Mind and Muscle Connection, Supplements and the Placebo Effect
Mind and Muscle and the Supplement Placebo Effect Back during World War II, the medics and hospitals would often run out of painkillers and would give their patients the latest and greatest painkiller, peace of mind.
Sometimes they would inject the soldiers with what they were told to be morphine, but was actually a healthy dose of saline solution, or saltwater. The good news is that, when injected with the “morphine,” most of the soldiers’ pain would vanish, at least temporarily.
The Placebo Effect The medics weren’t exactly tricking the soldiers; they were activating a placebo effect. The placebo effect is basically a series of reactions in the brain that can change its psychological or physiological functioning. Like in the example of the soldiers, they thought they were getting morphine, which they know dulls the pain immediately, but they were given saltwater. The reaction was the same; it cancelled out the pain, at least temporarily. The reason for this is because your brain controls your body, and your mind can subconsciously control your brain.
Muscle Building Placebo Effects The placebo effect spills over into the muscle gaining environment through other drugs known as supplements. The truth is, many of the supplements on the shelves don’t actually contain any active ingredients that would cause someone to gain muscle. Some supplements are like a shot of saltwater, they are useless and just get carried out. Other supplements have very little active ingredient, but not enough to account for any muscle growth that someone might experience while on the supplement.
Most guys don’t actually walk into a supplement store and just purchase anything that catches their eye. They usually make “educated” choices based on what their friends experiences or what they saw in a magazine. When someone gets on a supplement for the first time, they really hope and expect it to work. They only buy the stuff for one reason, they think it will work.
The main ingredient in most supplements is belief. When you believe something completely, and you back it with emotion and action, amazing things can happen. Even physiological changes to your body can happen because of your belief or your thoughts. Simply by believing wholeheartedly that your supplement will do what it says, your brain takes it as instructions and will get to work and activate the muscle building mechanisms. It does this because it was instructed to, by your thoughts and belief.
Now, usually when a trainee starts a new supplement, they believe it will help build muscle. With everything else staying the same, this belief is strong enough to spark growth. The thing is, how many people start a new supplement and keep doing what they are doing? Not many. Most people will get on the “new miracle” and will kick their training up a notch. Not only will they improve their training, they usually improve their nutrition and recovery.
Time To Take Credit Think about this, if you didn’t take the supplement, but ramped up the training, would you gain muscle? Yes you would, so supplements aren’t necessary for building muscle. Too many people give all of the credit to the supplement, its time to take the credit. The supplement didn’t lift the weight, you did. The chances are high that the supplement didn’t really do anything, except for the placebo effect. Some supplements are worth taking, but if you don’t have the proper foundation, they won’t do you any good.
These are a few examples of what you can do to start easing off of the supplements:
1. Slowly reduce your intake of the supplement and monitor your results. Make sure that you really believe that they will improve, use the placebo effect to your advantage.
2. Remember that you are the one doing the work, the supplement isn’t. You need to take the credit
3. Believe in yourself and your ability to build muscle. Your faith in supplements can build muscle, believe in yourself and watch the results improve.
Now it’s time to use the Placebo effect for your benefit and to help your mind build muscle using the mind and muscle connection.
It’s time to use your head, learn how to build muscle with your mind. Check out Mental Edge Muscle Building and get your free copy of the 7 Part Muscle Building Guide
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December 23rd, 2009 at 12:56 pm
This is a great Guide to Fitness and muscle building