When I started working out, I remember watching a short workout video. I heard the person making the video talk about “mind-muscle connection,” followed by a short definition: “Focus on the muscle you really want to grow and envision your results.” Keeping that as my personal definition, I applied this new “mind-muscle connection” to my workouts whenever I remembered. But recently I decided to dig deeper into it and let you guys know what I learned as well.
What is Mind-Muscle Connection?
Based on an independent study done at the University of California, Santa Barbara, mind-muscle connection is when you bring your full attention to your body or a specific body part as you move it. It’s probably exactly what you were thinking. It’s very simple when you think about it. Applying the mind-muscle connection to workouts is a different story. If you frequently work out, you know your mind sometimes wants to focus on anything but the workout.
Scientific evidence of mind-muscle connection:
Before you take the time to incorporate this into your workouts, you most likely may want to have some proof of the mind-muscle connection actually being a real thing. In a 2014 study done at Ohio University Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine led by Brian Clarke, one group of study participants had their wrist immobilized. The second group of study participants had their wrists immobilized as well, but they were told to do mental imagery exercises. They were told to imagine themselves flexing their immobilized wrists as strongly as possible.
After four weeks of doing this 5 days a week, both groups found their wrists got weaker; however, the group that was told to perform mental imagery exercises got weaker by only twenty-three percent. The first group, with just the immobilized wrist and no mental imagery exercises, had their wrist strength decrease by forty-five percent. Isn’t that fascinating? Now enough with the science and reasoning; let’s get into how you could incorporate mind-muscle connection into your workouts.
Step By Step: How to incorporate mind-muscle connection into your workouts:
1. Start by reminding yourself you want to incorporate mind-muscle connection
Remembering that you want to incorporate mind-muscle connection into your workouts is the first step. Forgetting about the mind-muscle connection will lead to my tips being useless. I recommend setting a reminder on your phone around the time you generally start to work out.
2. Warm up and activate your target muscles
Warming up is standard procedure before starting any workout. It helps you wake up your muscles, increases blood flow, and gets you mentally prepared for that workout ahead.
3. Use Lighter Weights
Start with lighter weights when you begin training. Lighter weights let you focus directly on the muscle you are working. If you lift weights that are too heavy, you divide your focus. Once you get used to concentrating on the muscle as it grows stronger, gradually increase the weight.
4. Slow your reps down
Going too fast when you work out often means you’re focusing on getting the workout over with instead of focusing on the muscle you want to strengthen. So in order to really focus on your muscle, slow your reps down and focus on the feeling of your muscle being worked on.
5. Visualize the Muscle and results you want
Other articles out there don’t mention visualizing the results you’re aiming for; instead, they just tell you to focus on the feeling of the muscle being worked on. Nothing is wrong with that. But let’s say you want your stomach to be a bit more toned; while you are engaging your core, visualize your stomach having faint and sculpted lines. I believe focusing on the results is a lot more engaging than just focusing on the muscle itself.
6. Start with isolated movements
Doing some bicep curls or squats individually and really focusing on visualization will help you with more complex and compound lifts.
7. Touch or monitor the muscle.
If it ever feels difficult to find and focus on the muscle you’re working on. Try touching it. This reinforces your awareness and helps you reference the feeling of that muscle.
8. Eliminate distractions
This one speaks for itself, but try not to go on your phone or watch that TV in the gym. Save that for in between sets; while you are actively working out, focus on the movement, your muscle, and your breath.
9. Breathe in sync with your movements
To practice staying focused on your muscle, sync your breath with the movement of your workout. For example, if you are doing bicep curls, you could inhale each time you bring the weight up and then exhale each time the weight goes back down and your arm straightens. This strengthens your focus.
10. Apply muscle awareness to all your movements
Once you have mastered the mind-muscle connection, begin to weave it into the more complex weightlifting workouts.
11. Be patient and practice consistently
When you first start out, your mind will want to focus on anything other than the muscle, but don’t let this scare you. Keep practicing, and you will eventually be able to stay focused.
With all that being said, it is up to you to be consistent. Even if you don’t feel called to practice mind-muscle connection, I believe training your mind to focus on the movement and muscles during your workout is beneficial in other areas of life as well. Practicing mind-muscle connection helped me stay focused for longer periods of time. If you can train your mind to stay engaged with something as unengaging and sometimes painful as your muscles during a workout, staying focused in other areas of life will feel much easier.
Further Reading
Psychological Injury Rehabilitation: The Link Between Body and Mind
Leave a Reply