Mind-muscle connection: When and how?

There has been controversy surrounding the mind-muscle connection for decades; but what is it all about, and when is it effective?

Bodybuilders talk about flexing and focusing on the target muscle instead of simply moving the weight from point A to point B, claiming that growth is achieved more effectively when you maximize the muscle’s “feeling.” This approach has been adopted by enthusiasts and mocked by evidence, but who is right? … does the mind-muscle connection build more muscle?…

Experts in this field have begun investigating the impact of the mind-muscle connection on muscle growth, and their findings offer some key conclusions that could have vital practical implications for how you approach your training.

What does the science say?

When discussing strength training, this is described as a focus-of-attention approach, which can be divided into two types: an internal focus of attention and an external focus of attention.

• An internal focus occurs when the athlete focuses internally on the muscle being worked during each repetition.
• An external focus occurs when the athlete lifts a weight and moves it from the beginning to the end of each repetition as efficiently as possible.

Examples of an internal focus:

• Contracting the biceps to initiate a curl and flexing the biceps as hard as possible at the top of the repetition.
• Squeezing your pectorals at peak contraction during the cable crossover.
• Thinking about flexing your lats to drive your upper arm down and toward your spine during a lat pulldown.
• Flexing your quadriceps and pulling your knee toward your hip at the top of a leg extension to maximize muscle activation at peak contraction.

Examples of an external focus:

• Pulling the bar as far back as possible during the barbell upright row.
• Thinking about trying to rise as quickly as possible, as if you were trying to jump, when squatting.
• Exploding through your sticking point during bench presses.
• Gripping the bar and performing a deadlift.
• Lifting the dumbbells to shoulder height during lateral raises.

The best of both worlds

According to the literature, it appears that the mind-muscle connection increases hypertrophy in isolation exercises, but when it comes to compound exercises, we still need more research to be certain.

• For a compound exercise, use an external focus and strive to lift as much weight as possible, as explosively as possible, within the target rep range.
• For an isolation exercise, you can let the weight take a back seat and focus on creating the best mind-muscle connection

It is still possible to strive for performance progression from one session to the next in isolation exercises, and you can achieve this by performing another repetition with a given weight or adding a little weight for the same number of repetitions.

However, this should never come at the expense of proper form and maintaining a strong mind-muscle connection, rather than a muscle-mind connection.

Mind-muscle connection, not the other way around

In an effort to improve the mind-muscle connection, most athletes approach it as a bottom-up problem.

• They focus on performing many repetitions and creating a burning sensation in the muscle, and by moving light weight for high repetitions, they may eventually feel how the muscle works.
• This sensation is largely attributed to an increase in muscle acidity following the release of metabolites and multiple contractions.
• In reality, they are using an external focus—moving the weight from A to B repeatedly—to eventually create internal feedback.

However, addressing the problem from a top-down perspective is better:

• Instead of performing many repetitions and waiting to feel the muscles burning, you should direct the contraction from the first repetition.
• Making the muscle work from the first repetition is much more efficient, and this focus can be achieved by contracting the muscle to create movement.

To conclude, having some basic knowledge of anatomy will help you do this: if you know where the muscle originates and inserts, then you only need to focus on contracting the muscle to bring those two points together.

This is much more efficient than randomly swinging weights in the hope of obtaining some kind of biofeedback that helps develop your mind-muscle connection.

In any case, you can work hard to improve this condition and thereby improve both your neuromuscular function and your mental focus.