MIND MUSCLE CONNECTION, ESSENTIAL IN TRAINING.....

While I am a huge believer in using heavy weights in the gym, I'm also aware of the risks it involves for inexperienced gym goers. If you are new to strength training, chances are you haven't really made those strong mind to muscle connections that are required to properly overload your muscles.

 What do I mean?

Lets use Lats for example, Training middle back seemed very vague to me in the first years of training, as I hadn't developed the size in the muscle and that mind muscle connection needed to advance. To explain further movements like Lat pull downs, Pull ups, Dumbbell and barbell Rows didn't quite feel as effective as they do now, there was a vagueness I wasn't fully aware of the muscles I was engaging and the shape my body had to retain to engage those muscles through these movements. This applies to ALL parts of the body and even compound movements. You may think you even have a movement like deadlift or squat or benchpress down to a T. 

There is almost always something else to learn to advance. A muscle you may not be fully utilizing which could bring one of these compound lifts on.

 Bodybuilders have excellent mind muscle connection because they Often watch themselves as they lift in a mirror (obviously some lifts are impossible for this) They Physically see the muscle fibres engaging and squeezing on demand this is mind muscle connection and it is ESSENTIAL TO GAINING STRENGTH IN ANYTHING.

You need to know the muscles that are required for a specific movement and you need to teach yourself to REALLY FEEL them engage.

It is essential then that to avoid injury also, you do not train overly heavy if you have 'this VAGUENESS present while doing any movement.

In my next post I'll use pull ups/lat pulldowns to explain how to properly engage the lats and how it carries over to every Lat movement, as well as helping with bench and deadlift  AN ESSENTIAL set of muscles to know how to properly engage in training. 

Don't Let Your Body Forget What Hard Work Is

You may have a desk job, where the hours in a day merge together in a head-spinning pile of words and numbers, graphs and calculations. You might work in the wind and rain, picking up and moving large weights all day constantly moving to the point your body aches. By the end of any given day you are so drained that you cannot think about any sort of physical activity, even standing in front of the cooker to prepare a meal that you are desperate to eat seems a task. 

I am not about say either job is harder than the other, I'm not about to say that either of the two different job types make a better or stronger individual in the gym. There are certain obvious carry-overs that come from a physical job but there are also advantages from the physical "rest" that a seated job gives an individual particularly in energy levels come gym time. Whatever your situation come gym time,when your geared up to go, Its ultimately important that you have not let your body forget what hard work is....

What do I mean? Recently I competed at a national level in my sport. I definitely consider myself a novice at it if I didn't before, mainly because of the unexpected intensity of the competition. I have competed before  but this events laid out for this day were for guys at the peak of strength in this country. I was genuinely honored to be involved. I would definitely say my intensity in training has dropped noticeably. I never have a problem motivating myself to get to the gym but sometimes mid lift that is another story.

STAMP OUT YOUR WEAKNESSES

I have spoken before about positiveness and negativity in the gym and how greatly they affect performance.

The Two are hugely related You need to always tell yourself 110% because if you are always lifting 100% you are not edging on to new ground. Every time you enter the gym, Every time you approach the bar,

Every Time a Lift Sticks!!! Thats when you need that intensity!! tell your body its time to remember what hard work is. IF YOUR NOT SURPRISED BY WHAT YOU ACHIEVE, MAYBE YOUR NOT TRYING HARD ENOUGH!!!  and if on reading this your reflex thoughts are along the lines of..... but its hard when your tired from work ..... or thats easy for you to say .... or something like that. Give up now! 

BECAUSE YOUR IN THE WRONG PLACE!

Eat nothing...lose weight?

Go into any newsagents or supermarket and the shelfs are littered with magazines featuring skinny women. There are far too many fad diets out there that encourage women to eat next to no food each day on order to obtain there dream body. The truth is that a very low calorie diet and exercise can be as unhealthy as a high calorie diet and no exercise. People really need to start understanding there body Someone who eats too little is just as bad as someone who neglects there body in other ways whatever that may be. The human body is designed to feed off it's reserved when there is no other source of nutrition. Eating muscle tissue etc remember your heart is made up of cardiac muscle tissue so you can imagine the damage you are doing when you aren't taking in enough food.
Rather than starving yourself in an attempt to lose weight. Remain eating a balanced diet and exercise as often as you can. Find any physical activity you enjoy and get better at it. If you are physically unable to exercise. Reduce your meal portions slightly and eat more often. Sounds strange but eating smaller amounts every 3 hours keeps your metabolism at its optimum performance, maximising ur body's built in weight loss system.
Hope this helps people to understand a bit better. If it helps even one person understand that starving yourself can be more dangerous that you think then I'm happy. Thanks for reading ;)