#23 - Mind Muscle Connection
Hey, Hey ladies. How are you today? Happy Wednesday or whatever day you're listening to this episode on. I'm recording this episode on Monday, February 7th. And one week from now is Valentine's day. Valentine's day, isn't a holiday that has a ton of meaning for me. But in the last few years, I've semi embraced Valentine's day as almost like a self love day. Yeah. I have my husband and you know, it's always nice to get a little something, something for Valentine's day. But I think of Valentine's day as a day to show myself, how much I love me. So I want to encourage you guys to do that this year too. Buy yourself some flowers for Valentine's day, take yourself out for a nice romantic dinner, get yourself a spa day. Show yourself that you love you. It's more important than anything else in the world. Okay. So before we get into today's episode, you guys. I want to share something with you guys. It's been rough. I don't want to say it's been rough. It's been amazing. But having a puppy, it's tough shit. Some of you might be like, it's fine Lylas. It's easy. It's been 15 years since I've had a puppy and I totally forgot. I have been trying to figure out a new schedule, how to fit in my life, my training, my work, time with my husband. And you know, work around this little puppy schedule too, and figure out who he is and make sure that he's getting enough exercise and nap times and all of the things, and I am tired. I'm tired, I'm feeling a little overwhelmed. I'm doing the best I can. And sometimes, you know, I feel like I'm not alone in this where sometimes life just gets a little overwhelming and you need to sit back and be like, all right. What can I release? How can I make room for this? How can I make it a little bit easier for myself? And sometimes you just got to grab the bull by the horns and be like, we need to get this shit done. So right now. I'm trying to figure out what needs to be grabbed by the horns and what I can release and how I can make room in my life to give this guy all of the attention and time that he deserves and that I want to give him right. So I'm working on it. I'm doing the best I can. So, we're going to keep this episode short and sweet today. He is napping right now, but I got to get him out for a walk and some energy burn before I start my client calls tonight. So, we're on a schedule.
All right. Episode 23, mind muscle connection. There's a perfect episode to keep it short and sweet. So mind muscle connection is in my opinion, one of the most important parts of muscle building, of sculpting your physique, of weight training. I see so many people not get the results they want. I see people lifting for years and not seeing that result because they're lifting from a passive place. They're not really paying attention when they lift. Chatting with the friends, watching TV, looking at their phone, throwing weights around, maybe chatting with their trainer. When I was a trainer and worked with clients in person, you could tell which clients were focused in and, willing their muscles to grow, and which clients were just kind of there for the socialization of it. Right. They would chit chat with me while they were doing wraps and I'd have to remind them to breathe and think about what they were doing. And I think that was one of the thing that I really excelled at as a one-on-one trainer was getting people into that mind muscle connections zone. And it's something that now that I work with clients online, more than anything. I have to remind people of often we talk about mind, muscle connection, a lot in Lady Sculpt. And it's something that I talk about a lot in my workout videos, focusing clients in, on their breathing and what their core is doing and where they should be feeling each movement they're doing, it's important. So if you're somebody who goes to the gym and watches what the people around you are doing and, you know, maybe feels a little bit intimidated or maybe it's socializing or looking at your phone while you're there. This podcast is for you my friends. Mind muscle connection to me, it's like equal to meditation. When you're at the gym. And you mind muscle connect, everything else, slips away. Your stress of the day is gone. What you need to do later is gone. Everything on your phone goes away. All of it because you are so focused in, on the exact movement that you're doing, the muscles that you're working. The breath that you're taking and how your body feels in that moment. It's one of the best ways I know how to be in the present moment. For me, going to the gym, getting into that zone, that mind muscle connections zone is my meditation. It's one of the things that I do on a daily basis, that just makes me feel, like I'm living. Like I am in that moment.
So, how do you know if you're not mind muscle connecting? Some of the ways you may notice if you're not mind muscle connecting is if you are looking for distractions while you train. If you want to watch TV while you train, or if you're paying more attention to the music or the podcast you're listening to then what you're doing in the gym, it's okay to listen to music or a podcast. But when you're doing that set of squats or bench presses or mountain climbers or whatever it is. You shouldn't be thinking about what you're listening to, you should be thinking about what your body is doing, what your breath is doing, what your muscles are doing in that moment. And then when the moment's done and you're resting, go back to paying attention to what you're listening to. I think music is a great accessory to training, but sometimes you guys, I just turned my music off and I leave my earbuds in, so nobody knows. And I just focus on my breath and focus on what I'm doing. And for me, my workouts are so much better when I'm in that mind muscle connection zone. When I have a hundred percent focused on what I'm doing. I noticed this with cardio too. Sometimes with cardio. I mean, cardio, you can get away with it a little bit more. Sometimes I'll put on YouTube or, or a TV show if I'm doing like a long, steady state cardio session. But if I'm trying to kick out some hit training or intervals, sprints, that kind of thing. Sometimes just having no music and just focusing on my breath and what I'm doing and the movement that I want out of my body, my performance and my heart rate and everythingn improves drastically. Now some of you, I know you're going to be like a lot of this, I can't do cardio without music, totally fine. Totally fine, but try the next time that you're working out, whether it be cardio or weight training to really go into your body. I know during cardio, it's easy to let your brain go and think about other things. That's okay. But every once in a while,bring it back, bring it back and pay attention to how your body feels when you're doing the movement. Especially if you're just getting started with a specific kind of cardio. If you're just getting started as a runner, or you're just getting started doing stair climbing, that kind of thing. This is the exact same weight training, you guys. When you are passively working out. You're just moving weights around. Right. You're not actively contracting your muscle. You're not actively thinking about the engagement of that muscle, the breathing that goes along with that muscle, what the rest of your body is doing to support that lift. Actively training requires all of your focus. All right.
