Can visualizing exercise stimulate muscle growth?

[integral]

Visualizing sex give us an erection.

Visualizing a negative experience raises stress hormone.

Visualizing an exciting activity can release adrenaline.

Visualizing a chess game can rewire the brain for growth.

Psychedelic or Kundalini Awakenings can burn the skin of the fingertips. 

So can visualizing exercise stimulate muscle growth? 

What can the mind really do to the body?

Edited October 17, 2022 by integral

[Federico del pueblo]

In the book "you are the placebo" Dr. Joe Dispenza at some point talks about that some study was conducted in which participants were instructed to visualize some heavy lift, I think it was a biceps curl.

And the results were that after some weeks of daily practice the bicepses of the participants had grown indeed (and participants were obviously not allowed to do some actual physical work out in the same time).

[integral]

@Federico del pueblo Thats awesome. so maybe the more obsessed someone is with building muscle actually plays a role in there muscle growth beyond the physical activity. Checking yourself out in a mirror and flexing builds muscle? 

So if i visualise myself as a monk or an ideal developed version of myself will I morph closer to that shape? 

Edited October 17, 2022 by integral

[Danioover9000]

@integral

15 minutes ago, integral said:

@Federico del pueblo Thats awesome. so maybe the more obsessed someone is with building muscle actually plays a role in there muscle growth beyond the physical activity. Checking yourself out in a mirror and flexing builds muscle? 

So if i visualise myself as a monk or an ideal developed version of myself will I morph closer to that shape? 

   Probably. I remember when Tony Robbins went to the military and did NLP training and visualization for a group of soldiers, their gun accuracy went up by roughly 25%. That 25% increase was due to him instructing them to visualize their aiming and firing at the firing dummies, imagining the trajectory and always landing it dead center of their target. Of course, if you disassociate, and take one level outside the context, obviously that slight increase in accuracy hinged on them having done basic gun training and how to fire their guns first, getting enough familiarity with their firearms first, even being comfortable identified as shooters.

   I think another book that covered this dynamic was called Atomic Habits, and the author talked about the three levels of habits, the 3 about outcomes, the 2 about the process, and the 1 and deepest level, WHO YOU ARE IDENTIFIED AS.

   However, this is no excuse to skip training, so, go do body weight training and barbells. And yeah, visualization can be applied to all human endeavors, it's amazing.

 

[The0Self]

Very likely can, but almost certainly not to anywhere near the same degree that would come from actually overloading the muscle with new fitness capabilities to the point of fatigue... And probably just a bit of strength due to increased motor efficiency, not the huge amount of strength that comes with increased muscle size.

[Danioover9000]

@integral Also, it's called mind muscle connection.

[integral]

Its intersting it makes sense that some personality types like INTP stereotypically have smaller and weaker bodies then types like ESTP and ISTP.