I hope you enjoy this post. If you want to transform your body using ‘Muscle-Centric Suspension Training,’ 
In the fitness industry, the ‘mind-muscle connection’ is a widely debated topic…
Most leading athletes and fitness experts recommend practising and incorporating it. I can honestly tell you from experience, it will transform your body and mental well-being.
When exercising to build muscle, the goal is not to just move through the range of motion. The goal is to try and place all the effort onto the muscle you are targetting by contracting (squeezing) it as hard as possible. This then causes your body to move.
Greater Confidence
You need to place your mind inside your muscle in order to do this. Using your mind-muscle connection leads to greater control and confidence with your exercise movements. Along with greater lean muscle-building results.
It awakens pathways to parts of your body you never knew existed. You truly become one with your body and mind and it feels awesome!
Table Of Contents
What Is Mind-Muscle Connection Exercise
I call unlocking your mind-muscle connection, the squeeze. In the Fitness Freedom Athletes community, members tease me about it. BUT IT IS VERY IMPORTANT…
‘The Squeeze’ means to powerfully contract the muscle you are targeting with mindful intent throughout the entire range of motion. Place your mind inside your muscle and visualise it squeezing, stretching, moving, and growing. Focus all your attention internally on your body and on that single muscle.
An internal focus is the foundation for unlocking your mind-muscle connection. It’s MINDFUL. Most people are externally focused when they workout, especially in a gym. I bet you can relate to this…
An external focus is mindless. When people workout they think about the rep number, what’s the next exercise, and when will this be over? Or they have ‘life thoughts’ about work, money, daily conversations etc.
They don’t mindfully focus on the one specific muscle they are targeting and how it feels during the exercise. To build lean muscle you need to mindfully connect and internalise your focus. Place your mind inside your muscle.
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Is Mind-Muscle Connection Real
To understand what I mean by mind-muscle connection. Do this simple activity with me so you can feel how real it is.
Take your arm and hold it out straight. Now flex your arm up and down as if you were doing a bicep curl. Feels easy right?
Straighten your arm back out. Now focus on squeezing your bicep muscle as hard as possible whilst keeping your arm straight. Go on, squeeze it even more, don’t let your arm bend. Look at your bicep muscle and squeeze it even more!
Now, slowly bend your arm by using that powerful squeeze. Bend it right to the top as much as it’ll go and keep it there, whilst giving your bicep an extra squeeze.
Harder right? That’s unlocking your mind-muscle connection.
Mind-Muscle Connection Bodybuilding
It’s purposely making the exercise harder for the muscle you are targeting. I want you to remember the feeling of that squeeze on the bicep muscle. And take that same technique into every single exercise you ever do. Every single rep.
A muscle is much weaker when you use your mind-muscle connection to place all the load onto it and keep it under tension. That’s how you can build muscle with just your body weight using a suspension trainer or resistance band from home. This is what I teach within my Body Transformation Programs.
It’s how professional bodybuilders approach their training. Although you don’t need a gym in order to build muscle. The benefits extend beyond just lean muscle building too…
The Mind-Body Connection
The mind and body are unconditionally linked in the realms of transforming your bodies. When you use your mind-muscle connection in each workout, you can use your body to master your mind. Sounds a little ‘woo woo’ right? Hear me out because it can help with improving your mental well-being.
In workouts try to focus internally on your body for the entire time. Specifically on the muscles that you are exercising. Place your mind inside your muscle and squeeze it powerfully. No phone, no distractions.
One focus like this, for an extended period of time, is a form of meditation.
Close Your Eyes
To further help with this meditative mind-muscle connection, close your eyes as you exercise the muscle. Trust me on this. Once you have developed good exercise movement patterns and technique. You don’t need to see, you need to feel.
The difference is huge. Blocking out external visuals means you can look deeper into the muscle you are training. I don’t know the scientific reason behind it, but I know it works very well. Just as it does in meditation.
And the more you practice placing your mind inside your muscle and squeezing every rep: pushing it into a burning, pumping, lactic acid build-up sensation. The greater your lean muscle-building results will be. And closing your eyes can help with that awareness.
Science Behind Mind-Muscle Connection
It gets better the more you practice. Scientific research has shown that professional bodybuilders can mindfully connect and contract (squeeze) their muscles to only 50% – 60% of their full potential.
