The Mind-Muscle Connection And Get Huge!

Don't underestimate the power of your mind to grow your muscles.

Anyone who has survived beyond his 10th birthday knows the road to success is usually a tortuous, obstacle-laden single track with plenty of opportunities for failure, not to put to fine a point on the journey. Beyond the manned and unmanned obstructions, often the most influential effect on your behavior is what happens in your head. Self-sabotage can undermine even the best talent, and containing that wild hair of doubt separates the boys from the legends.

Merely lifting weights, even if you're using the optimal hypertrophy ranges of 8-12 for the upper body and 10-20 for the lower body, won't necessarily get you the extreme muscle mass you see in advanced bodybuilders. Even if your form is good, you may never experience those sought-after gains. What many people are missing is the contributions your nervous system and connective tissues can make.
You may know people who are much stronger than they look based on their physical size, and others who seem surprisingly weak for how massive they are.
What gets you big and strong isn't just hoisting a lot of iron, it's consciously training muscle—and there is a world of difference between the two. The difference is how well you develop your mind-muscle connection.

What Is The Mind-Muscle Connection?

Having a good mind-muscle connection means being able to isolate a specific muscle or muscle group and feel it working throughout every inch of a rep. With a strong mind-muscle connection, you're able to feel the muscle contract as you push, pull, or raise a weight: You can feel it elongate as you return the weight to the start position.

1. The Centering Breath
"This is just a biological way to control your heart rate. When an athlete experiences pressure, his heart rate elevates. The average golfer's heart rate, for example, is between 70 and 75 beats per minute (bpm) when he's practicing. In a competitive situation, that same golfer's heart rate may be 85-plus bpm. Many athletes aren't aware this is happening or more importantly how to control it.

2. The Performance Statement
"I have athletes tell me their top three tasks in terms of competition. Let's say it's a pitcher. He might be asked to hit, field and pitch. Once I've identified the top three tasks, I want him to identify the No. 1 task. For a pitcher it's obviously pitching, so I have him identify the top three things he needs to think about before he throws each pitch. It may be, What pitch am I going to pitch and where? Then he's going to think, Weight back, arm on top.

3. The Personal Highlight Reel
"This is an advanced form of visualization of three one-minute clips. For the first one I have athletes come up with specific instances of past success, where they did a nice job of emphasizing the performance statement we talked about. For the next 60 seconds we focus on an elevated-pressure game, a playoff-caliber game. I ask them to picture themselves in 3-5 different highlights, pitching well by emphasizing the elements of their performance statement. Then the third part of the reel is a clip where they imagine the next day's game or practice, again focusing on the performance statement."

4. The Identity Statement
"This is centered on two elements: The athlete's No. 1 strength and one of his ultimate goals. It might be something like, I'm a strong and confident pitcher and I'm a hall-of-fame-caliber player. It's really something he has strength in and is trying to accomplish. It emphasizes developing the self-image."
5. The Centering Breath
"I have them finish with another centering breath because as they go through the visualization, their heart rates may become elevated. So we want to control that heart rate again before we go out and take the field or enter the gym."