nutrition and performance book

The mind muscle connection
*“As you 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. You might say that the Mind-Muscle
Connection (MMC) occurs at something called the "neuromuscular junction". This is where the mind
meets the body”
What this means is that when you recruit a muscle to lift a weight your brain will send signals to the
muscle groups needed to lift it. The peripheral nervous system (PNS) will detect the weight, send
signals to the central nervous system (CNS) and the brain. Then the body will then recruit the
required muscle fibres needed to lift the weight. The mind muscle connection simple means to
understand what muscle is going to be used and focus is presented solely on that muscle or muscle
group to make the lift effective. By doing this you will effectively train that muscle and become more
efficient in how your body moves. You will learn much about the human body and its capabilities.
Benefits of improving the mind muscle connection:
Improving your MMC increases the number of muscle fibres being recruited when lifting.
If you're worried about wasting energy on warm up sets, try it on an off day.
You're more aware of your muscles when fully pumped, making it easier to isolate them.
Better self-awareness, this could lead to better stability and improvement in body
composition and day to day form.
To understand it better we must understand the difference between the primary movers and the
secondary movers.
The bench press for instance. The primary mover will be the pectoral muscle and the secondary
movers will be the anterior deltoid and the triceps. The primary mover is the muscle you want to
isolate, the muscle you want to connect with the mind. So, in this case it’s the pectoral muscle, the
“peck”.
Think of it like you are trying to present the muscle. Present its form to someone, showing it off.
Some tips on how to activate muscles using the mind:
Stand on the spot and tell yourself what muscle you want to activate. Then squeeze that
muscle. So, for the bicep you would curl the arm up and squeeze the muscle on the
contraction. Then use the same implementation with a weight
In-between sets flex the target muscle. This forces additional blood into your muscles and
help to pump them up further. Why? Because the more the muscle is pumped then the
more aware you are of how to isolate it
Perform a set very slowly. Use a lighter weight and concentrate on the contraction phase of
the muscle
When lifting try to present the muscle, as if showing it off to someone when its flexed
So, as you can see if you want to increase your potential in the gym and with performance you must
get to grips with the understanding of muscle isolation, contraction and tension. I will delve further
into this in the next section.
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