The Power of Mind Muscle Connection: A Guide to Maximizing Tension and Burn

When it comes to weightlifting, there's no one-size-fits-all approach to achieving success. One technique that has gained popularity among lifters is mind muscle connection (MMC), which involves tuning into the tension and burn in your muscles during each rep. However, many people misunderstand the concept of MMC, thinking it's an alternative to pain or a way to avoid discomfort. This couldn't be further from the truth.

In reality, MMC is about understanding that tension and burn are necessary components of a successful lift. When you perceive tension and burn, it means your muscles are engaged and working hard to complete the rep. The key is to recognize when you're reaching the point where you're close to failure, but still have control over your technique. At this point, you should focus on maintaining proper form and avoiding any unnecessary movements that might compromise your performance.

One of the biggest mistakes people make when attempting MMC is flaring their elbows or using other muscles to take tension off their primary target muscle. This can lead to a loss of focus and poor technique, which can result in injuries or decreased progress. On the other hand, when you're able to maintain proper form and engage your target muscle, that's when the real gains occur.

The idea that MMC is only applicable during warm-ups is also a common misconception. While it's true that feeling out your muscles during warm-ups can help you develop good technique, this isn't a substitute for MMC during the work set. In fact, many experienced lifters believe thatMMC begins with proper form and setup during the work set itself.

The key to making progress in weightlifting is critical, hard training with good technique. However, even the best lifters can struggle with maintaining proper form, especially when pushing themselves close to failure. This is where MMC comes into play. By tuning into your tension and burn, you'll be able to make adjustments on the fly and stay focused on your goals.

The real challenge of MMC lies in staying consistent and avoiding plateaus. When you're lifting heavy, it's easy to get caught up in the excitement of progress and lose focus on proper form. However, this is exactly when the pain and discomfort come in – a signal that you're pushing yourself too hard or neglecting your technique.

In many cases, lifters experience a phenomenon known as "post-lift soreness" – a lingering feeling of fatigue and tension after a particularly grueling workout. This is often accompanied by muscle cramps, delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS), and general fatigue. For some lifters, this can be a sign that they're pushing themselves too hard or neglecting their recovery routine.

However, it's also true that the pain and discomfort of lifting heavy can be a powerful motivator. Many experienced lifters will attest to the fact that the real gains come from pushing oneself close to failure – even if it means sacrificing some comfort and enjoyment along the way. The key is finding that delicate balance between pain and progress.

In conclusion, mind muscle connection is not just about avoiding pain or discomfort; it's about understanding that tension and burn are necessary components of a successful lift. By tuning into your muscles during each rep, you'll be able to stay focused on your goals and avoid plateaus. Remember, proper form and technique are critical to making progress in weightlifting – and MMC is the key to unlocking true potential.

The Importance of Setting Goals and Tracking Progress

Setting goals and tracking progress is essential for any lifter looking to make gains. However, many people struggle with this aspect of training, often citing lack of motivation or confusion about how to set effective goals. In reality, setting goals is a straightforward process that requires some planning and discipline.

The first step in setting goals is identifying what you want to achieve. Do you want to increase your squat by 50 pounds? Build more muscle mass? Improve your overall fitness level? Whatever your goal, it's essential to be specific and realistic. Instead of aiming for vague goals like "getting bigger," focus on a specific outcome like "increasing my squat by 20 pounds in the next six weeks."

Once you've identified your goal, it's time to track progress. This can be as simple as using a logbook or spreadsheet to track your workouts and weights over time. You can also use online resources like MyFitnessPal or other tracking apps to monitor your progress.

Another critical component of setting goals is the concept of "mini PRs." A mini PR refers to a small, incremental increase in performance – say, 5 pounds on a squat or 10 reps on an exercise. By focusing on mini PRs, you'll be able to make steady progress towards your goal without feeling overwhelmed.

The Importance of Warm-ups and Setup

Warm-ups are often overlooked as a crucial component of weightlifting training. However, many lifters underestimate the importance of proper warm-up and setup techniques. In reality, warming up properly can help prevent injuries, improve form, and set you up for success on the platform.

When it comes to setting up your lift, focus on ensuring that your muscles are properly engaged and activated before attempting any exercises. This may involve using isometric holds, dynamic movements, or even visualization techniques to prepare your body for the upcoming exercise.

One of the biggest mistakes people make when attempting warm-ups is not spending enough time on setup. Instead of rushing through warm-up exercises, focus on taking 10-15 minutes to properly set up and prepare yourself before attempting any lifts. This may involve doing some light cardio, dynamic stretching, or simply focusing on deep breathing and visualization.

