Your mind-muscle connection has just as much an impact on building an aesthetically pleasing physique as exercise selection and program design. A lack of mind-muscle connection leads to haphazard muscle gains and the risk of creating lagging body parts or lagging aspects of a muscle. Whereas a strong mind-muscle connection AMPlifies targeted muscle gains… shaping your body with great precision.
This mind-muscle phenomenon, also known as “Training for the feel” to us Physique Artist’s… is a learned skill that will take your workout experience to a whole new level.
With it’s limitless potential… the practice of enhancing your mind-muscle connection turns every workout into an adventure. It’s a heightened sense of focus and awareness… allowing you to intentionally dial down the activation of specific muscles, while cranking up the activation of others.
To us Physique Artist’s… this is where the magic happens in the gym.
I live for this shit! It excites the hell out of me as I anticipate each training session. No pre-workout drink can match this kind of ‘rush’.
A Weak Mind-Muscle Connection Leaves Clues
Many fitness enthusiasts have built incredible physiques without having a strong mind-muscle connections. They don’t think about lifting… they just pick the weight up and put it down. That’s exactly how I built the foundation of my physique during the first 15 years of working out.
But as is the case with many lifters… the more muscle I gained… the more frustrated I became with my lagging body parts.
As I viewed my physique with a healthy, positive, yet critical eye… it was easy to see that my arms and shoulders were above average for a guy my size…. and my chest was lagging far behind… especially the lower aspect.
Genetics certainly play a role in how a muscle responds to training. For one… the origin and insertion points of a muscle will impact your capacity for aesthetic muscle gains… and I’ve been blessed with long biceps and triceps muscle bellies, which is one of the reasons my arms continue to grow easily.
But what I’ve come to realize during the past few years… is that my muscular arms and lagging chest have less to do with genetics and more to do with my natural movement patterns and neural drive.
When I perform any Bench Press movement, I naturally use more triceps and shoulders. My chest muscles feel a light pump, but nothing like the intense burn that I feel in my shoulders and triceps.
Honing my mind-muscle connection skills has helped me dial down the activation of my shoulder and triceps muscles during Bench Press exercises, while cranking up the activation of my chest. With this enhanced mind-muscle connection I can feel my pecs stretching during the eccentric portion of a lift… and I can feel an intense contraction in my pecs during the concentric portion of the lift.
Even more eye opening has been my improved ability to focus a great deal of attention on the lower aspect of my chest during all Bench Pressing exercises. In the past month I’ve been able to experience an insane pump in my lower pecs, well beyond anything I’ve ever experienced before… even though I’m performing the same exercises in the exact same movement pattern.
If you watch my chest workout videos on YouTube from a month ago and compare them to my chest workout videos today… you would not visually see a difference in how I perform the exercises… Yet the difference in muscle activation, especially with the lower aspect of my pecs is like night and day.
Bro-logic: A Blend Of Experience and Science
As I experienced this phenomenon, I recalled some EMG research that my colleague Bret Contreras did a few months back. He shared that research in a T-Nation article titled Mind-Muscle Connection: Fact or BS?
The subjects were advanced lifters and were instructed to perform a set of Push Ups and Bench Press while focusing on using their triceps… and another set where they focused on using their pecs.
When the subjects focused on using triceps, the activation of the upper pecs was reduced a fair amount… while the lower pec activation was SIGNIFICANTLY reduced.
This was a big aha moment for me. Not only did it confirm why my chest was lagging behind… but also why my lower pecs were the greatest area of weakness.
Genetically Cursed Calves?
Chest isn’t the only muscle group that I’ve improved by enhancing my mind muscle connection. Building my calves has been among my greatest achievements. For years I chalked it up to crappy genetics. I had tried everything in the book to get them to grow. Yet even with the increased effort and attention, my calves continued to taunt me.
Trouble was, I could never ‘feel’ a pump in my calves. Instead, I would feel an intense burning sensation just above my ankles… and my feet would cramp up. There’s a million and one ways to get that weight up when performing calve exercises… and contracting the calve muscles certainly wasn’t how I was going about it.
Finally, I picked up some great external cues from a fellow Physique Coach. For example, while performing the Calve Press, he instructed me to focus on pushing the platform away from me… and at the peak contraction to drive my ankle upward, which intensified the contraction.
BOOM! I finally experienced what a calve contraction felt like. All these years of training and I wasn’t activating my calves much at all.
I transferred this thought process to my gait while walking my dog. Again, when I walk I never feel a contraction in my calves and I always feel tight and fatigued just above my ankle joint. So now, with this enhanced mind-muscle connection I focused on pushing the ground away from me with the balls of my feet. Immediately I felt a fantastic contraction in my calves!
Again… this is just my natural movement pattern while walking. I simply strike with my heel and don’t push off with the balls of my feet… so my calves never get the chance to contract. I actually have to think about pushing off with my toes… even after months of walking like this.
This leads me to believe that the reason some guys may have big calves is a result of their natural walking patterns. I remember one guy from high school who naturally seemed to walk on his tippy-toes… and his calves were huge!
Hip Dominant With a Big Booty
I’ve also been very well aware that I’m a hip dominant guy. Basically, my hips and ass grow real easy, yet the lower aspect of my thighs have lagged behind.
While performing Squats and Leg Presses I could always feel my hips taking the brunt of the load. I never really felt much tension in my mid to lower thigh.
As I continued to hone my mind-muscle skills it became easy for me to shift the focus away from my hips and place the tension on the lower aspect of my thighs. I could even shift my focus more toward the vastus medialis (tear drop) or vastus lateralis (quad sweep). And the cool thing… I could perform 3 reps that looked identical to the naked eye, yet internally I was targeting 3 different areas of my thighs.
