Rule #3 for Maximizing Strength Gains: Give Maximal Mental Effort

The brain has a surprisingly potent role in your strength gains

[Header: this article is part of a 9-part series about maximizing your strength gains]

Do you want to truly maximize your strength gains? Or, do you want to get stronger but are nervous to lift heavy weights? Well, recent scientific advances show us that lifting heavy objects is only half the story of getting stronger. The other half lies inside the brain. And if you train your brain correctly, then the amount of weight that you lift becomes less important.

Your brain is the boss of your muscles. In other words, the signal to tell your muscles to lift a heavy object starts inside the brain. If you perform enough strength training over time, then not only will your muscles get bigger and stronger, but your brain will adapt, too. Specifically, your brain will be able to send a stronger signal to your muscles, and your muscles will then be able to lift more weights because of this stronger command from the brain. In other words, part of the reason why you get stronger over time is because your brain adapts to strength training just as much as your muscles adapt. This scientific insight has huge implications for maximizing your strength gains. Allow me to elaborate –

Each time you lift a weight, it requires a precisely organized burst of electrical activity inside the brain (specifically, within the “motor cortex”, the section of the brain that controls your muscles). Over time, this precise burst of electrical activity causes adaptations inside the motor cortex. For example, specific neurons within the motor cortex learn how to wire together to produce a more coordinated, more efficient, and more forceful muscle contraction. Curiously, though, when scientists measure the electrical activity inside the brain during a “real” muscle contraction and compare it to the electrical activity inside the brain during a “mental-only” muscle contraction, the electrical activity inside the brain is somewhat similar. Because this burst of electrical activity is what “tells” your brain to get stronger, then you can “tell” your brain to get stronger by simply giving maximal mental effort, regardless of whether you actually move a single muscle.

Here's a concrete scientific example of the power of the human mind: in a pioneering study of motor imagery training, scientists recruited a group of “average” people who weren’t currently performing any strength training. Then, the scientists measured the volunteers’ strength in their pinky fingers (Why their pinky fingers? Because they wanted to test their strength in a way that wouldn’t be affected by simply performing normal daily activities). Then, the scientists split the volunteers into 3 groups for the next 12 weeks: one group (the “traditional training group”) that trained the strength of their fingers using real muscle contractions (15 minutes per day for 5 days per week); one group (the “motor imagery training group”) that performed the exact same training exercises as the traditional group, except they only performed the exercises mentally (their finger muscles never actually contracted during training); and finally, one group (the “control group”) that performed no training at all. Not surprisingly, the control group had no change in finger strength. Also not surprisingly, the traditional training group had a large (53%) increase in finger strength. But here’s the surprising part: the motor imagery training group had a 35% increase in strength. All of this builds to the conclusion that, during the initial 12 weeks of strength training, the adaptations inside the brain alone are responsible for over half of the gains strength! What are the implications of this information? There are many, but let me provide just one example –

Let’s pretend you’re apprehensive about lifting heavy weights. For example, maybe you’re new to lifting weights and you want to reduce the risk of injuring yourself. Well, research shows that lifting relatively light weights repeatedly until it requires nearly maximal mental effort can significantly increase your strength over time. As we will discuss in next week’s article, lifting heavier weights will produce greater strength gains than lifting lighter weights (as I said earlier, lifting heavy weights is half the story of why your body gets stronger). However, if you don’t want to lift heavy weights, then choosing light weights can still substantially improve your strength, as long as you give maximal mental effort.

In summary, if you want to maximize strength gains — or if you want to increase your strength but are nervous to lift heavy weights — then lift with maximal mental effort, regardless of how much weight you use. Over the long-run, lifting heavier weights will give you bigger strength gains than lifting lighter weights. But, simply giving maximal mental effort, regardless of the weight, is perhaps to most important key to getting stronger.