The Role of Visualization in Weightlifting

Visualization is a powerful tool for weightlifters – especially when it comes to setting goals and improving performance. By focusing your mind on specific outcomes, you can tap into the power of positive self-talk and mental imagery.

Visualization can take many forms, from simple visualizations during warm-ups or rest periods to more complex scenarios like watching videos of yourself performing lifts or imagining yourself achieving a specific goal. The key is finding what works for you and incorporating it into your training routine.

Incorporating Visualization Techniques into Your Routine

So how can you incorporate visualization techniques into your weightlifting routine? Here are a few tips:

* Take 5-10 minutes before each lift to visualize yourself performing the exercise with perfect form.

* Focus on specific outcomes, such as increasing your squat by 20 pounds or building more muscle mass.

* Use all of your senses to engage in visualization – see yourself lifting successfully, hear the sound of your muscles contracting, and feel the sensation of tension and burn.

The Benefits of Progressive Overload

Progressive overload is a critical component of weightlifting training. By gradually increasing the intensity of your workouts over time, you can continue to make progress and achieve new heights in strength and muscle mass.

There are several ways to incorporate progressive overload into your routine, including:

* Gradually increasing the weight you lift over time.

* Increasing the number of reps or sets you perform on an exercise.

* Decreasing rest time between sets.

The Importance of Recovery

Recovery is just as important as training when it comes to making gains in weightlifting. By neglecting recovery, many lifters can experience plateaus, decreased motivation, and even injuries.

In reality, recovery refers to the process of allowing your body to repair and rebuild itself after a workout. This may involve using post-workout nutrition strategies like protein shakes or consuming carbohydrates within 30-60 minutes after a workout.

Incorporating Recovery Techniques into Your Routine

So how can you incorporate recovery techniques into your weightlifting routine? Here are a few tips:

* Take rest days as needed – even if it means skipping workouts for a day or two.

* Use post-workout nutrition strategies to fuel your body and promote recovery.

* Prioritize sleep and aim for 7-9 hours of restful sleep per night.

