The Mind-Muscle Connection: Fact or Fiction?
“You’ve got to squeeze the muscles.”
“You’ve got to feel them working and moving the weight.”
“It’s all about the mind-muscle connection.”
For decades, the mind-muscle connection has been preached about in the bodybuilding world.
From legends like Arnold Schwarzenegger to modern day Olympians, the idea of forming an intimate connection between mind and body in the gym has been a romantic, passed down concept that has stood the test of time.
But have you ever wondered whether this was true or just an old wives tail?
And do you make the effort to actively form a mind-muscle connection when you train in pursuit of size and aesthetics?
And perhaps the better question…
…should you?
In this article, we’ll go over the mind-muscle connection, including a brand new study offering novel insight on this traditional training technique used by bodybuilders for decades.
I’ll then wrap up with some practical takeaways for your own training based on the evidence and where we go from here.
Muscle Activation
The first bits of evidence we have to look at are from EMG studies. After all, one of the major selling points behind the mind-muscle connection is increased muscle activation. Does a better mind-muscle connection lead to better activation? Let’s look at the EMG.
…but what is EMG?
Surface Electromyography (EMG) is a method where recording electrodes are applied to the skin over muscle regions to determine which muscles are active and how much during a given movement or task. These readings can then be compared to the max potential of the muscles and in relation to other muscles during the same movement. Researchers use this to get a better view of what’s going on during a given exercise and what’s affected in various conditions. So in our context, they hook up lifters doing different exercises and see what happens. Simple enough for this article.
What does it show with regards to the mind-muscle connection?
In this study, subjects saw greater muscle activation in the lats after verbal instruction on performing a lat-pulldown. (Multi-joint back exercises are notorious for “feeling it in the arms” and not the lats).
A similar phenomenon was seen in this study, where greater muscle activation was seen by directing internal focus (mind-muscle connection) to the pecs during the bench press exercise at 50% 1RM, although the increase in activation was much smaller at 80%1RM.
In this study echoing those findings, subjects were able to increase triceps or pec activation on a bench press up to 60% 1RM with internal focus with a threshold being seen between 60-80% 1RM whereby no further activation was seen.
And finally, in this one, increased activation occurred on the bench press when using an internal focus during a controlled tempo at 50%1RM, however there were no differences observed when the movement was performed explosively.
Similiar findings of increased muscle activation in muscle groups using internal focus have been found all across the body from the legs to the abs and more.
So basically, a mind-muscle connection does seem to increase muscle activation but that is less pronounced the heavier or more explosively you perform the movement. This makes sense given that the heavier the load, the more motor units are needed to be recruited to move it.
Ok…So?
While these are helpful initial insights, EMG is not perfect and cannot be said to be fully predictive of muscle growth. As I stated in my article over evidence based fitness, in general we should give more weight to studies that are closer to the actual results we want to create.
So even though both are useful in creating a big picture view of truth…
Actual measurable differences in muscle growth > greater EMG amplitudes
Let’s take things further.
Does a Better Mind-Muscle Connection Really Lead to Better Gains?
The argument is pretty sound on paper so far.
Better activation of the muscles you intend to work through a better mind-muscle connection should probably lead to better muscle growth.
But we want better than just theorizing. Does it actually extend further than the realm of EMG and really stand up to scientific scrutiny and produce tangible real-world results we care about (better gains in size)?
Or is it just another feel-good relic of bro science tradition?
The Study
As surprising as it may seem, there had never been a study performed assessing whether an internal focus (mind-muscle connection) actually led to better muscle growth.
So to put things to the test, a study was recently published in the European Journal of Sports Science coming from the lab of Dr. Brad Schoenfeld entitled:
In it, 30 untrained male subjects were split up into 2 groups: one applying an internal focus (mind-muscle connection) and the other using an external focus (just move the weight).
They did 4 sets of 8-12 repetitions 3x/week of a bicep curl and leg extension under supervision with verbal cues issued based on the group the subject was in.
The results?
Size gains were nearly doubled for the biceps in the internal focus group vs. the external focus group (12.4% vs. 6.9%). The gains for the quads were similar between groups.
The authors speculate that this is due to the differences between the upper and lower limbs. We use our arms much more often and in coordinated ways, so it may have been easier for the subjects to establish a firm mind-muscle connection with their biceps as opposed to the quads.
In any case, this is an interesting finding and provides the first scientific evidence demonstrating there may be something to this traditional idea of the magical mind-muscle connection.
Practical Takeaways
So what does all of this talk on the mind muscle connection mean for your gains?
