You’ve probably heard the saying, “Curls are for the girls.” The idea is that building muscle requires a steady diet of squats, presses, chins, pulls, and all of the wonderful movements you can do with a barbell that are worth a damn.
I couldn’t agree more, really.
Anytime I get an e-mail from someone about aesthetics, my first reply is nearly always, “Do you strength train? How strong are you in the basic barbell exercises?” Of course, I’m then met with, “Well, <insert excuse here>.”
It’s simple: if you’re weak, and you want a better physique, find a way to get strong. Nothing improves your body composition quite like it.
As for what exercises you should do, I have two tips:
- If there’s a barbell in your hands and you’re standing on your own two feet, it’s probably good for you.
- If you’re hanging from something and moving your body weight through space, it’s probably good for you.
This whole “strength” thing may or may not be news to you. From a general perusing of the athletic fitness scene, getting stronger is one of the most common pieces of advice.
And that’s exactly why I’m going to add a note here: don’t forget about your muscles. If there’s an underrated, underused, underappreciated, underwhatever aspect of the aesthetic fitness game, it’s feeling the targeted muscles work during any given exercise.
So more weight is better…until you can’t “feel” the muscles execute the movement.
“If you really want to experience the greatest benefits from your training, you must enter a stage of deep concentration. Do not let your concentration be broken by anyone or anything.”
- Steve Reeves
In the quest for strength, it’s easy to forget feel. Often, training is a tao of slapping more weight on the bar, hiking it in the air, and rubbing the joints down after.
MORE STRESS = MORE POTENTIAL
The muscles that encounter the most stress have the greatest potential for growth. Short track speed cyclist are a great example of this. Their quads are huge because they encounter the most stress.
Increasing the mind-muscle connection increases the stress on the muscles. And if greater growth potential wasn’t enough, it also decreases stress on the joints.
Part of me thinks a lack of attention to the mind-muscle connection is why we’re in this age of repatterning. I would know, because I’m the middle of it with my book, An Athlete’s Guide to Chronic Knee Pain, and my contribution to Muscle Imbalances Revealed.
“Activate this.”
“Activate that.”
“Your muscle has amnesia.”
It’s all the same.
Lackluster mind-muscle connections throw more stress on the joints. It’s like the muscles tell the connective tissue, “Hey bro, take this.” And then they give them something to hold. This happens until the joint can’t carry anything else, eventually dropping what they’re already carrying.
Unlike more complex repatterning (more for sports implications), the mind-muscle connection stems from conscious thought. That’s all. This isn’t accidentally driving to an old house.
One of my best anecdotes comes from the principles of An Athlete’s Guide to Chronic Knee Pain. Sometimes, people instantly get rid of knee pain by simply putting their mind to use in a new way.
I just finished your book. I was having patellar tendon pain EVERY TIME I stood up from a chair. I’m now extending the hips similar to the way you described in your RDL chapter, and the pain has disappeared. I’m already impressed. Now to translate this to Olympic weightlifting…
HOW YOU CAN INCREASE THE CONNECTION
Unless you’re Olympic weightlifting, the question isn’t to find out “what” exercises need more mind-muscle connection, the question is “when” you’re going to get your mind in gear. Every exercise could use refinement.
Start with places you have joint pain. I’m a firm believer that a lot of the injuries we like to claim are a result of “x” “y” and “z” imbalance are nothing more than terrible mind-muscle connections with the muscles that are supposed to be working. Lo and behold, “Here, hold this bro.”
If you have regular “flare-ups,” follow my three day rule.
- If I train and feel it in your joints more than your muscles for one day, I ignore it. Could be a fluke.
- If it extends into a second day, draw back the weight. Train with higher repetitions. Try to fix things.
- If it extends into a third day, evaluate the problem. Something is wrong.
As for how to increase your connection, I like Frank Yang’s “anatomy book” technique of pretending the working muscles are a different color than the rest.
1. I credit this to Frank Yang . During every repetition of every lift, picture your body as nothingness except for the muscle you’re targeting. Check out the dudes in anatomy text books with different colored muscles. Envision that. Seriously. Try it. It works. Close your eyes and practice it before every set. Think of the targeted muscle lighting up bright red in a sea of white.
- The Best Damn Guide for Building Upper Chest Size and Strength
But the color strategy won’t matter unless you’re training in the right repetition range. Anything below six reps usually trips the body’s “holy shit, I just need to survive” mechanism. Thinking about much of anything is difficult. Contrary to popular belief, you can still get strong training with reps in the 6-10 range. It’s done the same way: add weight to the bar over time. A novel concept, I know.