I noticed the same thing (using my hips), while performing intervals on the stationary bike, especially during the working interval when the resistance was high. When I get my mind in the muscle I can dial down the activation of my hips and crank up the activation of just about any area of my thighs. I find it easiest to redistribute the tension to my vastus medialis… but I can also easily place greater emphasis on the vastus lateralis. If I desire, I can also engage my hamstrings more by dialing down the activation of my quads.
This Is Some Fun Shit!
The practice of enhancing your mind-muscle connection turns every workout into a ‘playful’ experience… an adventure as I eluded to above.
Each workout I will slightly alter my grip or stance and play around with different forces of tension. For example; while performing the leg press with a wide stance and toes pointing out… I’ll squeeze my heels together (without actually moving them), creating an inward force, which generates greater activation of my hamstrings and adductors.
Every time I feel greater emphasis and activation in a different aspect of a muscle… it’s like Christmas morning to me… it’s a gift that will keep on giving to me.
Training for the ‘feel’ makes every workout exciting! Although you’re performing many of the same exercises you’ve performed for years, and even decades… the practice of enhancing your mind-muscle connection and steering the tension to a different area of the muscle… is as though you’re performing a totally new exercise every time.
Training For The Feel Begins With An Empty Mind
It’s impossible to enhance your mind-muscle connection without becoming truly present in the moment. If your mind is preoccupied with crap that went on earlier in your day… or the pile of shit that still needs to get done when you get home or head off to work… the quality of your workout will suffer. If you’re busy scanning the gym with your eyes wandering around while you are performing a set… you’ll never experience a powerful mind-muscle connection.
You need to leave that shit at the door when you walk into the gym. This is your time. It’s just you and the iron!
Don’t try to force a strong mind-muscle connection. Simply allow it to happen.
…and it all begins by emptying your mind of everything past and future.
I’m a HUGE fan of Winnie the Pooh. I’ve learned many valuable lessons from that chubby little bear full of stuff and fluff. He always has a way of simplifying things. Seriously… he should write a diet book… because, we as a society have dramatically over complicated the process of fat loss and muscle building. Winnie the Pooh would help bring clarity by simplifying the process.
This quote from Winnie The Pooh’s Great Adventures can certainly be applied to the practice of training for the feel…
“An empty sort of mind is valuable for finding pearls and tails and things, because it can see what’s in front of it.”
At the beginning of each set, empty your mind of all distractions. Become aware of your breathing… feel your heart beat… feel the cold iron in your hands… become mindful of how and where that iron is creating tension in your muscles before you even lift the weight… now contract the target muscle, and lift… feel the rush of blood coursing through your veins… Becoming mindful of supporting muscles, which may be trying to get involved in the movement… consciously try to relax those muscles… dial down their activation and place great focus on the target muscle… feel the intense contraction… now lower the weight in a controlled manner… feel the stretch… feel the muscle fibers tearing apart… get your mind right in the muscle.
In this moment nothing else matters… all of your daily problems melt away as you pour every ounce of your being into every rep.
Give It Time
Building a strong mind-muscle connection takes time and practice. There’s no need to rush the process… this is a lifelong journey… and you can continue to enhance that mind-muscle connection during every single workout for life.
Initially it helps to reduce the weight of your lifts… so you can really focus on relaxing supporting muscles and steering more tension to the target muscles. You’ll notice that although the weight is lighter, you will fatigue sooner. That’s because your target muscle is doing the brunt of the work, while receiving very little help from the supporting muscles… and that’s a great thing for us Physique Artists training for aesthetics.
As you enhance your mind-muscle connection… you’ll be able to steer your muscle activation even while performing heavy lifts. Just the other day I was able to steer the muscle activation while achieving ‘personal bests’ on the Trap Bar Deadlift, Decline Bench Press, and Chest Supported T-bar Row.
When the weight is heavy, it becomes increasingly easier to lift that weight up by any means necessary…using every supporting muscle you possibly can. Resist that urge… and if necessary, reduce the weight in an effort to maximally activate the target muscle.
It’s More Than Muscle… It’s a Way Of Life
This practice of enhancing your mind-muscle connection… becoming present in the moment… impacts all areas of life.
Training for the feel has helped me become mindful of my surroundings… helping me appreciate the little things around me… soaking up the laughs and giggles with my kids… giving my wife the full attention she deserves when we are together… feeling a true connection and bond every moment we are together.
As a society, we tend to rush through our day to day activities. Resist the urge to rush through your workout. Marinate in it… soak it up for everything that it’s worth. And if your training sessions help ground you in the moment… living in the NOW… and it carries over into the other areas of your life… I guarantee you will reap rewards far greater than you ever imagined.
Do you feel me bro?
Good… now go pump some iron and unleash your greatness!
Sculpt a Masterpiece,
Scott Tousignant
About The Author
Scott Tousignant, BHK is a Physique Coach and Elite Natural Bodybuilder with the UFE.
Scott specializes in helping regular men and women sculpt their body into a chiseled work of art.
Viewing training as an art form and your body as a sculpture is a simple shift in mindset that brings out the beauty in your ongoing body transformation.
The art of molding and chiseling an aesthetically pleasing physique with spectacular symmetry, proportions, and carved out detail is one of life’s most rewarding and fulfilling experiences…
…It’s an opportunity for self growth and self discovery that will impact every area of your life.
Learn more about Scott’s physique-focused training programs:
AMPlify Aesthetic Muscle Gains and Strip Away Stubborn Sacks Of Fat with AMP – Aesthetic Muscle Plan
Get a taste of Scott’s hardcore physique training programs with Physique Phreak
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