Exercise

January 9, 2010

Mind/Muscle Connection

Those familiar with my teachings know that I’m a big proponent of establishing a mind-to-muscle connection when performing resistance exercise. I’ve gone into extensive detail in my books on exactly how to incorporate mind-to-muscle training during the course of a workout. Now, a recent study published in the prestigious Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research shows just how effective the technique can be. Using a technique called EMG that measures the electrical activity of muscles during exercise, researchers found that focusing on latissimus dorsi (i.e. a large back muscle) significantly increased its activity during performance of the lat pulldown. This has major implications if you’re trying to optimize body composition.

Understand that strength training is not simply the act of lifting a weight from Point A to Point B. Rather, you must concentrate on the target muscle(s) that you’re working and channel your efforts into making those muscles exert the required force to execute the lift. Otherwise, secondary muscle movers are bound to dominate during performance, reducing activity of the target muscle.

Now this doesn’t mean you’ll isolate the target muscles — complete muscular isolation is a near impossibility during traditional strength training. But you will maximize the work performed by the intended muscles, thus optimizing their development. If you don’t already use the technique, I urge you to give it a try. No doubt it will improve your results — guaranteed.

Stay Fit!

Brad

Snyder BJ, Leech JR. Voluntary increase in latissimus dorsi muscle activity during the lat pull-down following expert instruction. J Strength Cond Res. 2009 Nov;23(8):2204-9.

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