Advice for Gym Beginners: Improve Your Mind-Muscle Connection
Advice for Gym Beginners: Improve Your Mind-Muscle Connection
One of the most common beginner mistakes when starting to workout is getting both excited and obsessive about numbers: how much weight we are lifting, how much weight we are loosing, how much measurements we are either gaining or loosing, PRs, etc. Numbers are, for our minds, one of the easiest ways of tracking success. It's palpable. It's a number! You can't argue with a number, right? Well, not really. Numbers can be tricky and leave a lot of room for misinterpretation.
So you go to the gym and you start getting excited (and obsessive) about numbers, more specifically, about how much weight you are lifting. The mind gets so happy when we go up in weights! There is a strong sensation of accomplishment when we are able to pick up a heavier dumbbell. But there's also a big risk in this simplified dynamic if we forget two basic words: activation and form. You can lift all the weight in the world, if your form is incorrect and you are not activating your muscle, you'll not get stronger (but you will probably get injured eventually). What makes you stronger is not the weight you are lifting but how much work your muscle is doing - there is a difference. Your muscles don't magically grow because you're moving heavy weights up and down, they grow because they're forced to engage by acting on that weight. The number on the weight is just one contingency in a set of many that can (though not always) maximize the force placed on your targeted muscles. Numbers solely, without any regards to form or activation, are overrated, can lead to injury, and may actually be hindering your results rather than helping them. Understanding how to activate your muscle without necessarily obsessing over a number will make your gains a lot more certain than otherwise. Activation and form come first. Numbers are secondary.
When we are exercising, we need to consider several aspects. How much sleep did you get that day? What time in your menstrual cycle are you on? Are you stressed out? What's the temperature like? How much food have you eaten? Etc. All these could influence your strength in a given day. This means that if you're used to lifting 15lbs, that number might fluctuate depending on your strength during that particular day. Maybe you're killing it and you do 20lbs with great form and activation. Maybe you're not so good and 10lbs feels very heavy. Everything is OK and nothing is a problem. As long as your muscles are working, and you can FEEL them working, you're golden.
Being able to activate a muscle is a skill. Just like improving your form is something you need to work on overtime, so is activating your muscles. Being able to activate your muscles (the intended muscles) during a particular activity is what we call "Mind Muscle Connection". It's the communication between your brain and your muscle.
Instead of making this overly complicated, here's a few tips on how to improve your MMC at the gym if you're a beginner:
Lower Weights
Yes, you read it correctly: lower your weights. It's not the end of the world. Numbers are overrated, remember?
Sometimes, when we start going up in weights too soon, what may happen is that our secondary muscles (not the muscle group intended to work) start taking the load to compensate. One of the most common example are the glutes. A lot of people have a hard time activating their glute muscles because other muscles like the quads are taking the majority of the load. If one keeps on going higher in weights trying to "fix this issue", the glutes stand no chance - they are still weak from lack of activation so at this point the person would essentially be doing a leg workout. The answer is to lower the weights instead and focusing on the MMC. Having lower weights will allow you to improve your form, go slower if you have to, and really squeeze the muscles intended for that specific workout. Sometimes you have to lower the weight in order to get a better muscle contraction, because it allows you to focus on activation, and activation is what we want. Sometimes less is actually more (in life and at the gym).
Go slow or Add Tempo
This goes hand in hand with lowering your weights because if you go slower, you will have to lower your weights.
Training your MMC by going very slow or adding tempo to your lifting is such a well rounded technique. Say you're travelling and only have access to very light weights or no weights at all. No problem: go slow. You're recovering from an injury but are able to re-start working out? Go slow. You're tired and sloppy at the gym but want to finish your workout safely? Go slow. Are you in between weights (meaning the current weight is too easy but the next one is too hard)? Go slow. I see a lot of people in a hurry to get out of a set and go home or go back to their phones - this is not helping you. Go slow. Be present. Squeeze those muscles. You'll thank me later.
You want some extra love? Add a pause at the point of maximum contraction. Just for a second or two if you are starting out. That will definitely convince your that numbers are overrated.
Warm Up
Sometimes we are busy and we skip warm ups, I understand. But if you want to really work on your MMC, warm ups are key.
Choose a very (VERY) low weight, or just do this without any weight at all. Concentrate on squeezing the targeted muscles as much as you are able, specially at the point of maximum contraction (pause here too). This is not intended to be as tough as your 'real' workout, but it will prep your body (and your brain) for what is going to happen next.
Switch from Weights to Resistance Bands every once in a while
Both are great tools, but they will act on your muscles differently.
Sometimes using bands require more control and balance, which will slow you down (are you starting to see a pattern?). They'll also provide your muscles with different types of load. While the resistance is constant through the entire range of motion with weights, the resistance fluctuates through the range of motion with resistance bands. If you're having a lot of trouble activating a certain muscle, try switching to resistance bands for a while (or back and forth).
Be Present
If you're at your workout, be at your workout. Make time for it and do it well. If you're working out too fast or not really paying attention, you're probably not activating your muscles as much as you could be. Presence is important in all aspects of life. Much like reading a book absent mindedly means you probably won't remember anything you read, same goes for weightlifting. Be present. Focus. Don't rush. Do it as well as you can for as long as you can, instead of rushing in order to complete a workout. More presence will always trample more sets and reps.
Deal with your Ego
This is probably the most important one of all, because in so many ways we kill our goals because of petty pride. We cannot fathom lowering our weights because in our minds that means we're getting weaker (which is not true btw). So we would rather stay in our comfortable number obsession than actually getting better at...getting better. That's essentially what you're doing by improving your MMC: you're working on a skill that will improve your gains.
Quality. Not numbers. Not weights. Not pictures. Not cool clips. Not numbers of sets and reps. Not swinging the weights up and down without any form. Not showing off to your friends and family. None of that. QUALITY. Quality is the only thing you should worry about. And the quality of your workout is measured by one component only: activation.
The sooner you detach yourself from this obsessive importance to the weights you're using, the faster your gains will start to rise. And in the end of the day, that's really all that matters.
For more information and help in any of these topics, we recommend you apply for 1:1 coaching where you can take part in our workshops and webinars where we break down how to deal with each issue more deeply!
If this was impactful or meaningful in any way, we’d love to know. We wish you the best in your journey!
Mariana
Hey there, I’m Rachel!
NUTRITIONIST, PERSONAL TRAINER, WELLNESS COACH
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