Mind and Muscle – Can Negative Thoughts Affect Muscle Growth?

I’m sure by now we’ve all heard of the placebo effect and know how it affects the mind and muscles. I wrote a decent post about this which can be found on my blog.

The placebo effect is generally found in medical practice. This is when a patient is given a substance, also known as a “sugar pill,” and told that the substance is an actual drug. When the drug is ingested, the patient is aware of the drug’s curative abilities, believes that he will be cured by the medicine, and is cured.

Upon further investigation, we realize that it was not the sugar pill that healed the person, so the question remains, “What healed him?”

I wasn’t the sugar pill that cured him, he cured himself.

The human brain is simply amazing with its power. He created your body and can heal it. What really healed the individual was his strong and unwavering belief that he would be healed. Although he thought it was the pill that cured him, he believed that he would be cured.

There is an opposite reaction to this called the Nocebo Effect. This is simply the opposite of the Placebo Effect where someone believes that they will not be cured no matter what medication they take or what steps they take to get better. Because they believe that they will not be healed no matter what, they do not get healed.

The Placebo Effect doesn’t always work, what I mean is that you don’t always get what you want just because you think you will. Also, with the Nocebo Effect, you may sometimes heal yourself even though you hope you won’t.

What does this have to do with building or losing muscle? The placebo effect has a lot to do with muscle growth. The reason people are healed is because of their faith that they would be healed. People can build muscle because of their faith that they will. The problem is that you can also lose muscle, or simply not gain muscle believing that you will not or cannot gain muscle.

This is a huge problem within the fitness industry as a whole. I’m not talking about the placebo effect, I’m talking about people’s faith in their physical abilities. People will start a program expecting immediate and amazing results. Unfortunately, most people don’t achieve the amazingly amazing results they wanted as fast as they wanted. Once this happens, people’s faith in their ability to lose fat or gain muscle is quickly replaced by self-doubt, shame, regret, and even anger.

Remember the medical example of the placebo and nocebo effect above. The person believed that they would be healed and was, or the person believed that they would not be healed and was not healed. The ability to increase muscle mass can be the same way. When you think you will gain muscle you will, but if you think you won’t gain mass then you probably won’t because you are working against yourself.

When you start to believe with all your might that you will gain muscle, you start the wheels of your mind, which sends your brain into muscle-building mode. The sad part is, when you lose faith and doubt fills your mind, the wheels of progress will stop. It’s like a blade of grass about to break the surface with positive thoughts, then negative thoughts come and the grass dies and dries up quickly.

The best way to keep progress going is to keep the momentum positive and leave no room for doubt. Here are three simple steps to keep up the progress of mental muscle development:

1. Always think positive thoughts: This seems obvious and simple, but it is necessary. If you are always thinking positively about your muscle gains, there is no room for doubt. This doesn’t have to turn into some kind of therapy session you see on TV, just make sure that all your thoughts about your training, nutrition, supplements, or anything to do with your muscle-gain success are always positive. .
2. Reinforcement Visualization: Not only should you always think positively about your training, but you should also visualize your success. Imagine yourself lifting the weight you want to lift, imagine your body looking the way you want it to look. Don’t just see the image, interact with it. Feel how good you will feel when you achieve your goal.
3. Believe in yourself: always believe that you can achieve your goal. Never have any doubt that you can gain muscle or strength. If you don’t believe in yourself and your abilities, you will never succeed.

Winning the mind game of muscle building is only half the battle. You must have a good plan for training, nutrition, and rest and recovery to fully benefit from the mental techniques above. Your brain has the power to make your body build muscle, and with a certain mindset you can use it to your advantage.