So how do we improve our mind muscle connection. I've got some tips for you guys. You ready? I want you to limit your distractions. So what this may look like is, wearing headphones and a hat and a hood at the gym, like limiting your view of other people in what they're doing, maybe it means listening to different music than what you're listening to or not listening to music at all, maybe it means finding an area in the gym that isn't as busy, your own private corner, where you can really focus on what you're doing. You have your own mirror space, you can watch what your body is doing. Right. Just getting rid of as many distractions as you can. I love working out at home in my home office. I have just a little bit of equipment in here, but I love working out in here because my mind, muscle connection is so much stronger. When I'm by myself than when I'm at my gym. I met my husband at the gym, you guys. And he said that he had tried to get my attention for many months, before he actually were. I'll tell you guys a secret. He actually hired me to be his trainer, but he said he was trying to get my attention. But when I work out, I'm so in the zone, I am not paying attention to what anyone is doing around me. Even if I have to go right up to the mirror. Yeah, be in a mere hog, but that's all right. And I focus exactly on what I'm doing. If there's somebody in the gym, that's distracting me. If someone is lifting terribly wrong, or there's a guy over in the corner, grunting and groaning and moaning, while he's training, I will leave. I'll go to a different room. I'll go to a different section of the gym. I'll leave the gym and come back later. If I'm distracted and not able to focus on what I'm doing, there's no point in me doing it. That's that's my personal opinion. So get rid of all of the distractions. If you're working out with someone who is distracting, you maybe try working out on your own. If you are distracted by your phone or by social media, leave your phone in a locker. I recently got myself a Fitbit so that I can leave my phone in the locker. I can just go and do everything I need to do record my workouts in my app, on my watch. Don't need my phone, totally fine.
The next one is, think about the movement you're doing. Don't try and lift the weights. Think about like when you're doing a bench press, don't think about the bar moving up. Think about your elbows coming down, your pectorals, expanding your scapula, your shoulder blades, coming together. Your shoulders are pushed down away from your ears back into that bench. And then as you engage and go to push that weight back up off of you. Don't think about pushing the bar, think about engaging your pectoral muscles, engaging those chest muscles, think about straightening out those elbows as you push that weight up, the only goal there is to straighten those arms. Right. Get those pectorals to fully contract, when I'm working with clients, let's say again for bench press, for example, when they get to the bottom of that wrap, when that bar is close to their chest or even touching their chest, I say, okay, engage your core exhale. Now think about pushing those elbows up and often I'll touch their elbows so that they can feel those triceps engage. And then I'll touch their pectorals, their chest, then I'll be like, all right, keep your chest elevated. Think about making as much volume through those pectoral muscles, as you possibly can, as you push that bar up so that they're not dropping their chest, elevating those shoulders and lifting from an anterior delt position rather than a chest position. You want to be in the moment? Something I used to do a lot as a coach is I would talk right through the entire set. I would remind my clients to breathe constantly, to engage their core, constantly to think about their muscles. And I wouldn't necessarily give them time to not be in the moment. So you may find that you need to do that to yourself. You need to constantly remind yourself to be in the moment, to think about what you're doing to think about your breath, to exhale as you, your exhale should always happen on the hardest part of the movement. For me, if I'm doing a bench press, I'll start the exhale as I'm pushing up. Some people will hold it until they get to the top, totally up to you. Whatever works best for you. I like to exhale the beginning of that movement, because for me, the exhale comes with a core contraction and then I'm getting core strength into that movement as well. All right. So you want to think about the movement, not moving the weight.
Next to my list, is slowing down the movement. If you're flinging weights around, if you're lifting faster than you can breathe, you need to slowly F down. You want to do your reps in a way that allows you time to mind muscle connect. So for me, what this may look like is a one to two count into contraction. And then a two to three count release. Now, I don't always slow down the movement that much, but if I notice myself getting distracted, if I notice my mind wandering somewhere else, I'll slow down my movement, even more so that I need to focus. You may need to lower your weights a little bit, that's totally fine. That making sure that you slow down that movement so much that you have to be mentally engaged in what you're doing. This is very much about being consciously aware of your workouts. We do not work out unconsciously, you guys. That does not get us anywhere.
