel the set, smell it, and refine your mental senses. So no daydreaming, focus during training: feel the brain connection and enjoy the pump. Besides if you don’t maintain complete mental fortitude you miss out on possible muscle gains and even can fall in to the injury trap. My advice: Think of training before you go to bed and wake up stronger and become great. Use your brain power. Happy trails…muscle brethren.