Article written by: Troy A. Dolfi
The mind-muscle connection. This mentality is nothing new. In the late 80's and early 90's it seemed to be a body building buzz word. But with all the supplement advertising and steroid news, it seems to have fallen through the cracks to some degree.
The mind to muscle connection is to use your mind to connect with the muscle you are training and to actually envision the motion, the tension, the growth and power you need to push yourself to another level.
One thing that is key for anyone is that you have to believe that the subconscious can aid in your workout. Seems a little hard to swallow at first, but think of it this way, you buy a supplement that you've heard others talk about and you start taking it, within two workouts you feel awesome! Intensity is high, better workouts, adding a few pounds to your lifts, etc. etc. Now, was this strictly from the supplement? Or could it be somewhat due to the fact that in your mind you thought that you were taking this new "super" supplement? These thoughts are known as a "placebo effect" and will eventually dissipate.
Now, what if you could keep this effect all the time?
This is what the mind-muscle connection may do for you.
Just so you know, this connection is not visualizing the next set or the next exercise to do in your workout. Nor is it looking at those amazingly pumped biceps in the mirror while doing preachers.
It is the ability to subconsciously connect with your muscle fiber through the nervous system and make the muscle believe it is capable of more.
All lifts start with the brain. The brain directs the muscle through nerve impulses to push or pull and then the pulses, depending on their frequency and strength, can become a big factor in how much force you may apply on a given lift.
You must picture the explosion of energy that is needed in each muscle group to get that last rep, push the last few inches, pull that dumbbell all the way up on the concentration curl, or press that bar up and over the head on a military press.
Nothing else matters, you hear nothing, you see nothing, all you do is CONNECT!
How do you start this connection?
It is as simple as posing in front of a mirror.
Try to connect with a particular muscle on your body when posing in front of a mirror and see if you can get it to contract/tighten and then release.
Then you need to apply this in the gym.
It will require slowing down your lifts and lightening the load so that you can feel the muscle working while moving.
Through time you will have greater control over the area being worked.
I chose back as it is an area we do not see, and can be a little harder to connect with.
Perhaps the single best way, next to actually working the back, is posing. Different lat and back poses will teach you how to keep your back tight through flexing, and help you learn to squeeze your back muscles harder during a lift. Mastering the front and rear lat pose (showing lat spread), is for lat width, and the double back biceps pose is for thickness and detail. Utilize this posing technique as you perform various back movements. For example as you perform lat pull downs, imagine you are hitting a double back biceps pose.
If you are just starting into bodybuilding, practice these back poses twice per day. This will help put you on the fast track to huge lats. It is also suggested that everyone flexes their back hard after a good set, and of course stretch hard between and before sets.
You will also build a better mind-muscle link through working the muscle properly. The correct form will better establish this connection. As you do any kind of back exercises try to think of your arms more as hooks, rather than being used in pulling the weight. Pull hard with your back muscles, and force them to take the brunt of the load.
Along with all of this, you must provide adequate recuperation time and proper nutrition.
It will be the catalyst that works with what is mentioned above to put you in to a less stressful training situation and provide you with a mixture of ingredients for better body building success.
Once you start to master the mind muscle connection, it is what separates you from everybody else. Some people have parts that respond better than others,,, some will say its genetics. Which surely plays a part... But could it also be that the person has a better mind muscle connection to that particular muscle?
Something to think about.
Its like wiggling your fingers. Some folks can't move each individual finger without moving another. Connecting with a part vs. the whole can make for a big difference in your training. Give this a try the next time you step in to the gym and see what it can do for you.
Sources:
Scott Abbett - Develop a real "Mind-Muscle Connection" for Bodybuilding Success - searchwarp.com
Mind and Muscle by Blair Whitmarsh - June 2001
Learn to Run Program: Phase 1
Weeks 1-2After the warm-up, alternate running one minute with three minutes of power-walking. Repeat the 1/3min intervals for a total of 20 minutes (five times). Repeat this workout three times per week for three weeks before moving to the next phase.