And my last tip is if you're having trouble mind muscle connecting, start with a really lightweight and do some warmup sets. See, if you can get muscle that movement to engage with a really nice lightweight with you, focusing with you being conscious of that movement. I like doing this with, let's say like a lateral raise, I'll start with five pound weights. And just go really slow. And just get my mind into those lateral dealt heads just really focus on that form, getting that perfect form, holding the top position, allowing that muscle to fully engage, allowing my mind to connect with that muscle. And then I'll pick up heavier weights, especially for my strength training workouts. If I'm going quite heavy in my movement, I always like to start with a warmup mind, muscle connection set. Usually a couple of them actually, just to really get intuned with that muscle. Now, for my competition prep athletes out there, posing, is also fantastic opportunity to mine muscle connect. It is almost impossible to pose well, without mind muscle connection. You need to be able to engage your glutes, your rear delts, your lats, your core without going into a full contraction, right? You can't be doing squats and sit-ups on stage. Or lat pull downs or pull-ups right. So you need to be able to mentally activate those muscles without moving them. Say what, right. It's so hard. It's funny because whenever I get a brand new competition prep athlete, they always think that posing is going to be the easiest part. They watch girls on stage and most of the girls that compete make it look so easy. And then, they come into their first posing clinic and they're like, I don't know how to do this. I don't know how to make my body. Do that, how do I, how do I contract my lots without doing a pull-down right. So, if you are struggling with mind muscle connection and you want to compete, it is something you need to put some work into whether that's working with opposing coach, whether it's just practicing on your own.
One of the exercises I do with my competition prep athletes, as we stand in the mirror and we all turned to the side so that we get a side profile in the mirror and then not moving our bodies, not squatting, not lifting our legs, not anything we contract our glue media as muscles. So this comes from just a slight external rotation of the hip and thinking about pulling your kneecap up and outward. So mentally your activating that glute medius without actually abducting your hip. And it's super fun to watch my athletes get stronger at mind muscle connecting. And once we start that posing practice work. Once they start mind muscle connecting with their glute meds, their glute maxes, their calves, their quads, their back, their chest, their shoulders, their triceps in posing. All of a sudden, their workouts kept better because now they've got that mind muscle connection. They know, how to do it. It's funny because often posing for a lot of my athletes is similar to meditation too, because you can not be posing and thinking about what you're going to have for dinner later that night. When you are posing, your in the moment, you are only thinking about the muscles that you need to engage. It's one of the coolest forms of meditation. It's the way we meditate over here, in our sculpted lifestyle.
All right. You guys, just to recap for you guys quick. Limit distractions. Think about the muscle movement that you're doing. Slow down, add warmup sets. Think about, I want to add this to the list to think about your breathing, exhale during the hardest part of that movement and when you exhale contract your core, It's just going to add one more mind, muscle connection. So even if you're doing bicep curls, You're going to think about that exhale, that core contraction and all that core energy is going to go into your biceps. And you're going to think about the bicep. I also like to look at the muscle that I'm lifting. I mean, you can't always do this. If I'm doing a lower back extension. I'm not going to be able to spin my head around and look at my lower back. But if you have a mirrors available, this is one of the reasons I personally love to train with lots of mirrors around me. I like to watch the muscle that I'm working to be able to visualize the movement that it's doing, the extension that contraction and get visual with it. If I'm sitting on a bench and doing bicep curls, I look at the arm that is doing the work. If I'm working both at the same time, I'll switch my glance back and forth, or I'll focus on the weaker side and will it, to become stronger. I'm doing bench press. Pretty good chance, I'm going to tuck my chin and look at the chest while I'm doing that lift, I want to see that vascularity, I want to see those muscles pumping up, I want to see the blood, pulling in them. I want to see the color of my chest changed to that blush red. Sometimes, if you can't visually look at the muscle you're lifting, like let's say hamstrings for example, even putting your fingers back there and just touching them as you're going through the movement. Like, if you're warming up, let's say deadlifts. And you do a few reps with no weight, just put your fingers back there and feel for those hamstrings as they open up, as they stretch out and then make sure that as you come up out of that deadlift you're contracting the muscle you want to contract, you're using the right muscle in that movement, right. Especially with those compound lifts that so many muscles can help out with you want to make sure that your focal point is where you want it to be. Does that make sense? You guys picking up what I'm putting down. So the next time you go to the gym to work out. The next time you go do cardio, I want to challenge you. I want to challenge you to even turn off your music for 10 minutes And focus on your mind muscle connection. Do it during your weakest lefts. See, if you can will your body. Will your muscle to become stronger, to work harder for you to activate at a higher level. It's pretty amazing, what you guys can do with your minds. All right, ladies. That is what I have for you this week. Join me next week for more in muscle development. I'll see you guys. Bye for now.
