Hypnotherapy for Getting, Like, Totally Ripped Bro

What if I told you there was a magic pill that could supercharge your workout, double your motivation, increase your lifts and speed up your recovery, and it had no negative side effects? Would you take it? If you were smart you’d probably say “Yeah right, show me the studies.” Well, gym bros and rack queens, in this blog I’m going to show you the studies. Because they exist. And the pill? It’s in your brain already. You just aren’t activating it yet. But hypnotherapy (or self-hypnosis) can help you do that. Of course I should mention that you don’t have to be in pursuit of “ripped-ness” to utilize hypnotherapy for your fitness goals. Let’s take a look at how hypnosis can drastically improve your gym results (whatever your goals are), and a few simple steps you can take right now to start making a difference. 

This is Not Medical Advice

Hopefully this is obvious, but this is not medical advice, or a workout plan. Use common sense when taking workout advice from people on the internet. 

I Believe I Can Lift: Understanding The Placebo Effect

If you’ve ever gone to exhaustion in any exercise, you know that mental game is the biggest barrier to getting that last rep. If you don’t believe you can do it? You fail. If you’re all in? It might be a battle, but you WILL get that last rep. So it should be obvious right off the bat that mindset is important. But most people don’t realize quite how important, and quite how deep “mindset” really goes. It’s more than just getting psyched up. It’s what you believe at a deep level—beliefs that can be changed if you know how.

So how powerful is belief? Although the power of belief isn’t widely studied in medical literature, it’s been a part of almost every major medical study ever done, annoying scientists since the dawn of time. That’s right—the Placebo effect. If you’re unfamiliar with the placebo effect, here’s what you need to know in a nutshell. Patients in the control group of a medical study are usually given a placebo, a sugar pill that should have no effect. Instead, these patients frequently experience the purported effects of the drug they think they are taking. Even including side effects.

Placebo has been shown to be just as effective as conventional treatment in the right circumstances. It’s also been shown to have physical effects on the body—changes in heart rate and blood pressure, as well as changes to symptoms of IBS, allergies, and even Parkinson’s disease have been recorded. 

Hypnosis is a state of increased suggestibility, where beliefs can be created or edited. So could testosterone levels be increased simply by belief? What about a placebo pre-workout, that gives you all the motivational boost with none of the iffy chemicals? Hypnotherapy can be used as a powerful placebo, and the only limiting factor is your capability to believe. What do YOU believe?

Breaking the “Strength Limiter” with Hypnotherapy

Have you ever heard of hysterical strength? In certain life or death situations, people are said to display extreme strength, beyond what should be capable. Comic book artist Jack Kirby actually claimed that he created the Hulk after watching a mother lift a car to save her baby. Now I’m not saying hypnotherapy is going to have you tossing cars around. That’s probably not a great idea—after all, our natural limiters are there to protect us from injury. But there is evidence that our natural limiters can be reduced through hypnosis.

In a study on resistance-trained men, participants performed a one-rep max (1RM) test with and without hypnotic induction. After hypnosis, their max jumped from average 58.8 kg to 67.4 kg (130 lbs to 145.8 lbs). That’s nearly a 15% boost—no extra coffee, no weird supplements, just trance. Those same men could do an average of 3.5 reps of their previous 1RM after hypnosis.

Why? Hypnosis may reduce inhibitory signals, like autogenic inhibition, that normally keep your muscles from going all-out. Using self-hypnosis before a workout may increase motor unit recruitment, improve neural coordination, and put you “in the zone” for your workout. And once you learn how to do it, it only takes a couple minutes. Pretty cool!

Increasing Strength With Visualization

The ultimate message we’re headed towards here seems to be “mind over matter”, and what could be more mind over matter than building muscle using only the power of your mind? As silly as that might sound at first, there’s quite a lot of compelling evidence on the subject! That’s right—you can build muscle simply by willing it to be (if you know how).

It comes down to visualization techniques, and essentially, convincing your body that it is working out, and that it needs to increase strength. In fact it has been shown that athletes with good visualization technique are actually triggering slight muscle activity when visualizing.

So how do yo do this visualization? It’s really pretty simple, and you can try it for yourself right now. The visualization should be performed in first perspective, as in, you are in your body, kinesthetically experiencing the exercise with as much sense detail as possible. Pick one muscle group, starting with a simple movement and one you have a good mind/body connection with. We’ll say biceps, everyone loves biceps. Then close your eyes and visualize and feel yourself performing the heaviest possible rep, very slowly, and in maximum detail. Give your maximum effort!

Play around with this and see what works best for you! First person perspective and maximum effort are shown to be most effective. But you could try a complex exercise that recruits more muscle groups, try to focus on small stabilization muscles, or even attempt a full-body workout visualization. This technique has even been shown effective even on muscle groups that are totally immobilized, like in the case of injury. Of course it’s not likely to be as effective as a real workout, but it’s great post-workout, or on a recovery day.

Mental Spa Day

There’s loads of evidence showing that relaxation is key to workout recovery. And while an epsom soak or massage certainly can’t be beat, sometimes you don’t have time, money, or a big enough tub to hold all your muscles.

Using a guided recording or self-hypnosis technique, you can achieve deep relaxation everywhere in your body in record time. The cool thing about this approach is that you are achieving relaxation through increased bodily awareness, which is really at the core of all relaxation techniques. In fact the latest in pain science seems to suggest that massage might actually work by bringing attention to tight contracted muscles, bringing them back under control of the mind. It’s not that tight muscles are being smoothed out with force, but that the sensation and attention allow the muscles to release. 

If you’re curious to try a guided hypnotherapy recording for relaxation, check out my youtube channel here. I have a 25 minute relaxation session up now, and a 15-minute workout recovery session will be posted soon!

A Strong Body and Mind

At the end of the day, most of us realize we want more than a strong body. We want to be mentally strong, emotionally strong—balanced and flexible in our being so that we can handle whatever life throws at us. Working out is one way we can challenge ourselves, push ourselves to be better, but it doesn’t have to stop there.

If you’re interested in learning more about hypnotherapy and how it can help you reach your goals, fitness or other, I’m always happy to meet new people. Click below to schedule a free 15-minute consultation. See you in the gym!