For us everyday folk, we’re at about 20% – 30% ability. That’s a HUGE area for improvement in building lean muscle and transforming your body. Along with your mind.
It’s the one thing I have relentlessly focused on. And it has improved my physique using only a suspension trainer beyond what I ever thought was possible. My clients too.
Using your mind-muscle connection becomes addictive because it feels amazing. A client told me, “I finally understand what a workout should be and feel like” … And it’s so true.
Mind-Muscle Connection Benefits
Practising this mind-muscle connection inside workouts. Will level up your life and give you additional benefits outside of them. We currently live in the notification age. We’ve had the:
- Industrial Age
- Space Age
- Machine Age
- Information Age
and now it’s the NOTIFICATION AGE!
You know what I’m talking about. Anywhere and everywhere we go there’s a notification on our phone or laptop, constantly. Our attention spans have never been so poor because we’re in a constant state of seeking quick dopamine hits.
Dopamine is a chemical that your brain emits when it’s stimulated. Drugs stimulate dopamine and so does social scrolling social feeds and checking emails constantly.
The problem is we’ve become terrible as a society at doing deep, productive work. Or in other words, focusing on one thing for an extended period.
Quality Lies In Deep Work & Exercise
Most of us find it hard to go more than 10 minutes without looking at our phone, checking email or going on social. I admit I was like this for years until I began making mindful conscious actions to improve. We prioritise reacting and responding first, rather than creating.
To be creative we need to focus on one thing for a prolonged period of time to really get into it and be productive with our outcome. Because our brains have become hardwired to look for a constant stimulant, that dopamine hit, that Warrior Mode!
Doing deep productive work becomes harder. Quality work lies in deep productive work. However, we can train our brain to become better at deep productive work, training it to let go of seeking a constant stimulant.
Double Whammy!
Meditation is the training benefit that comes from using your mind-muscle connection Meditation practice is like productive deep work exercise training for the brain. It trains our subconscious to get better at going into deep work and staying there.
If we apply mediation principles to our workouts, not only will it help us achieve the body we want quicker. The benefits will also be reflected in your daily life. By helping to train our brains to do deep, focused work.
It’s a double-whammy win!
Dong Deep Productive Work
The same deep work productivity principle applies to social scenarios too. Doing deep productive work with friends and family means having the ability to be totally present with them.
Not looking at our phone every 2 minutes when we’re sitting with a loved one. Not checking Facebook when we’re hanging out with our kids.
There is of course the conscious effort of putting our phones on silent, turning off emails, having digital sunsets etc but there’s also the aspect of re-training the brain. Re-training and improving our ability to focus and go deeper.
The Difference It Makes
I’ve personally noticed this myself. I now work in deep 90-minute productive stints followed by 20-minute breaks when I need to do creative work.
I’m more productive in those 4hrs 30 minutes of work than if I did a 10hr work day but checked notifications here and there, looked at emails and went on Facebook.
I never used to be able to do that type of deep work. I just simply couldn’t. I’d been so attached to my phone and immediately responding to notifications for years.
It’s taken me a lot of meditation practice in workouts and meditation on its own to become more productive. Along with having systematic rules for my phone and social media usage.
This all comes back to the mind, body and soul connection all being intrinsically linked. We have the power to transform our bodies with it. And we can help transform our minds to be more productive and lead a more motivational and inspired life.
Mind-Muscle Connection Exercises
There are exercises that can help you develop your mind-muscle connection:
- Contract the muscle worked after every set for 5 seconds. A bit like posing. This squeezing exercise will help you to know the feeling of squeezing the muscle powerfully, so you can then take that feeling into the next set.
- Isometric holds exercise for specific body areas. You don’t need to pose like a stage athlete. But at the end of every workout spend 3 minutes squeezing your upper body front, then legs, then upper body back, then legs. Hold the squeezes for 10 seconds.
These aren’t exercises that will suddenly make you The Hulk or make you super slim. But they will improve your mind’s focus and connection to feel individual muscles work better within workouts.
As a result, you’ll be able to push your muscles harder to improve faster. In turn, they will become more developed.
Mindful Exercise Guru,
Coach Adam
Body Transformation Coach
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