Thread: How do you get your mind muscle connection

Guys,

Can you tell me your routine to get your mind muscle connection?

Thanks
Caveman

The quickest way, I found, to establish that connection was to lighten the weight so that I could really focus on flexing/pulling/pushing with the specific muscle I'm trying to train. I found when I was laying under the heavier weight my focus was, at the time, just moving it up and down and had less connection with the specific muscle.

What muscles specifically are u struggling with?

A lot of people struggle with lats. I suggest:

(1) use lifting hooks
(2) imagine ur lats pulling ur elbows, not ur hands pulling the weight.

As Mark said, flexing the target muscle and moving it slowly will definitely be of help. This may not be something you do long term (you can though), but it certainly helps in initially gaining MMC.

you could also prefatigue the target muscle to enable you to achieve MMC, eg
(1) ham curls or one leggeded DL's before compound ham movement
(2) straight arm pull downs before rows/pull ups
(3) flys b4 bench.

I use to really struggle with upper back, whereas now my MMC is perfect on it.

The good news is once I developed MMC with slow, flexed movements, as soon as I started power back exercises (eg pendlay rows), I still had MMC on the power exercise and now am much stronger and progressing quicker on the power exercises

Slow down the movement just like we've done in our training sessions mate.

Forgotten already?
Maybe time for another session.

Here's a hint,
Tell someone to flex their bicep and they can do it with great sucess - hard, peaked and flexed where it hurts from a single squeeze.
Give them a bloody bar with weight on it, and they don't get that same feeling???

Visualisation. I just picture my anatomy inside my head and picture the muscles I'm trying to work, and with each rep and contraction, I imagine each muscle going red. Sounds weird I know but never fails me as long as I'm focused. Even works well when going heavy in the the 4-6rep range and with faster lifting tempos. Also practicing flexing and contracting all your muscles (especially all the back muscles) on a regular basis is important because that's mind muscle connection right there.

Oh - I didn't mean keep the weight light from then on, it's just a good technique to establish that connection, then you work your way back to your normal weight range one

Agree with the others here... I found that once I developed a very basic understanding of the biomechanics of each muscle then the "mind muscle" link was more easily visualised in my mind, and performed during exercise, i.e. understand the insertion and origin of the muscle, how the muscle lengthens and shortens, etc.

Originally Posted by VAS

Agree with the others here... I found that once I developed a very basic understanding of the biomechanics of each muscle then the "mind muscle" link was more easily visualised in my mind, and performed during exercise, i.e. understand the insertion and origin of the muscle, how the muscle lengthens and shortens, etc.

I intellectually cannot visualise, but I agree that having a basic understanding of the biomechanics helps too, esp on muscle parts u cannot see (back, ham, glute)

Yea I visualize before hand... look at pics online etc, of the muscle group's on bodybuilders (not the amount of weights, but the mass of muscle). That's the goal, thats what the outcome is going to be....

During the exercise I'm focused on form mentally, and let the action do the work.

Afterwards I'll also have a look at more pics so my mind doesnt wander. Its the brain version of invisible lat syndrome but I guess.

Other then that I think ppl tend to adjust their program's to shock the body to keep adjusting to different mechnical loads. One day I'll try using electro-acupuncture for the same reasons to see how that goes

Simple... focus on what you are doing.

I focus on what I am doing and I concentrate on squeezing the shit out of the muscle that I an contracting, but for some reason the pump is absent from my work outs. I have varied my routine.

I was wondering if you guys had a better way.

Its mainly shoulders and back.


MO,
Definitely time for another training session.

Cavey

Originally Posted by Mark

The quickest way, I found, to establish that connection was to lighten the weight so that I could really focus on flexing/pulling/pushing with the specific muscle I'm trying to train. I found when I was laying under the heavier weight my focus was, at the time, just moving it up and down and had less connection with the specific muscle.

I use to focus on just pulling/pushing the weight up but now i focus on what is being trained.

Problem is my lats :( i cant establish the mmc there.

Originally Posted by Caveman

I focus on what I am doing and I concentrate on squeezing the shit out of the muscle that I an contracting, but for some reason the pump is absent from my work outs. I have varied my routine.

I was wondering if you guys had a better way.

Its mainly shoulders and back.


MO,
Definitely time for another training session.

Cavey

All the pump is, is blood rushing to the muscle causing lactic acid build up. Maybe your going to heavy and using other muscle more rather then the one your trying to isolate?