LEARN
THE MIND-MUSCLE CONNECTION FOR BETTER PROGRESS
What is the mind-muscle connection?
Your body does only what your
mind tells it to do. And only what the mind believes it can do. Your mind
controls your muscles through your central nervous system (CNS).
Any activity, fitness or
otherwise, means training your muscles and your central nervous system. At
first you have to think about it. Remember learning to ride a bike? Or even
getting a spoonful of food into your mouth without getting it all over your
face?
But with repetition and
practice it begins to happen automatically without conscious thought. “Practice
makes perfect”. But, of course, it should be “Perfect Practice makes perfect”.
Eventually, the CNS takes over completely.
The body, of course, has musculoskeletal
limits. So how do advance power lifters continue to make progress in strength
after years of doing the same thing?
The CNS gets more and more
efficient at recruiting more and more muscle fibers.
When you were a beginning
lifter you probably saw more gains in strength and size than you will ever see
again. Most of those out sized gains came from your CNS and muscles learning
together at the same time. Remember how you struggled with the bike for so many
hours? Then, suddenly, you were racing full speed! It’s the same thing.
Related Article "Mind over Muscle"
Related Article "Mind over Muscle"
How do you improve the mind muscle-
connection?
Perfect Practice.
Each movement (exercise)
should be targeting one muscle or one group of muscles. Accessory or supporting
muscles shouldn’t be any more involved in the movement than absolutely
necessary.
We’ve all seen the guy (or
girl) doing bicep curls by swinging his whole body back and forth. He’s doing
little or nothing to strengthen or grow his biceps. Then he wonders why his
biceps won’t grow. (Plus, he looks like a tool and he’s impressing no one).
The best way to establish the mind –muscle connection
is concentration. Don’t think about
moving the weight. Think about contracting the muscle.
The more you concentrate on contracting the muscle the
more muscle fibers your CNS will recruit. The higher the number of muscle
fibers recruited the higher number of muscle fibers that will grow.
EMG studies( Electromyograchy-
measures electrical activity in a muscle) have shown that when subjects are
simply told to focus on using a specific muscle before performing a movement,
they call upon a higher percentage of those fibers and fewer accessory fibers.
With resistance training, your body is able to call upon more motor units to
produce more force over time.
Another way to
increase the focus on the muscle is tempo. Increase the time you raise and
lower the weight and squeeze the contraction hard.
A third suggestion, don't even count reps. Keep all your focus on the muscle, not the reps. Just continue the set until you reach technical muscle failure (your can't do another rep and still maintain good form).
A third suggestion, don't even count reps. Keep all your focus on the muscle, not the reps. Just continue the set until you reach technical muscle failure (your can't do another rep and still maintain good form).
No matter how long
you’ve been training, use this. It will
soon become a habit just like riding a bike.
Send your questions and comments to alphaedgefitness@gmail.com
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Send your questions and comments to alphaedgefitness@gmail.com
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