Mind Muscle Connection vs Form

Every now and then I see people without any focus in the gym.

They’ll be on their phone whilst doing exercises…

I’m not here to judge others but. you obviously know that’s not a good way to train 😳 

That brings me to focus.

Yes, being locked in is important.

If you’re locked in you’re already doing a majority of what matters.

Being able to bring the right intensity with full focus matters more than anything.

• But that’s the thing about focus.

• Should you focus on feeling the muscle?

• Should you focus on your form?

There’s oddly no one size fits all answer here.

It’s all about the type of exercise you’re doing.

See if you’re doing a really coordinative exercise like an RDL, focusing on feeling a muscle is going to be a huge problem.

You might be able to think of some of the glaring issues already.

• Thinking only about feeling a muscle means you put form aside.

• Putting form aside means you are lifting a LOT less than you should be.

• When you do this you’re just getting way less growth than you want.

Growth is going to be less EVEN in the muscle you feel more.

However, that doesn’t mean focusing on feeling a muscle is bad.

If you’re doing a super simple exercise like an isolation, the form is ridiculously easy.

Bicep curls don’t require anything complicated to perform.

Focusing on the muscle in these single joint exercises will increase motor unit recruitment. This will end up leading to more growth. It’ll be a good thing.

Sure, nowhere near as important as being focused in general and pushing hard, but it will provide benefits.

So here’s a little table to make it easier to remember.

THIS DOES NOT MEAN YOU REDUCE WEIGHT TO FEEL A MUSCLE MORE.

All this means is that you focus on trying to feel the contraction/muscle whilst using your heavy loads training close to failure.

If you feel the need to strip weight back, do more reps, or go slower to feel your muscle don’t.

Wait it out, train properly, and in time you’ll build a stronger connection.

You might here me or others call these two different types of focuses different names.

• Just so you stay up to speed on things.

• Muscle focus = internal focus

• Form focus = external focus

Hopefully this gives you better guidance when you’re performing your workouts. It’ll let you make sure you’re not sandbagging lifts for a feeling.

Your Hypertrophy Hero,
Fletcher