Mind Over Muscle

Obviously, one of your goals is to get in great shape as quickly as possible, right?

By Mike Barber, Personal trainer   Talk to the Author.

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Mind Over Muscle

Quadruple Your Results By Creating Clear Connections Between The Mind And Muscle

Obviously, one of your goals is to get in great shape as quickly as possible, right? If you don’t know already, you will soon discover that the mind-to-muscle connection coupled with performing proper exercise technique and form are crucial if you want to stimulate the necessary muscle fibers needed to create a dynamite physique. While one may think this knowledge to be obvious and common sense, strangely enough, most people neglect the mental aspect behind exercise execution. It is not unusual to go to a gym and see people that are just “going through the motions”; in other words, moving a weight from point A to point B with little stimulation being directed towards the working muscles.

In this article you will soon learn how to use a very powerful technique that will immediately provide astonishing performance and enhanced results to your physique by teaching your mind to have control over the muscles.

Zone-Tone Concept
I have decided to name this very unique concept the “Zone-Tone” method. It is the art of mentally zoning in and pre-isolating specific muscles just before an exercise is to be executed while at the same time maintaining that zone (or connection) throughout the execution of the movement. This wonderful technique is very easy to grasp and will deliver enormous benefits to your fitness program. Combining proper exercise form and technique with the Zone-Tone method will help you to reach all of your fitness goals much faster than with conventional practices. You will discover that the level of isolation and stimulation that you feel within your muscles will increase ten-fold any time that you perform an exercise using this method

There are several reasons why people fail to create a successful mind-over-muscle connection:

• Lack of human body anatomy knowledge combined with a lack of information available showing how to successfully create a mind-over-muscle connection.
• Misinformation on the part of our teachers or books regarding exercise execution. In other words, people getting the wrong kinds of advice.
• Humans have a difficult time with change since they become accustomed to doing the same old thing day-in and day-out and feel more comfortable and less at risk by doing so. As a result, they refuse to change the way in which they conduct their exercises.
• Lifting gargantuan weights without any concern for proper exercise form and technique, in order to simply satisfy our ego.
• The Inability to concentrate on the task at hand, while quieting the mind from outside influences. Practicing the Zone-Tone procedures, will greatly help improve your concentration and focus needed to create awesome results.

Now, when you’re getting ready to do an exercise, do you ever stop to think about exactly what muscles you are about to train? Some of you will say yes and mean it. Some of you will say yes and not tell the whole truth. Most of you will say NO! This is the amazing reality that we are dealing with.

The key to improving the mind-over-muscle connection is to become attune (in sync) with our bodies and enhance this connection to the fullest potential, before and throughout the exercise movement. This means knowing precisely what muscles you are targeting before you start the exercise and moving the muscle from its fully extended position to its fully contracted position (Full range of motion), while consciously focusing on feeling the muscles (and only the intended muscles) contract and extend throughout the entire movement. Carelessly going through the motions of exercise is a complete waste of time and a great way to get nowhere very quickly.

Quadruple Your Results By Creating Clear Connections Between The Mind And Muscle

So How Do We Use the Zone-Tone Method?
While at the beginning, the Zone-Tone concept might seem like a difficult technique to learn but it is not! There are only two simple steps to the Zone-Tone method:

1. Focus and zone in on the individual muscle/s you intend to train before you begin the exercise: Before each and every set of an exercise, focus and zone in on the individual muscle/s you intend to train. Tense and contract (flex) the muscle to be trained as hard as comfortably possible before you even start to execute the exercise. This way you will be sending a message to that muscle, preparing it by completely isolating it even before the exercise begins. By doing so you have successfully created a mind-over-muscle connection.
2. Maintain your mind-over-muscle connection during the execution of the exercise: Throughout the execution of the exercise, deliberately feel the muscle elongate (stretch) and contract (flex), as you move along from point A to point B. What we really want you to do while you are performing the exercise is to contract the muscle as hard as you can in the same way that you did in step one, but with the exception that now you’ll have a weight in your hand. This is crucial as it is of no benefit to activate the muscles before the exercise begins if the mind-over-muscle connection is lost as the movement begins. Most people waste their time by exercising without thinking about what they’re doing. They exercise on a physical plane rather than on both the mental and physical planes. This is fine if you are content with average results, but who really wants to be average? On the other hand, if you want to compound your efforts exponentially and undeniably create the body you’ve always dreamt about having, then you must effectively develop the mind-over-muscle connection that we have been describing to you here.

Conclusion
When you effectively communicate with a specific muscle and prepare it for the upcoming set, you have successfully engaged the mind-over-muscle connection. By keeping this connection active throughout the duration of the exercise, just that one set can produce the results of five sets!

As with anything, the more you practice the Zone-Tone method the quicker and more powerful the method will become. Soon you will realize, first hand, the astonishing results gained from this powerful concept. Good Luck, Train Hard and Get In The Zone!

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