Weeks 3-4
After the warm-up, alternate running two minutes with three minutes of power-walking. Repeat the 2/3min intervals for a total of 20 minutes (four times). Repeat this workout three times per week for three weeks before moving to the next phase.The 7 Worst Exercises of All Time
1.) Abs Machine
Crunches and sit-ups only promote excessive flexion of the lumbar spine and tend to cause neck and back pain. What’s worse than crunches or sit-ups? Doing a similar movement with added weight in a machine that only trains your body in an unnatural front to back motion in a seated position!
Yes, abs machines, like crunches and sit-ups, do make your feel your abdominal muscles, but there are far better ways to accomplish this without the high risk of short and long-term injury to your spine.
Remember, the true function of your core is stabilization, both static and dynamic- to be able to maintain a neutral, straight-line position from your hips to your shoulders in all 3 planes of movement (front to back, side to side, and rotational) no matter what the external stimulus may be.
Alternative: For rock hard, athletic abs focus on pillar stabilization exercises like front, side, and back pillars and ground based rotational core work like chops variations and upper body twists.
2.) Back Machine
First of all, people already use too much “back” on most movements because of tight hips and inactive/weak glutes. Thus, I prefer to focus more on hip extension movements that strengthen your butt rather than continually overloading the spinal erectors. Plus, adding in corrective stretching for the hip flexor complex, the hip rotators, and the hamstring complex that opens up your hips and alleviates excessive spinal flexion and compressions is literally exactly what the doctor ordered.
Second of all, just like the abs machine, this bootleg exercise trains your body in one plane of movement in a fixed path and as a results doesn’t work your key stabilizer muscles.
Lastly, the way that most people perform this movement in such an out of control manner for speed just makes me cringe watching. It literally looks like they are trying to lie down for reps- is this the type of movement that we want to get really good at? Wait, don’t answer that 
Alternative: For a strong, stable back focus on deadlift, good morning, and hip extensions variations while simultaneously focusing on the corrective stretching and self-massage of the Lumbo-Pelvic-Hip (LPH) complex. A prone cobra, or airplane as it is sometimes called, is also a great exercise to improve spinal erector endurance while simultaneously improving scapular strength and stability.
3.) Leg Extension Machine
The bottom line with this exercise- it will wreak havoc on your knees! The excessive compressions on your patella (knee cap) will without a doubt results in the brake down of articular cartilage which will in turn results in a bunch of arthroscopic knee surgeries to remove loose bodies and eventually full blown crippling arthritis. Avoid this machine like cancer!
Alternative: For strong, stable knees, focus on both knee-dominant (lunge, step-up, and single-leg squat variations) AND hip-dominant single-leg exercises (single-leg hip extension, deadlift, and good morning variations) to prevent strength imbalances between limbs AND to prevent strength imbalances between your front and back thighs and your inner and outer thighs.
4.) Fly Machine
If your goal is tear your pecs and destroy your rotator cuff, then I highly recommend that you add this exercise to your routine. I think the chest fly machine actually gets even more play then the bench press, which is considered to be the most popular exercise for guys.
Again, the use of a machine versus doing a dumbbell fly alternative eliminates the use of the key stabilizer muscles surrounding your shoulders. Furthermore, the common male desire to use maximum weight to build a chest he can be proud of typically results in overuse injuries like shoulder impingement or biceps tendonitis.
Alternative: For strong, stable shoulders focus on performing an equal amount of pushing and pulling exercises. In fact, more pulling exercises initially may be a good idea if you find yourself heavily internally rotated and hunchbacked from years of focusing on your beach muscles (chest, abs, and biceps) while neglecting your rear shoulders and upper/mid muscles. The best pushing exercise you can do is any push-up variation as it not only safely trains the entire front side of your body but also engages your upper back musculature in a way that the bench press does not. Furthermore, every year people die from bench pressing, but there has never been a reported death from performing a push-up!
