1. Prioritize external cues.
An “external cue” is a mental mantra you recite while weightlifting that shifts your focus externally.Some examples of external cues include “spread the floor” with your feet in the squat or “throw the bar into the ceiling” in the overhead press.
Since external cues boost your strength, improve your balance, burnish your technique, help you produce more force and perform more reps, and make exercises feel easier, using them for most exercises in most workouts makes sense.
You can find a catalog of my favorite external weightlifting cues in this article:
Complete List of Weightlifting Cues for Perfect Form & New PRs
Or, if you’d prefer to invent your own, here’s what I suggest:
- Make weightlifting cues short: Six words or less works best. This makes them easy to remember and repeat in your head as you perform an exercise.
- Start the cue with a verb: Keep your cues succinct and clear by starting them with verbs like “drive,” “crush,” or “explode” that directly pertain to how you want to move.
- Focus on one instruction at a time: Trying to achieve too much with a single cue (“Spread the floor and explode up,” for example) dilutes your focus and muddles your movements.
2. Use internal cues for isolation exercises (if you’re an experienced weightlifter).
Some research suggests that experienced weightlifters can use internal cues during isolation exercises to emphasize the muscles they’re trying to train and produce more growth.(This technique probably won’t work for new weightlifters because most haven’t yet developed the coordination and control to make internal cueing effective.)
Thus, if you’ve been training for more than a year or two and have a lagging muscle that you don’t feel working, try using internal cues during isolation exercises for that muscle.
For example, during exercises like the biceps curl, triceps pushdown, overhead triceps extension, leg curl, leg extension, calf raise, and chest fly, remind yourself to “squeeze,” “flex,” or “contract” the muscle you’re trying to train during the concentric (lifting portion) of each rep and feel the muscle “stretch” during the eccentric (lowering portion).
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3. Lift explosively.
Most guides on how to improve mind-muscle connection recommend slowing your reps so that you can focus more closely on the muscles you’re trying to train.Research shows this isn’t a wise gambit, though.
In a study conducted by scientists at the National Research Centre for the Working Environment, researchers found that bench pressing explosively produces significantly more muscle activation in the pecs and triceps than pressing slowly and focusing on connecting with the pecs or triceps specifically.
Thus, unless you’re learning a new exercise or recovering from an injury, aim to lift weights as fast as possible while maintaining good form and control of the weight. This usually means lowering the weight with control, then raising the weight as fast as you can.
Remember that attempting to move the weight as fast as possible doesn’t mean the weight will move quickly.
If you’re lifting heavy weights, the weight will still appear to move slowly (a second or more per rep is normal), even when you try to lift explosively. What’s important is that you try to move the weight as fast as possible, not that the weight actually moves quickly.
