So you lift heavy stuff. And sweat a bunch while running. Cool, cool.
I’ve asked about a why you do that already. I’ve asked what kinds of things you do to support it.
Maybe it’s time I asked how you do the lifting of the heavy stuff then.
Do you focus on the number? Doing eleventy is awesome, but what does that actually achieve? Why that many? How hard is that really? Do you have to train that hard to get that pesky bloody body to respond? Or is this a chat about the bare minimum?...
Sounds weird, but as much as those things matter, they don’t. Not if you aren’t getting the damned movements done the right way.
So we could talk about technique. And I’ll sit here and tell you that there is nothing more important than technique when it comes to exercising successfully. But then it begs the question “how do I get the technique right when Youtube has, like, 14 different types of exercise called a cranial rectal inversion?”
The short version: Mind in the muscle.
What you put your focus into, grows. Or tones. Or shapes. Or whatever word you want associated with your butt.
The long version… gets a bit trickier in explanation.
Have you ever torn a muscle? Or been really sore in a specific one? And how that pain just absolutely draws all of your attention to it? Which leaves you with the definitive knowledge of exactly where that bloody muscle is for the rest of your life?
Well, that’s pretty much how this stuff goes. The ability to pay attention to and activate a muscle at any given time based on what you are looking to do with and for it. Ideally without that pain from an injury. Well, maybe a little from self-inflicted exersion.
Well, that’s pretty much how this stuff goes. The ability to pay attention to and activate a muscle at any given time based on what you are looking to do with and for it. Ideally without that pain from an injury. Well, maybe a little from self-inflicted exertion.
Pick a muscle. Let’s say the old classic, biceps. Because it’s pretty easy and obvious for everyone to switch that on. And then you put all the focus and squeeze you can into that bicep so its as activated as totally as possible while its moves heavy things around. You are convincing your bicep, and you brain, to get really really good at moving the heavy stuff. To recruit more of this bicep muscle and more neurons in your brain to send more signal to recruit more bicep muscle. Which means you can lift more heavy stuff. Which means you can recruit more muscle. Which means you can lift more heavy stuff. Which means-
Bored yet? Good. Because that’s what practice is. Doing something enough that you just do the job without having to think about it so hard all the time. You’ve got enough on your plate, without having to worry about your gun show compared to Chadlington’s in the mirror over there.
Now, regardless of if you give the slightest crap about body building and epic gun shows, this the premise of grooving technique too. We activate muscle with our mind. So we don’t have to think so hard about that one specific element anymore. Then, once that bits solid, you add in a new focus-on-able muscle to a movement, and groove that into doing its job without being told. And so on. Until you can then start to chain all this stuff together into one big cool strong/graceful/fast/controlled/life affirming movement. Ask a powerlifter, Olympic lifter or strongman how long it takes to get the little annoying movements to add up to big cool ones. Go on, I’ll wait. Ignore the grunting and chalk, it’s just “their way”.
This is how you get strong. How you get efficient. How you get activation. How you get growth. How you get shape. If you can’t switch it on, it won’t know to respond how you want it to. Sorry to tell you, the body is a stubborn pain in the arse. Like a 5year old. You have to tell the whiney turd again and again and again and again. And you have to keep telling it long term too, otherwise your body decides to become all “efficient”, refusing to maintain all this pointless muscle and fitness and synapsial connection and lets it go back to the normal old way… It does eventually get used to the idea, promise. But you have to kick it hard to get it paying attention first.
Yeah, those old sayings “no pain, no gain” and “use it or lose it”?... Disappointingly true. For everyone.
To sum this up as concisely as possible (as opposed to 600 odd MORE words…), actually concentrating on the body part that we are wanting to work, and HOW it’s wanted to work, will add value to what you’re doing on a lot of different levels. Better technique, improved strength profile, more physiological adaptation, neurological reinforcement, proprioceptive stability response. All of these things mean the body and how it interacts with the brain run smoother and does cooler stuff.
Basically, its not enough to just do the heavy, sweaty stuff. That’s a great start, but how you do it matters at least as much to your goals.
Be kind, be smart, be your best you. No bar fights.
“Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from indomitable will.” Mahatma Ghandi
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