Should You Focus on the Mind Muscle Connection?

TIMESTAMPS
00:00 Intro
00:24 Attentional Focus
01:27 Attentional Focus & Hypertrophy
03:27 Attentional Focus & Performance
06:26 Compound vs Isolation Lifts
09:12 Indicator of Effective Training
09:52 Practical Recommendations

STUDIES

ONLINE COACHING & CONSULTING

BOOKS & TRAINING TEMPLATES

SOCIAL MEDIA

[davidpuckdrag]

Something I haven't seen talked about in gym context with mind-muscle connection is the emotional/spiritual/mindful impact of focusing on it. When we are present with our bodies, listening to them, it is a deeply mindful, present and self-loving practice. It's like combining meditation/yoga with strength training.
For me this was really crucial to actually enjoy strength training. Without it I just felt like I was being aggressive and self-hating to my own body, pushing it to grow and improve without actually being with it.

[Yeargdribble]

A focus on mind muscle connection was a game changer for putting size on my lagging body parts. Even after 5-6 years of incredible strength gains, places like my chest just didn't get the growth I'd hoped for, but a focus on less weight and way more MMC changed that a lot. I made more noticeable size gains in the last 2 or so years of focusing primarily on MMC. Also flexing while not under load to see how in control I was of muscles helped me cure imbalances. Sure enough I could fire my right pec for all it was worth on command, but was very bad at the same with my left pec. Spending deliberate time working on it bit by bit every day fixed that.

Even though my legs were great responders to a more strength focused training approach, I got even MORE gains by simply focusing on MMC, but also changing the exercises slightly. I bought into the hate on the Smith machine for too long, but now I realize how great it is to allow me to use foot angles that I couldn't with a barbell. I could also do things like bring my toes way up at the end of a rep which just makes my quads fire so much harder.

There's also the benefit of being able to do things like partials in a specific range of motion. Specifically work between the middle and lockout where I never take tension off the quad are amazing. I'll usually follow up a set of say 8 full rom reps by immediately doing 8 partials which essentially pushes me well beyond failure.

So many of the cues I use absolutely make me lift much less weight and gasses those muscles out way faster, but the gains are better. It's less cardiovascularly taxing during the set (which lets me put more focus on the muscles) and I find that I have way less issues with overall systemic fatigue.... which means I'm physically capable of more total volume across all body parts. Fatigue is much more manageable.

And even if I'm feeling weaker on a certain day, I don't care because I can just use much less weight and go deeply close to failure with a much lighter weight (which may or may not mean more reps). It's so much less psychologically taxing than knowing I'm about to get under a very heavy bar OR feeling like I'm a failure because I'm so much weaker that day than I'd like to be.

A lot of mixed strength and hypertrophy DID build my foundation, but I've definitely put on more aesthetic size more quickly once I switched my focus away from the numbers and more to the MMC and individual fatigue on a given set regardless of where it falls in progressive overload. It also means I use more drop sets, partials, and forced reps beyond failure... elements that are hard to track in a tradition progressive overload model. I'm not trying to figure out numbers. I'm just trying to absolutely fatigue that muscle.

[djrowe]

Just started following this account, kinda cool I got to
Be the first view and comment on this vid, just wanted to say super informative, super understandable and very broken down. You’ve made a very unique, and powerful channel with the type of content you upload, overall great job and keep it up!!!

[patrickwendling]

THANK YOU for all you do.. I really appreciate you.. 💪🏼💪🏽

[Edzi]

It’s not necessarily about muscle gain, but control.

It’s important for correct form, equal training and for me most importantly is skill training.

I can just about do a hand stand push up from a strength perspective, but I need a lot more balance and mind muscle connection for form corrections to stop that “banana” back.

Plus many other examples

[martlu]

Great video once again! Can't wait for the next one! I have been watching your videos for years, and always provide for great content 👏👏👏

[deadliftalot]

4:26
According to emg data does this mean the deadlift is better at growing the quads than the hamstrings ? Since the vastus lateralis saw some insane activation while biceps femoris activation was much lower

[lonewolf]

Please make video on resistance bands workout and its efficiency

[baraamari]

Sir can you do the next video on how to recover from a rotator cuff injury / how to train while having one and how to warm up properly before your training sessions to avoid injuries would be much appreciated🙌

[zackpresident]

If I dont focus on it, ill start cheating form.