Whether you’re a fan of yoga classes, weight training, barre, or all of the above, you’ve likely heard an instructor encourage you to really focus on the part of the body you’re working. Rather than just flying through the motions of a bicep curl or squat, for instance, they may prompt you to think about squeezing your biceps or glutes. This technique is sometimes known as the mind-muscle connection—and research shows it has some powerful benefits. 

The primary reason trainers emphasize the mind-muscle connection is because it’s thought to increase activity in the muscles you’re focusing on. “Conceivably, it generates greater muscular tension in the target muscle, which may help to enhance muscle growth,” says Brad Schoenfeld, PhD, a professor of exercise science at Lehman College. In other words, tapping into the mind-muscle connection may help you grow stronger muscles more quickly, without necessarily having to pile on more weight or spend more time training. 

We spoke to Schoenfeld and four other experts for a deep dive into the science behind the mind-muscle connection, including why it works, what it can be used for, and exactly how to activate this powerful link.

What Is the Mind-Muscle Connection?

“The mind-muscle connection involves thinking about a muscle as you perform a repetition so that the target muscle is maximally activated,” Schoenfeld explains. 

You can also think of the mind-muscle connection as “the intentional, internal focus on muscle activity during exercise,” says Hunter Carter, an exercise physiologist with NYU Langone Health’s Sports Performance Center Team and a former professional dancer. 

It also involves “thinking about the quality of movement while you are working out—not just going through the motions,” adds Peloton instructor Joslyn Thompson Rule. “It ensures that you have some focus and intent on your movement as you move.”

The mind-muscle connection is something that’s often emphasized for people who are new to a certain exercise or movement in general. “When we’re first learning an exercise, we need to use a lot of mental effort to really think about how we are contracting our muscles and moving our body,” says David Neumann, PhD, a professor of learning and performance psychology at Griffith University. “This is a very important process in forming a strong mind-muscle connection.”

As we become more familiar with a move or workout, the mind-muscle connection is still important, but it may take less mental effort to engage. “This occurs because of neurological adaptations, which increase neural efficiency and a strengthening of the connections between the brain and muscle,” Neumann explains.

How the Mind-Muscle Connection Works

To understand the mind-muscle connection, it’s helpful to know how we move our muscles in the first place. Putting it simply: Our bodies receive input from its senses (for example, you see a ball flying toward you). Your nervous system (including your brain and spinal cord) processes that information and sends out commands to your body about how to react (your muscles tense and balance shifts as you prepare to catch or dodge the ball). “The output of how our body moves, that comes from our brain,” says Cara Alexandru, a board-certified orthopedic clinical specialist who works as a physical therapist with the Hospital for Special Surgery. 

Often, this process takes place without much conscious thought. But in the context of exercise or physical rehabilitation, bringing mindfulness into that “output” system by intentionally focusing on the muscles being engaged appears to increase muscle activation. 

For instance, in one small 2017 study in the European Journal of Applied Physiology, men who focused on their pecs while doing push-ups experienced 9 percent more electrical activity (a measure of muscle contraction strength and function) than when they didn’t. In an earlier study in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, researchers measured the muscle activity of women (who were new to the movement) performing a lat pulldown. Then, a trainer touched the latissimus dorsi muscle, told the participants that this was the muscle the lat pulldown was targeting, and gave them some guidance on how to perform the move to engage those muscles. After, activity in the lats increased by almost 18 percent. 

“The stronger neural signals sent by the brain to the muscle may increase the intensity and number of muscle fibers which are activated when a muscle contracts,” Neumann says. “This increased activation creates a greater stimulus for the muscle and could increase breakdown and subsequent regrowth.”

How Can the Mind-Muscle Connection Impact Performance?

The mind-muscle connection has the potential to benefit performance in various ways. For one, it ensures that you’re recruiting the correct muscles while performing a movement, Carter says. This makes your workouts more effective because it prevents unintended muscles from jumping in and taking over, which could both cheat you out of your intended strength goals and put you at risk of developing muscle imbalances or injuries.

Another advantage of the mind-muscle connection is that it “encourages a more conscious control of the muscle,” Neumann says, “and this can naturally lead to slower and more controlled movements, which can increase isolation and recruitment of muscle fibers in an exercise.”

By increasing the amount of muscle fibers engaged in an exercise, the mind-muscle connection can also lead to greater improvements in muscle growth, strength, and power, according to Schoenfeld. In a 2018 study he authored, published in the European Journal of Sports Science, his team asked two groups of men to weight train three times a week, including bicep curls. One group was instructed to “squeeze the muscle” during each rep (the mind-muscle connection at work), and the second was told to “get the weight up.” After eight weeks, people in the first group experienced a 12 percent increase in the size of their biceps—almost twice the growth of the second group (who experienced a 7 percent increase). 

Additionally, tapping into the mind-muscle connection can prevent injuries and make your exercise experience more enjoyable, Neumann says. That’s because this connection encourages you to be more aware of and precise with your movements, and may naturally attune you to how your body is feeling. “This can lead to better form and less chance of injury,” he explains. “It might also be very satisfying for people as they can better feel their muscles working during an exercise.”

What Are the Limitations of the Mind-Muscle Connection?

While the mind-muscle connection has many benefits, there are limitations to the technique. For instance, it may not work as well if you’re lifting very heavy. “The focus naturally shifts from conscious control of the muscle to merely just moving the weight,” Neumann says. 

