Self-initiated cognitive strategies for movement preparation include arousal, attentional focus, visualization, and imagery. Force production responses to mental preparation prior to strength tasks has shown to be elevated when compared to distracting conditions. Understanding this brain-body relationship may yield insights into the dynamics of the cortical processes that underlie the quality associated with musculoskeletal activity and performance outcomes. The study investigated using self-initiated arousal, the influence of cerebral cortical activation and networking with musculoskeletal activity and maximal voluntary isokinetic contraction. Participants consisted of ten healthy young adults (19-30 years of age). Electroencephalography (EEG), electromyography (EMG) and force production were measured. Visit one consisted of health screenings and baseline measures. EEG, EMG and Isokinetic data were conducted during visit two with participants exposed to three cognitive conditions, psyching (PSY), mental arithmetic (MA), and reading comprehension (RC). Each condition consisted of three maximal effort trials with a 20-second task period provided prior to movement. EEG analysis revealed cerebral cortical activity in the central motor regions exhibited elevated activation for PSY (-6.611 +/− 1.539) compared to MA (-5.111 +/− 1.628) and RC (-5.592 +/− 1.423) as indexed by alpha band power. Lessened levels of cortico-cortical networking from the frontal region to all other regions of the cortex was displayed in PSY (0.187 +/− 0.004) compared to MA (0.214 +/− 0.20) and RC (0.188 +/− 0.008) conditions as indexed by alpha band coherence. Average peak force production following PSY (110.697 +/− 7.49) exceeded force following distraction conditions MA (106.135 +/− 9.01) and RC (104.823 +/− 8.30). The study suggests promising results in the use of cognitive strategies (psyching) as a method to improve performance during maximal effort movement.