5.) Elliptical Machine
Look- if you are really, really overweight and haven’t exercised in over a decade, then I think an elliptical has some use. But, other than that, I think it’s relatively useless.
Yes, it is a low-impact alternative to running on a treadmill, but there is very little range of motion during the movement and does not burn nearly as many calories as the machine claims it does.
Furthermore, the elliptical is not a good machine to do intervals on because it promotes excessive hyperextension of the knee. This can easily result in injury at high levels of speed and resistance.
Think about it- what’s the first machine people who are new to cardio exercise jump on? The elliptical! Why? Because it’s so friggin’ easy!
Trust me, I have been there and done that. I used to convince myself that the elliptical was a good option for me because I had weak ankles and a bad back from a major car accident. But then I finally woke up one day I realized I wasn't seeing any positive changes. By perform a ton of corrective stretching and massage to improve my tissue health, and work on hip and ankle mobility to take pressure off of my knees and hips so that I could get back to running pain-free.
At the end of the day, you can read a magazine while on an elliptical, so how much benefit do you really think you will get from this overpriced waste of space?
Alternative: For optimal results during your cardio training, you must focus on intervals. They burn 9 times more body fat than aerobics and also result in greater improvements in overall conditioning than long, slow, boring cardio. If you are overweight/de-conditioned and/or have joint issues, the best place to start an interval training program is on a spin bike, or better yet, an Airdyne Bike which has both upper and lower body attachments to make it more of a total body conditioning experience.
6.) The Sex Machine- Abductor/Adductor Combo
Ah, the sex machine… omen all over the world seem convinced that this “naughty” exercise can some how help them rid themselves of the thunder thigh/cellulite situation.
How many times have I heard: “What exercises can I do to get rid of this flab inside my leg?” Too many times!
Come on now, you know that spot reduction is a myth by now, right? Seriously, no amount of direct inner or other hip-thigh work will burn that ugly fat covering that sexy toned musculature everyone wants to see so let it go baby.
So the first thing you need to do is clean up all of the junk carbs in your diet and starting consuming lean proteins, healthy fats, and fruits and veggies every 2-4 hours while plugging water like a fish.
Then you need to get off this sexy machine and get real with a total body workout!
Alternative: The best exercises for your inner and outer-hip thigh will come from band-resisted hip walk variations, side pillar variations, and any and all single-leg exercises, especially lateral lunges.
7.) Leg Press Machine
It never ceases to amaze me how we all look for the easy way out when it comes to working out. It’s clear why people prefer to leg press- they get to lay or sit on their ass depending on the exact type of leg press machine being used.
If you want both nice legs and a flat midsection then you need to squat! And yes, you can’t squat lying down, sorry!
But squats are tough because they require a whole body effort, an effort most people aren’t willing to put in explaining why they get crap results form their workouts.
The leg press could very well be a major contributing cause for the rapidly increasing number of bulging and/or herniated discs among exercise enthusiasts. People always use way too much weight and use poor form resulting in brutally compressive forces on the spine.
Seriously, if you are opting to leg press over squatting, then you don’t know squat, pun intended
Alternative: The best (and safest) exercises for your lower body are a healthy combination of double-leg and single-leg exercises using free weights and body weight based exercises. Be sure to perform an equal amount of knee-dominant lower body exercises (e.g. squats and lunges) and hip-dominant lower body exercises (e.g. deadlifts and single-leg hip extensions) to make your knees, hips, and back bulletproof. In fact, most people are very knee-dominant and could benefit to start by performing a greater number of hip-dominant movements to balance out their lower body musculature.
You’ll notice once common trend among all of these poor exercises: they all involve MACHINES!
Get off those machines and focus on functional movements using free weights, bands, stability balls, etc. Not only will you ramp up your fat-burning and muscle-building pursuits, but more importantly you won’t end up hunchbacked in a wheel chair by the time you turn 50
