Is the mind-muscle connection factual or fictional? Bodybuilders of old have always believed that there is a close link between brain and muscle development. For years, such a hypothesis but has been dismissed but not anymore.
Scientists of age have determined that this cluster of bodybuilders was right along and below are the reasons why. Bodybuilders rely on many approaches to build the extra body mass.
Anyway, none of these techniques can be successful without the mind’s influence. That settled, you should read on to ensure you grasp if there is a mind-muscle connection after all.
Mind-muscle connection by definition
Let us face it. Every single action performed by your body happens as a result of stimuli to your brain. Therefore, the mind-muscle connection can be defined as the conscious movement of a muscle during any bodybuilding exercise.
The average Joe, to say the least, identifies the mind-muscle connection as attentional focus or muscle intent. To be a bit real, you cannot move your fingers without a set of instructions getting relayed from your brain to your hand.
In the same way, your mind has to instruct your biceps to curl inwards and bring weight to your chest. In short, no action or reaction takes place during fitness training without mental concentration playing a significant role.
You do not have to, when it comes to muscle intent, plan for anything. Attentional focus just happens provided you concentrate on the end goal.
So, how does the mind-muscle connection work?
Let us be real. The brain controls your thoughts and actions. Thus, muscles activity is affected by your thoughts.
With that in mind, your central nervous system has to send some electrical signals to your muscle fibers for action to happen. Once stimulated, the affected muscle fibers provide the brute force that can never be replicated.
This phenomenon is termed as the neural drive. However, the intensity of the forced yielded all depends on the number of muscle fibers you recruit. For the record, the more muscle fibers that are affected the better.
Therefore, attentional focus helps the targeted muscles adapt to stimuli such that you can control how slow or fast they move in an instant.
Is there any scientific backing to the above-mentioned myth?
From the look of things, there seems to be a lot of evidence that supports the mind-muscle connection. Brad Schoenfield, a world-leading muscle guru also believes that muscle mass and strength increases when you boost the mind-muscle connections.
Recall, maximum output is generated when the mind and muscles are in-sync. After all, focusing all your strength on one part of your body eliminates all the surrounding noise thus rendering you more productive.
Can flexing help build muscle mass?
Damn it! The oldies did it and so can you. Legend has it that loadless-training can help train your mind to work with your muscles and there is a lot of scientific evidence to back that claim up.
Additionally, flexing is good for your brain too.
More distractions, less profit
The mind-muscle connection, as you are aware, eliminates all distractions. You, by concentrating on one part of your body, are able to overload the muscles in that specific region optimally.
In a nutshell, the mind-muscle connection helps you yield more with less effort.
And how do you improve your muscle intent?
It is pretty simple. You, from the get-go, have:
- To warm up before exercising. Warming up helps to engage your mind with your muscles,
- To choose appropriate weights. You, must, from the very beginning, start lifting light weights and slowly build into the heavy ones. Doing so not only warms up your muscles but also yields what is commonly referred to as intentional muscle contractions,
- To lift your weights slowly, and
- To flex and pose during sets.
Summation
The mind is a very powerful tool only if you know how to use it. You, by consciously controlling your mind, end up stimulating the tight effects and on the right muscles.
Thus, the mind-muscle connection is no myth. It is a fact!