Your Mind Can Make Muscles Stronger, Here’s How

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Arnold Schwarzenegger used to visualize his biceps growing “as big as mountains” before heavy lifting sessions. It wasn’t just for show. The bodybuilding legend was tapping into a now scientifically-backed phenomenon known as the “mind-muscle connection.”

Over time, the muscles adapt to increased demand, becoming larger and stronger, and eventually the dominant contributors to growth and strength.

However, as many gym-goers have experienced, gains in growth and strength tend to plateau. Leveling off occurs because the mind and body have adapted to the current stress load, and it takes new or more intense workouts to signal the brain to begin teaching the muscles how to respond to the increased demand.

The mind-muscle connection functions much like an orchestra, Josh Schlottman, a certified strength and conditioning specialist and fitness coach, told The Epoch Times.

The brain is the conductor that directs the musicians (the muscles) when to play, how loud to play (the level of force generated), and the tempo (the speed of movement), he said.

A muscle contraction starts with an electrochemical signal sent from the brain, down the spinal cord to the motor neuron that connects to muscle fibers. The strength of the contractions is dictated by the quality and intensity of this signal, he added.

Since a strong mind-muscle connection depends on communication between the brain and muscles, people with certain injuries or health conditions, such as multiple sclerosis or stroke, may find it more challenging to tap into it.

“If the neurological connection between the brain and the muscle is damaged, then the ability to create a mind-muscle connection will be harder,” Eric Dallman, a chiropractor and certified functional strength coach, told The Epoch Times.

Strategies to psych up for a workout include mental imagery, a technique that uses the imagination and senses to picture the planning, practice, and performance you want to achieve.

Channeling emotion and focused self-talk can sharpen effort and boost performance. Guido Mieth/Getty image

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When a person is appropriately “fired up,” adrenaline and noradrenaline rise, reaction time improves, and the brain sends a stronger signal to working muscles, Dr. Rab Nawaz Khan, an internist specializing in neurology in the UK, told The Epoch Times. It also focuses attention and reduces perceived effort for a short time, allowing a person to commit fully to the movement.

“The key is the dose, too much [psyching up] can make technique sloppy and increase injury risk,” Khan said.

In addition to mental preparation, using visualization during a workout or competition can also help increase strength by activating the same brain regions and neural pathways involved in physical movement.

For example, a 2020 study published in Impulse involving 133 participants found that people who visualized themselves performing bench presses or other resistance-training exercises were able to lift up to 15 pounds more. Those who didn’t practice visualization could only lift an additional 5 pounds.

“Visualizing the muscle fibers contracting as you generate force and then stretching back out under control as you slow down and release significantly enhances the level of activation of the muscles involved beyond what mechanical repetition alone can achieve,” Meera Watts, a holistic yoga expert and founder and CEO of Siddhi Yoga International, told The Epoch Times.

In one example from Watts’s teaching practice, her team worked with a group of 25 students in their 200-hour certification class who were struggling to perform the crow pose, which requires significant engagement of the core muscles.

“When we instructed them to visualize the serratus anterior muscle protracting or pulling forward instead of simply attempting to lift their body weight, eighteen of these students were able to hold the crow pose for over 10 seconds in less than two weeks,” Watts said. “This success rate was much higher than that of all other groups of students who had attempted to master the crow pose through physical repetition alone.”

Get Stronger by Imagining Muscle Contractions

A person can build muscle strength by simply rehearsing movement in the mind without physically performing the exercise—a technique known as motor imagery.

A small 2025 study published in Frontiers in Psychology found that older adults who practiced motor imagery by imagining their arm pushing against a heavy object five times a week for eight weeks had a 22 percent increase in muscle strength.

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Older research that included 30 adults found that participants who physically performed finger contractions increased their finger strength by 53 percent. However, those who simply imagined moving a finger or performed mental finger contractions improved finger strength by 35 percent. Participants in the control group who did not engage in mental or physical finger exercises showed no improvements in strength.

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Studies found that people can increase muscle strength using specific visualization techniques. Illustration by The Epoch Times, Shutterstock

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Mental rehearsal activates many of the same brain networks used for real movement, including motor planning areas and the primary motor cortex, Khan said. Repeating that activation can improve the brain’s ability to send a clean, strong signal down the motor pathway, even without muscle growth.

“In simple terms, you are practicing the wiring and timing, not building the muscle fibers. The gains are usually modest but real, especially early in training or during rehabilitation when physical loading is limited,” he added.

The brain can also transfer some of the strength gained during motor imagery training from one side of the body to the other—a phenomenon known as bilateral transfer.

Bilateral transfer is when training one limb improves strength or skill in the other untrained limb. It happens because the brain areas that plan and control movement communicate across both sides of the brain, and training strengthens those shared motor programs, Khan said.

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A 2023 systematic review found that participants who engaged in motor imagery training showed moderate but significant improvements in bilateral transfer strength compared with those in the non-imagery group. The positive effects of motor imagery were similar to those of physical training.

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While more research is needed, these findings suggest that motor imagery could help people recover from movement-related health conditions, such as stroke, during rehabilitation.

How to Tap Into the Mind-Muscle Connection

Improving your mind-muscle connection involves training your nervous system to recruit more muscle fibers, activate them faster, and coordinate movements more efficiently.

Having a pre-exercise routine can help the brain associate certain actions with physical activity, priming the nervous system to perform at its best. For example, a runner who feels tired before a run might suddenly feel energized just by putting on their running shoes.

During a workout, a person can use internal focus and visualization to strengthen their mind-muscle connection.

The ability to connect with and contract a certain muscle during a specific movement can help increase the output of the movement, Dallman said. “If someone can consciously connect with their quadriceps during the concentric phase of a squat, they should be able to complete the rep at a higher load.”

When resistance training, instead of focusing on the outcome, such as moving the weight from A to B, a person should focus on the specific muscle contracting, Schlottman said. For example, they can focus on squeezing the biceps during a biceps curl rather than lifting the dumbbell.

“You can increase the mind-muscle connection by visualizing the muscle’s behavior before and during a set,” he said.

Just like Schwarzenegger did.

According to Schlottman, other ways to boost the mind muscle connection include:

• During the warm-up period, perform the movement without any weight, and focus on creating strong internal tension.
• Mentally rehearse a successful lift before approaching the weight. Clear the mind of any lingering doubts and visualize a positive result.
• While doing repetitions, imagine the muscle becoming tighter, which can force the target muscles to do most of the work, rather than the supporting muscles.

Schlottman uses mind-muscle connection techniques with his clients, especially older adults and people recovering from injuries.

“One of my clients has an elbow injury [and] can’t do heavy bicep curls. So, I use lighter weights and have him combine that with intense internal focus on the biceps,“ he said. ”This keeps him from aggravating the injury and maximizing muscle tension by limiting mechanical efficiency.”

Mind Over Matter Has Its Limits

Everyone knows that working the muscles can make them stronger. Many also know that working out the body is also good for the mind. Learning how to engage the mind before and during exercise can make consistent physical movement even more effective.

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However, even a strong mind-muscle connection can’t eliminate the need to follow through with the physical process of building muscle and dexterity.

“While the mind maximizes the use of the available equipment, it cannot replace the need for gradual progression in load and adequate nutrition and recovery,” Watts noted.

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For those looking to elevate their fitness routines, learning to engage their mental muscles can be a free, safe, and proven strategy to increase strength and unlock new levels of performance.

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