By doing motor imagery training - you may actually be able to improve your strength progress over time. 

Study: ‘Ain’t just Imagination! Effects of Motor Imagery Training on Strength and Power Performance of Athletes during Detraining. 

If you want to read the study in full give it a search on Pubmed.

But here is a little summary:

The aim of the study is to understand if Motor Imagery can improve your strength. Firstly, what is Motor imagery? Motor imagery essentially involves imagining yourself performing a physical task, with as much intensity, clarity, and detail as you can muster. You may have heard a sports coach refer to motor imagery practice as “visualization.” Motor imagery training is most often used in concert with physical practice to improve technical skills (e.g. shooting free throws, mastering a golf swing, learning a new gymnastics trick, etc.), and it’s gotten a lot of research attention for its potential applications for stroke rehab, but for us.. it has been shown to improve strength. 

That is the result of this current study....

The athletes who imagined they were performing their sets and reps became stronger. Showing, as always, how powerful the mind can be. Seems pretty obvious but how often do we try and harness the mind.



So to quote some guy.. If you think… therefore you are? .. Or something like that.? Right? #Cogitoergosum