Mind-Muscle Connection (MMC) Tips
I know you workout or lift weights? But are you “REALLY” feeling the muscle that you’re trying to target?
Mind-Muscle Connection or MMC is especially important if your trying to grow and take yourself to the next level.
What is Mind-Muscle Connection? As you probably know, movement is controlled by the brain. The first step towards muscular contraction is a signal sent by the brain to your muscles telling them to contract. When the mind meets the body, the brain releases a chemical neurotransmitter called "acetylcholine" to communicate with muscles in the body.
When “acetylcholine” is released, it crosses the "synapses" (the tiny space that separates the nerve from the muscle) where it binds to receptors on the surface of muscle fibers to create muscle contraction. I guess you can say that this is Mind-Muscle Connection (MMC).
The more you can improve this communication, the more muscle fibers you will recruit when you perform a lift. This will result in better quality muscle contraction. Which means a better workout, more growth, and is one of the most important secrets to success.
Get it? Good! Here are 5 tips that will help you develop a strong MMC.
- Stop Ego Lifting: One of the most common mistakes people make or why they fail to develop proper MMC is because they are obsessed with pushing more and more weight. Or want to load more than they can handle to impress people. Guess what? No one cares! Forget about how much weight you’re doing and instead, concentrate on the quality of each repetition.
- Visualize the Muscle You’re Training: Think about the specific muscle you want to focus on and direct your attention to that area of the body. It helps to know the physiology of the human body and how each muscle contract. If you don’t know how each muscle contracts, the internet and search engines are a beautiful thing.
- Warm-Up Sets: Before you perform a lift, complete a warm-up set with a very low weight and high reps. Concentrate on squeezing the weight and focus on engaging the muscle you’re working. These are sometimes referred to as Activation Sets.
- Time Under Tension: Time under tension is the amount of time you spend during each repetition. In other words, perform the exercise very slowly to increase time under tension. The slower your repetitions, the better your brain will communication with your muscle fibers. Take 2 or 3 (or 4 or 5) seconds for each of the concentric and eccentric parts of your repetition. It also helps to pause for a moment at the point of max contraction.
- Flex: Try flexing you’re target muscles in between sets. This forces additional blood into your muscles which will pump them up even more. You’re actually more aware of your muscles when they're fully pumped, which makes it easier to mentally isolate them.
To wrap it up, you can train as hard as you want in the gym, but if your Mind-Muscle Connection is not fully developed, then you will never reach your full potential. Time to start making your workouts count and take yourself to the next level.
Hope you guys found this helpful.
Stay safe and train hard fam.
Much love.
Frankie Arcega | FX Supps Elite Athlete