First off, the main principles behind muscle growth still apply. You can’t escape the Principle of Specificity and a proper program nailing Volume, Intensity, and Frequency that over time leads to progressive overload. In other words, focusing on the squeeze in your biceps won’t mean shit in the long run if you don’t have that down.
But now we have our first longitudinal evidence that forming a solid mind-muscle connection can boost your gains and isn’t all bro-science after all.
Based on the research as a whole and real-world experience in myself, my clients, and the world at large, here’s what I believe the take-home points are at this point in time given the evidence we have over the mind-muscle connection:
Bad Habits Die Hard
Given that the mind:muscle connection plays a role in muscle activation and hypertrophy outcomes, it stands to reason that you should focus on that heavily at the start of your lifting career when you’re fresh.
Once those patterns are established, it’s a lot harder to “un-learn” things and retrain yourself, so focus on stimulating the right muscles with proper form on all movements early on – especially for your compound lifts where synergistic muscles can easily overshadow each other.
The newbie stage is prime time for motor learning, and the gym is overflowing with lifters who have trouble ‘feeling it’ in certain muscle groups on common exercises. For example:
- Not feeling it in the pecs on a bench press
- Not feeling it in the lats on back exercises
- Not feeling it in the hamstrings on deadlift variations
And so on.
Lighter/Single-Joint Movements Really Shine
As shown in the EMG studies, there seems to be more to the mind-muscle connection at lighter loads. Additionally, in the Schoenfeld study above, the movement chosen was the biceps curl where there was a sizeable difference between groups.
This means that for your isolation or lighter work, there may be more of a benefit to really focusing on squeezing and forming a a solid mind-muscle connection as opposed to the heavier, multijoint work I’ll discuss next:
Heavier/multi-joint Movements may see some limitations
Focusing on the prime movers in multi-joint exercises is still a very good thing, but there comes a point where you just need to ingrain your technique and train hard without too much “thinking.”
“Mushin no shin.” – Zen expression meaning:
No mind.
The EMG research has shown that the effect of the mind-muscle connection is reduced the heavier you go.
After all, if the weight is moving, then something is moving it, and no – it’s not just your mind. So it appears a solid mind-muscle connection is more important when you’re learning the exercise in the first place, on simpler single joint lifts, and at lighter loads.
The take home point here is that for your heavier compound work, a mind-muscle connection will sort of “take care of itself” provided you have developed and ingrained the proper movement patterns.
Your accessory work is where you can really focus less on moving the weight and more on the mind-muscle connection to squeeze every drop of effectiveness from the exercise.
How to Form a Better Mind-Muscle Connection
So making an effort to get a better mind:muscle connection is probably worth your while. But how do you form a better mind-muscle connection?
Here are some tips to ensure you’re doing it the right way:
Apply focus to your lifts
Of course the simplest advice is to just do it.
During your workouts, apply conscious attention to the muscles you are trying to work and check yourself on the ones that aren’t supposed to.
- Do you feel the muscle working with tension on both the concentric and eccentric portions of the lift?
- Are you generating fatigue and a pump in that muscle as you go on?
- Although not a perfect proxy…do you have soreness in that muscle afterwards?
Proper form is key
Good form goes a long way in ensuring solid mind-muscle connection.
Form tweaks can make a big difference in where you feel a muscle, so ensure that you are performing each movement correctly and minimizing or eliminating the use of other muscles that aren’t targeted.
Take warm-ups seriously
Warm up sets are not a waste of time. They’re an opportunity to feel your targeted muscles activating and performing the movement with increasingly heavier loads.
As mentioned, it looks like the effects of the mind-muscle connection are diminished with heavier sets, so “turn them on” prior to your working sets so the exercise is greased and grooved for when it’s time to lift heavy.
Flex between sets
Now, this is going to sound extra ‘bro’, but my experience indicates that actively flexing or contracting your target muscles through the desired range of motion in between sets helps to get better activation of these muscles on subsequent sets.
Whether this is true or not or has any impact on hypertrophy is pure speculation on my part, but the last time I heard, Dr. Schoenfeld has a study in the works aimed at testing whether posing + training is superior to training alone. If that turns out to be true, it’s not unreasonable to assume that a link could be drawn between better mind-muscle connection and the results.
The Mind-Muscle Connection: Fact or Fiction?
So is the mind-muscle connection fact or fiction after all?
FACT.
…but with the caveat that we just don’t have much research to go off of. It remains to be seen how a mind-muscle connection would play out in other conditions.
Future research should strive to tease out whether this holds in more trained subjects and across multi-joint movements as well to get a more concise picture of the role of the mind-muscle connection with regards to muscle hypertrophy.
What do you think?
What are your experiences with the mind-muscle connection in your training and experience coaching clients?
Comment below
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