And before I get the hatred, I’m not downing the importance of strength. Dan John hits it when he said: “You need to do two things to get stronger: add weight and do more reps. The answer has never been: lift light weights for high reps, or lift heavy weights for few reps. The answer remains: Lift heavy weights for high reps.”
But my addition to this is: heavy weight, high reps, with the mind in control of the muscles at work. (And by high reps, I’m talking about 5-10, which is “high” compared to the “few” reps referenced by Dan.)
- The X Physique Part I – Why You Want It and What You Should Know About It
So get strong. Please, get strong. Seriously. Get. Strong.
(It will save me some e-mails in the long run.)
Just make sure your muscles are coming along for the ride.
Great article Anthony. I’m about half way through your podcast with Rick Kaseli too, good stuff.
Awesome, Josh. Any questions, let me know.
Excellent post Anthony! I’ve noticed that I’ve been getting better results as I’ve started to really focus on Mind Muscle Connection. Also I’ve been adding more isometric holds that will progress into gymnastics types holds (planches, levers, etc.) over time as I get stronger. For these I focus on maximum contraction of my entire body.
Gymnastics holds are so fun. Everyone needs rings.
I gotta try that technique. I’ve actually tried to feel my muscles in all my lifts and stretching. I tend to get a feel for where the conscious thoughts are most efficient. One of the most change-inducing concepts I’ve ever applies. I’m still learning how to use it. For example, depending on where I focus during the incline press, my technique and pump can go from superb to horrible. I’ve found a conscious thought sweet spot that helps me the most in that lift. I think there’s a sweet spot for a whole bunch of movements.
Great stuff, Anthony. I especially liked that last idea. Now it makes sense to me, but in the past, it sounded counterintuitive at first. People tend to associate strength only with 5 reps or less. I used to as well.
Yeah. I love training heavy. But “strength” isn’t rep range specific. Maximal strength…ah!…that’s the difference.
Something that helps me is to perform a consistent breathing pattern for any lift. It’s helped me avoiding poor form/”cheating” by using muscles that I don’t need to be using for an exercise. I’ll set up for the bench press, lay down, let out 3 deep inhales/exhales. The third exhale is ALWAYS the one I lift on. During this breathing, similar to your anatomy suggestion, I keep my eyes closed and think about the muscles I want to hit. This might sound silly, but it’s done wonders for me, so it might be worth trying. I used to “rush into it” too much, but mentally preparing for each set has done wonders.
This is pretty cool advice, Daniel. I bet that routine gets you in the right state of mind. Good stuff.
Hey, sort of a detail question–I note that you seem to be higher on the barbell and chin bar (bar=good is a calculus with which I generally agree, of course), but how would you rate dumbbells? I tend to go between DB and barbell, and find them both to have different advantages and tradeoffs, but just for pure stacking on strength and mass, would you give the advantage to the bar, just for the sheer added weight that you can stack on it?
Not necessarily. It depends on the lift. I like barbells because I train in my garage and I only fiddle with minor equipment.
For upper body shenanigans, I think dumbbells can work well.
hey anthony, just wondering if you have any tips for improving delt acitvation on OH pressing. Should i pack my shoulders ?? It seems to be more my left shoulder which i did the AC joint on years ago.
Your upper chest series was awesome by the way, now have upper chest veins starting to come up.
Awesome stuff, James. For delt activation, I think it’s important to think about driving the shoulder down as you press up. It’s hard to explain. But I think a lot of people think “up” with everything. Think “up” with your hand and “down” with your shoulder. You can try it right now, sitting at your desk.
Hi Anthony,
Excellent post. It is a great reminder to “be here be now” during your weight training.
This was a great read before I head out the door for my workout this morning.
Randy
Can’t help but feel some of this is directed at me lol
Great article. Working on strength like a bear.
Ha, never! Keep working. How’s everything going?
Great post! I have really been focusing on my mind muscle connection lately and I am noticing a difference in reduced joint pain as well. Personally my chest and biceps grow easier then other areas of my body and I thought about what was different with those muscle groups and I realized that it is extremely easy for me to feel the muscles working in each exercise so I have been adding that to the rest of the body. Something I have also been adding to help reduce my joint pain is increasing the Time Under Tension (TUT) for my exercises and it really seems to reduce that extra stress and place it on the muscle more.
Yeah, I think your sentiments are universal. Part of it, I think, has to do with those muscles being less complicated — just a bunch of straight muscle fibers connecting from end to end without much complexity. And the fact that you can see them.