The Fitness Junction

This week:

• Knowledge Corner: The Mind-Muscle Connection

• Monthly Challenge Update: May Yoga-a-thon

• Meme Center: Gains for Doge

Knowledge Corner: The Mind Muscle Connection

What do you like to think about when you're in the middle of a lift? For me, I focus on how my wife will probably leave me if I don't get one more rep. For normal people though, they typically focus on their technique. Thinking about your form can take you in many different directions. This brings us to the mind muscle connection, or the theory that you should focus on the internal activation of a muscle to help get bigger muscle growth (hypertrophy). Put another way, an internal cue would be using self-talk to tell your muscles to squeeze or contract as hard as possible during each rep. External cues is the other main method for directing one's focus during a lift. When using external cues, you think about how you're moving the weight through the environment. One example of an external cue would be imagining you're throwing the barbell through the roof during a bench press. So which is better, using internal or external cues? Turns out they both have their place.

For hypertrophy, studies have demonstrated that internal cues can increase targeted muscle activation and result in bigger gains. These results support the mind muscle connection, but there are several important caveats. First, results were only significantly better for single-joint lifts. Second, increased hypotrophy effects from internal cues have only been observed in upper-body exercises. Bottom line, for single-joint upper-body lifts, e.g. bicep curls (only the elbow joint moves), the mind muscle connection appears to be a useful tool for maximizing muscle growth.

That still leaves plenty of room for external cues to add value to your workouts. If strength and/or athletic performance are more important to your fitness goals than hypertrophy, then external cues are a proven method for improvement. This is especially true for compound (multi-joint) lifts like deadlifts and squats. In these circumstances, external cues are likely more beneficial to your workouts than internal cues.

Choosing which type of cue, or self-talk, to use should therefore be driven by what type of exercise you're doing and what your overall goal is. Looking for muscle growth? Then use internal cues for lifts involving one specific muscle (curls, chest flys, shoulder raises, etc.), If you're more focused on doing heavy compound lifts and improving sports performance, then find some external cues that help you optimize activating all the required muscles.

If you need some examples of internal cues, check out C.T. Fletcher who vocalizes his internal cues (don't worry, you can keep the internal cues actually internal and still get the benefits). I'll cover useful external cues further in a future newsletter.

Sources: This meta-analysis, this study, and this study

Trivia

What tool do researchers use to measure electric signals in muscles to determine what conditions cause the muscle to contract the hardest?

• A. EKG

• B. MRI

• C. Muscle-tester 9000(pro+)

• D. EMG

May Challenge: Yoga Once Per Week

Well, I blew it last week, so two yoga sessions are on the docket for me this week. Guess I need to start setting some yoga phone alarms. Just goes to show how hard it can be to prioritize important recovery activities!

Meme Center:

Trivia answer: D. EMG. EMG, or electromyography, is a way to test for neuro-muscular disorders or to experiment with different methods of exercise and how they affect muscle contraction.

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