The mind-muscle connection appears to tap out once you start lifting more than 60 percent of your one rep max, according to 2016 research in the European Journal of Applied Physiology. At this point, you may be better off simply focusing on getting through the movement without sacrificing your form. 

Neumann also says it’s easier for the brain to focus on slow movements and isolated exercises, so it might be more challenging to employ the mind-muscle connection during compound exercises or explosive movements. 

When you’re performing explosive movements or other power-building exercises, Schoenfeld adds that an external focus of attention may be more useful. This strategy turns your attention to the environment or the outcome of the movement (rather than the working muscle, which is an internal focus). So to motivate yourself during, say, a set of jump squats, you might think about pushing the floor away with your feet instead.

Can the Mind-Muscle Connection Benefit All Types of Workouts?

As noted earlier, the mind-muscle connection may work best for slower, isolated movements using light or moderate weights compared to explosive, compound movements or those using very heavy weights.

“But the concept can be used widely,” Carter says. “For example, I think about utilizing my glutes when I’m on a stationary bike.” In order to “turn on” his glutes while cycling, he has to make sure he’s using good form—his back is straight and long (not rounded), he’s sitting in the back of the saddle, and he’s driving down on the pedals. 

He says he similarly uses the mind-muscle connection while running. “I’m thinking about the stretch-shortening cycle through my foot and ankle every time I contact the ground. I’m thinking about engaging my glute to help drag the ground back behind me,” Carter explains. “That [involves both] internal and external focus, but I think that the two have to work together.”

The mind-muscle connection can also be used during restorative movements in physical therapy or rehabilitation, Alexandru says. After an injury, your body learns to compensate to protect the injured area. Even after the injury is healed you might continue to, for example, round your back when hinging your hips during a deadlift. Using the mind-muscle connection when recovering helps ensure you’re correcting any muscle weakness or imbalances that have developed from the injury, she says.

How to Develop the Mind-Muscle Connection

Essentially, all you have to do to activate the mind-muscle connection during a workout is to focus on the muscle you intend to engage. But that can be trickier than it may sound—whichi is why our experts gave some tips on how to do it properly.

1. Start with a Body Scan (or Simply Relax)

Performing a body scan before you begin exercising can help support the mind-muscle connection and make it easier to hone in on specific muscle groups and form once you begin your workout, Alexandru says.

You can find guided body scan meditations on the Peloton App. There are many ways to do them. One popular method is to lie comfortably on your back, then focus on tensing and relaxing each muscle or muscle group in your body, starting at your head and scanning your way down to your toes.

Not a fan of body scans? Joslyn says you can also spend a minute or two doing some mindful relaxation techniques, such as simply taking a few deep breaths or slowly moving through a mobility warm-up. “Being more relaxed will help you to be more mindful about your movement through your workout, after warming the body up fully,” she says.

2. Do a Warm-Up That Mimics Your Workout

By warming up with moves that are similar to the exercises you’ll do in your workout, your body gets a “sneak peak” of the sensations to come, giving your brain a helpful anchor that it can refer back to. “For example, ahead of Romanian deadlifts, I will often get athletes to go through a few repetitions of the good morning exercise to become familiar with the sensation they will feel in their hamstrings and glutes,” Joslyn says.

3. Look at Your Body 

Visual cues are an incredibly useful way to help you establish your connection to a particular muscle, Alexandru says. She recommends working out in front of a mirror and looking at the muscles you’re trying to activate, or simply looking directly at your body while exercising. 

Visualizing the muscle in question or touching it with your hands before or during the exercise can help if you’re struggling to mentally connect with it, Neumann adds.

4. Drop Your Weight and Go Slow

Dropping to a lighter weight than you’d normally use or sticking with bodyweight can help you sustain your focus on your muscle engagement, Neumann says: “Too heavy a weight will distract your mind away from feeling the muscle.” Similarly, slowing down both the lifting and lowering phases of your movement makes it easier for you to put your intentional focus on which muscles you’re using, he says. 

5. Pause and Squeeze 

Once you’ve reached the point in a rep where you’re at the end of the concentric or shortening phase, such as when you’ve brought the weights to your shoulders for a bicep curl—pause, squeeze the target muscle, and hold for a moment, Neumann suggests. “[This will] maximize the feedback from the muscles,” he says.

6. Practice 

“[The mind-muscle connection] is a skill that is learned over time,” Schoenfeld says. “You simply need to practice.” 

That’s especially true if you’re a beginner, Joslyn adds. “[The mind-muscle connection] is something that can be built over time for first-timers, as often you have to think hard about a movement as you are doing it before it feels a little more familiar to do.”

Learning how to maintain correct form while finding a new-to-you awareness of your muscles might be overwhelming at first, but if you keep at it, you’ll start to be able to tap into this connection more and more easily—and it won’t be long before you’re reaping the rewards. 

The Takeaway

Activating the mind-muscle connection—or intentionally focusing on the muscles you’re engaging during workouts—has the power to boost muscle growth, lower your risk of injury, and make your workouts more enjoyable. Much of the evidence supporting the benefits of the mind-muscle connection focus on moderate resistance training, but it can also be used during some forms of cardio and restorative exercises like yoga. 

The best part is that building your mind-muscle connection is easy and always available. All you have to do to start is to think about the muscle you’re targeting. It sounds simple, but the results are a reminder: The mind is one of the most powerful tools we have in our arsenal.