A few years ago I hit a milestone in the weightroom that I thought would signify the end of my “soft and weak” days and be the beginning of a new era a time when I would finally have succeeded at building the muscular, defined body that I had always wanted.
This “milestone” that I speak of was that of bench pressing “threeplates” (three fortyfive pound plates on each side of the bar) totalling 315 pounds.
For some reason I had always had this in my mind as the ultimate goal: and if I’m being honest, my hopes for this were less about achieving a certain level of strength and more about the idea that this feat would guarantee the kind of muscular development and “look” that I wanted.
Interestingly, rather than this being the answer to all of my problems, the pursuit of a 315pound bench press turned out to be more of a hinderance than a signifying milestone…
The Dangers of Focusing Too Much On Strength
My goal when working out has always been to improve the way I look and maintain enough functionality to perform the tasks of daily living (which for me, includes recreational sports).
I guess you could say I was after the “lean, athletic look”, which emphasizes looking good but includes enough “functional” training to be active in everyday life.
My goal, however, has never been incredible amounts of strength. The main reason I spent so much time trying to get stronger is because I believed that was the best way to build muscle and become more athletic.
Interestingly, my goal of a 315 pound bench ended up being something that was holding me back from building the kind of physique I wanted, not something that was helping me achieve it.
By placing so much emphasis on strength, I had adopted an approach that emphasized the movement over the muscle something that was actually hindering my ability to build targeted muscle.
Placing too much emphasis on maximum strength in compound lifts causes you to become more focused on performing a movement and less about working the muscle.
When you do this, you often end up with “sleeping muscle syndrome”, something I have come up with to describe the condition when someone struggles to actually feel their muscles while working out.
Another way to put this is by saying you have a weak mind muscle connection (mmc). Having a good MMC is crucial for full muscular development and is the key to having the dense, hard look that separates an average physique from one that really stands out from the crowd.
Surprisingly, you can get very strong without having a great, or even good, mmc I know, because as I explained above I have experienced this firsthand.
This is because you can become very efficient at movements at teaching multiple muscles and joints to work together to produce a lot of collective force without being able to work individual muscles.
On the left: Me when I focused on strength and could bench 315. On the right: Me now, when I focus on working the muscle and allow for natural strength progression.
Strength, in terms of “moving a lot of weight from one place to another” in itself will not do a lot to help you build fully developed muscle; in order to do that you need to improve strength within the context of working the muscle, not simply performing movements.
How To Awaken Sleeping Muscles
So what do you do if you are someone who has put too much emphasis on strength and recognizes that you have a weak mmc?
There are two main things you can do to reverse sleeping muscle syndrome and improve mmc so that you can leave the “soft, flat” look behind get more dense, defined muscle.
Change Focus
First, you will need to change your approach in the gym. There are a few ways to do this and nearly all revolve around improving your mind to muscle connection. The best way to do this without overcomplicating things is to align your lifting with your breathing.
This means you will need to slow down and use light(er) weights. Remember: “light” weight is relative, choose a weight that allows you to complete the prescribed amount of reps with perfect form using the target muscle.
When I say “slow down”, I am referring to the tempo of each rep. Tempo is one of those things that is rarely used in workouts because most people find specific tempo guidelines complicated. However, I have found a simple solution to this: try adding the following tempo to your workouts from now on (borrowed from Brad Pilon):
During each rep, lower the rep while inhaling and counting 1 one thousand, 2 one thousand; pause for a second at the bottom of the lift; then complete the “lifting” portion of the lift while exhaling to the count of 1 one thousand, 2 one thousand. The entire motion should be controlled (i.e. you controlling the weight; not the other way around).
By slowing down and applying this basic approach to tempo, you should feel the target muscle working during each rep of each set.
There will be stabilizing muscles contributing, but overall, on any given lift, there should be one muscle (or muscle group) that you feel above all else. When you set the weight down, you should know, without a doubt, that you just worked the target muscle.
Retrain Your Muscles
Second, you need to retrain your muscles to “activate” so that you aren’t just going through the motions and moving weight from one place to another.
The following practice for improving mmc will help you feel your muscles more during workouts (allowing you to get a better pump) and give your muscles a more flexed and hard look and all you need is about 10minutes and a basic exercise band.
You don’t want a really thick band for this I often use a 1/2 band and find that this works well for most people.
The plan: Each day, you are going to perform a few activation sets for the muscles that need improvement in mmc and/or overall aesthetic appearance.
Here’s a sample layout that uses a circuit approach to hit a few different muscles:
- Band Biceps Curl – 3 sets of 10reps / 5 second isometric hold at peak contraction
- Band Triceps Extension - 3 sets of 10reps / 5 second isometric hold at peak contractioncontraction
- Band Lateral Raise 3 sets of 10reps / 5 second isometric hold at peak contractioncontraction
- Band V-Press - 3 sets of 10reps / 5 second isometric hold at peak contraction
Note: For triceps extension, loop band around something or hang it on a door. If neither of these is an option, stand on the band and do overhead triceps extensions.
The isometrics holds are going to help maximize tension, which not only improves mmc, but also increases true muscle “tone” and helps give your muscles more of a flexed look, even when they are in a relaxed state.
The goal is to perform this “miniworkout” at least once per day (although twice per day could be beneficial if you want to spend the extra time).
Ideally, you will do this miniworkout at a separate time from your actual workouts, since one of the main goals is to increase the frequency of muscle contractions.
It is important to note that these are “activation sets” and the goal is to activate the muscle, not annihilate it;?meaning your goal is somewhat different with these exercises than those in your regular workout.
For these activation exercises, the goal is to create maximum tension in the muscle and really focus on f?eeling i?t work not to work the muscle to “failure.”
Closing Thoughts
The goal of this article is to provide some “big picture” perspectives that will help you focus on what is truly important for building muscle and achieving your ideal “look.”
Pursuing strength, while important, can be something that holds you back and prevents you from keeping the focus on working the muscle something that is key for full muscular development.
By applying the strategies outlined above focusing on working the muscle by slowing down the tempo of exercises and refusing to just sling weight around and by using the simple miniworkouts to increase muscle activation and retrain your mind muscle connection you will start to see significant changes in the appearance of your muscles over time.
When you focus on muscle activation first, strength gains will come naturally over time. Contrary to popular belief (and recommendation), strength gains are rarely linear you may use the same weight for weeks at a time and then all of a sudden you notice that weight is too light and you progress naturally to a heavier weight that is completely fine.
As long as you are using heavier weights over a period of time, you will be increasing strength enough to facilitate muscle gains.
