The Mind-Muscle-Connection: Can Mindful Thoughts Improve Training Results?

What do you think about when lifting weights?

You are probably counting how many reps are left, paying attention to keep a good form, or just think about random everyday topics.
But what if there was a way to increase muscle growth my involving your brain into this process?
There's a theory called the mind-muscle-connection, which claims that you can maximize your exercise results by practicing mindfulness and focusing your thoughts on the feeling and growth of the muscle while working it.

What is mindfulness and why is it important in this case?

Mindfulness means to be completely in the moment, to focus your thoughts internally and concentrate on the current moment.
It's exactly the opposite of multitasking, mindfulness means just focusing on your body in that current moment.
For working out, this means to really focus on the muscle area you're working on.
This is said to increase the muscle activity by "flexing the brain" as well as your targeted muscle!

Applying the mind-muscle-connection

Now that we know what mindfulness is and how the mind-muscle-connection works in theory, let's look at an example of how to actually apply these rules when lifting weights.
Let's imagine you're doing a bicep curl.
Think about your biceps and imagine that only this muscle is doing all the work right now.
Focus on how exactly the movement feels, how you're breathing, how the muscle is flexing and then relaxing, how the weight is getting heavier, how the bar feels in your hand...
Pay attention to everything you can feel, ever sensation you experience in your body at that moment - pay attention to everything.

Does it really work?

Let's take a look at some studies that have proven the efficiency of the mind-muscle connection.
One study from 2016 tested participants while doing bench presses - some were instructed to focus on the muscle mentally, while the control group just performed the exercise normally.
The results showed that muscle activity was increased between 20-60% whenever the participants were applying the mind-muscle-connection!

Another study tested curl-ups, and had the participants either focus on their abdominal muscles or their obliques.
The results showed that whatever muscle group the participant was focusing on mentally, got activated more as well!

A different study tested the mind-muscle connection with different lower body exercises, for example squats and hip thrusts.
First, the participants were asked to perform the exercises while focusing on their quads and not on their glutes at all.
Afterwards, the exact same exercises were repeated with the same range of motion, same weights, etc, only this time the participants were asked to focus heavily on the glutes.
An EMG was used to monitor muscle activity during the whole process.
The results were fascinating: When focusing on the muscle, the activity spiked up to 50% more!

And there are actually many other studies testing other exercises and muscle areas that all concluded in the same result - when focusing on a muscle internally, the muscle activity is being increased!

Conclusion

First of all: Yes, the method of internal focus from the mind-muscle-connection does increase muscle activity. This has been proven by countless studies.

But does increased muscle activity automatically mean muscle growth?!

There are no studies proving a direct link between internal focus and muscle growth (Hypertrophy).
BUT increased muscle activity definitely signals a higher possibility for hypertrophy!
Studies have shown that areas with the greatest muscle activation were also the ones where the greatest muscle growth was found.
It's not confirmed that this applies to all muscles and it's certainly not a guarantee, but increased muscle activation will increase the chances for muscle growth as well.

Images: 1, 2, 3, 4, Sources: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

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