Tips for a Mind-Muscle Connection

I simply love talking on this topic as personally my own results doubled with it.

You may have heard once or twice that you should always use lighter weights and focus on the muscle when training - this is relevant for both Male and Female enthusiasts.
The concept behind the "mind-muscle connection" is that because you make more of a concious effort to contract the muscle you are working on, the body responds much greater than if you hadn't - therefore results come faster.
For Females - Glutes aka 'Butt" are a relatively hard area to build and see results quickly from. If you have a good trainer they will forever be telling you to SQUEEZE your glutes at the peak of the contraction. This results in a far greater recruitment of muscle fibre and thus more fibre is broken down and grows back BIGGER and STRONGER. 
Basically that last paragraph is Hypertrophy training in a nutshell - but that's another blog.
When I'm coaching clients and implementing the mind muscle connection I'll always start with working on the back - I believe developing the connection within your lats (back) is the hardest connection to get right because most people don't know exactly what it is they're supposed to feel.

So here are some tips:​​​

1. Have Your Gym Partner Help You
It may sound odd, but having your gym partner physically place their finger on the area you are working on greatly increases the stimulation and neurological pathways to that muscle. Biceps are an easy but good example - when doing preacher curls, your gym partner is feeling for when your biceps turn off (most likely at the top of the exercise when you unintentionally rest) - it's then easier for you to feel that "Ok I'm not keeping as much tension as possible on my biceps" and from there the results will come guaranteed.

2. Leave Your Ego At The Door
You know exactly what I'm saying here. Long story short, use a slightly lighter weight and think to yourself - how can I focus on using just THIS muscle. The power of envisaging what you need to do BEFORE you do it is monumental. You'll find that you will force more blood into that muscle as a result of breaking down more muscle fibre and ultimately build and tone up faster.

3. Add 10 Reps To Every Set
Regardless of what goal you have - if developing a mind-muscle connection is what you want, sacrifices have to be made. Adding a few more reps to every set will ensure you can go too heavy on exercises and will literally force more 'feeling' into the muscles you are working on. I remember so clearly trying to work on my lats (back) so I would do 30reps of lat pulldowns with a 3 sec hold at the bottom - you can guess I wasn't using much weight at all here!​

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