Mind-muscle connection refers to actively focusing on the contraction of a certain muscle during an exercise to increase its activation. This can be done to focus on one muscle through internal cues or on the group of muscles used through external cues. Here is what you need to know about mind muscle connection and how to use it to your benefit.
When performing exercises between 60-80% of your 1RM, most people should be able to increase the activation of the muscles through actively focusing on the contraction. Focusing on squeezing a muscle specific muscle during an exercise not only increases its activation but the activation of agonist muscles as well. Focusing on external cues as well helps increase the activation of the target muscles and performance of the exercise. Focusing on external cues is more beneficial for performance such as running speed or trying to lift as much weight as possible.
Why is this important? Being able to actively increase the activation of a specific muscle can help improve your exercise quality and target specific muscle groups more. This can help people who have a hard time feeling an exercise or a certain muscle group. Also, when it comes to rehab if you can specifically target a muscle that needs to be strengthened through internal focus you can speed up recovery time.
How to use internal/external cues? Internal cueing is when you focus on the contraction of the muscle, for example when performing a bicep curl focusing on contracting the bicep muscle during the curling motion. External cues are focusing on the environment or things in it, like pushing away from the floor on the ascent from a squat.Using the internal cue technique may be more beneficial when performing isolation exercises because of the lighter weight typically used while using external cues for heavier compound movements like squats or deadlifts.