By incorporating these strategies into your training routine, you can tap into the power of mind muscle connection and achieve true success in weightlifting. Remember, it's not just about lifting heavy – it's about making progress and enjoying the journey along the way.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhey folks it's me Dr Mike from Renaissance critization and on today's hypertrophy myths series episode we'll be talking about overvaluing the Mind muscle connection that is mind muscle connection is more important than everything else we'll talk about what the myth is talk about some of the good points it makes some of the bad which is why it's a myth and a little bit of real talk at the end to make sure we're on the same page as to what actually works well so this idea that the Mind muscle connection is ultra Ultra Ultra important is not just something that we have observed that people sort of say they say it rather directly so something I've heard many times read in muscle magazines seen in YouTube videos and Instagram posts by professional bodybuilders sometimes is that you have to focus on the muscle then don't worry about the weights or the Reps another thing people say is bodybuilding is about making light weights seem heavy it sounds like some Voodoo something cool I don't know exactly why that's a good thing but it has something to do with how your muscle is sort of exposed to the weight and a lot of people will say look don't chase PRS don't worry about how strong you are just make sure that you focus on the working muscle and that's all you need now there are some good Silver Linings in there one is that a strong mind muscle connection properly done can enhance the muscle growth potential of a lift specifically with respect to the muscle that you are focusing on like triceps in a skull crusher for example there are ways to do a skull crusher we have no idea what the tricep is doing that aren't ideal for triceps hypertrophy but if you really clue in on the right stuff about what the tricep is doing you can alter the technique and alter the execution of the lift such that it actually helps triceps grow more so there's definitely something there in addition to that sort of expanding on it your Technique in an exercise can be really helped by paying attention to what the muscle is doing not just moving from point A to point B for example if you do some kind of pressing movement on a machine cable dumbbells barbell whatever if you just press up and down that's cool yeah but you may feel like oh yeah like my pecs if you pay attention to your what your picks are doing is saying okay they're Contracting they're stretching fine but if you arch your back and you retract your shoulder blades and then you do a press you Guided by mine muscle will be like wow this really does seem to hit the packs much more in every single exercise there are ways of slightly altering the movement that will give you more of a feel in the muscle that you're trying to work and other ways that will give you less of one and if you follow the technical hints at more of the ways that help the muscle work more you're gonna have a better time you're gonna be able to do more of the work for that muscle and get better results by doing that you're lifting the same weight same reps but you're doing it in a technique that is Guided by the Mind muscle Connection by your perception of what's going on with a Target muscle on the one extreme it's like I have no idea what my packs are doing don't care on the other hand it's like your mind is in the peck your brain is a giant Peck could have said that better but on that end if you allow the feeling of what really hits the pecs to determine your Technique you're going to end up with a technique that probably has a bigger stimulus to the Target muscle but because you may feel it lessen your joints because of that enhanced technique you actually need fewer repetitions to get the job done and get close to failure you may have less fatigue and more stimulus better stimulus to fatigue ratio that's a win that's awesome these are all great things however that's taking a very Rosy approach to what exactly the Mind muscle connection is and how it's supposed to be done here's the bad stuff most of the people that say things like the Mind muscle connection is everything or it's super super important when they say mind muscle connection they mean the bicep feels like it's moving and Contracting the muscle feels like it's moving and Contracting but that doesn't really mean a whole lot as far as the stimulus is concerned because mind muscle connection to be truly indicative of stimulus of overload has to be go beyond simple movement and perception after all there is a way in which you can feel your biceps moving and Contracting during a lat pull down but your back does most of the work biceps do a small amount it ends up being like well yeah the biceps definitely help they definitely stretch and contract and you can focus on them during the pull down but because of the mechanics of the exercise the back still does the majority of the work and gets the majority of the stimulus so in reality what you will do is if you really think feeling a muscle contract and stretch is the thing beyond all others that tells you you're doing a good job in the gym stimulating growth you're gonna end up doing like yoga or Pilates and being like now this is a real workout yoga will get you to feel every single muscle stretch and contract depending on the pose but it doesn't grow much muscle because it doesn't push you hard progressing on load reps proximity to failure and so on so the real way to detect a mind muscle connection isn't to fail like yeah I feel my bicep during this that doesn't mean anything you can feel your bicep you can do curls with one arm and no curls with the other unloaded no weight here dumbbell here like yep things are happening well I definitely feel my bicep here too so what there's not even any weight in there if you really do mind muscle connection right you have to use our method we do have an RP method of defining and determining mind muscle connection and that is two part one do you and to what extent do you feel tension in the Target muscle high tension like holy crap my bicep is pulling like crazy and both bones at which it's attached to and two is the burn especially for higher reps that's towards the end if your biceps are burning during a movement and you can feel a ton of tension during them through that movement you do have a mind muscle connection but it's of the kind that makes it likely that you're growing why because tension literally causes muscle growth and the burn is indicative of both getting close enough to failure to cause muscle growth it's also indicative of the fact that that's for sure the muscle that's the limiting factor and metabolites themselves are growth promoting like the burn actually is a symptom of the kind of molecules in there that do turn on growth Pathways like lactate for example that's the way to do mind muscle connection not just oh I feel this muscle feeling is nice but again if you go by feeling you may end up doing um and look with all due respect no offense wussy ass bikini workouts where you get on the assisted pull-up machine and you do that one leg like stomp down thing pedal push and I got my God I really feel my glutes like yes they are moving how far from failure is that is it even possible for you to mechanically load the glute enough where if you did you would stand up off the machine because it's by definition that machine setup less load than your body weight are you so weak that body weight lunges don't work of course not that's the kind of shit the Mind muscle connection gets really wrong it is not enough to feel your muscle working has to be working with a shitload of tension through it and hopefully it higher wraps a crapload of burn now that's not that fun but it's the right kind of mind muscle connection if the Mind muscle connection of feeling the muscle work is how you get to a good technique fine but then on top of that you have to layer in additions of load over the weeks and or additions of repetitions per set you have to continue to make each set harder in a measurable way step one okay I know this works my packs step two let's actually make sure I'm doing the work if you don't do that second part you'll do all kinds of cool flies and presses and yeah I really feel it you guys people will do that shit where they get on the machine sideways and they'll put the one arm on the share let me get my fucking pecs bro word up how many reps do you do this week how many last week well looks like you underloaded you have to progress thus the training sure absolutely you have to not have to I'll take that back it's better if you feel the muscle working than not it's even better if you feel it it's highly tensed or highly burned but within those contexts you also have to make sure it's progressing so when people say dude just think about the muscle Contracting in these cable curls don't worry about how many reps you're doing how much load that's good and well if you're doing a warm-up set where you're teaching the technique but once you're doing the work sets you got to grind and for a specific purpose and to a specific point I did 10 reps last week this week it's 11. I did 105 pounds last week this week it's 110. something so the Mind muscle connection doesn't predominate over everything as a matter of fact that core of good technique with load and rep progression is the thing mind muscle connection is something you oh magic fairy dust you sprinkle on it and the best flavor of magic fairy dust is tension and burn a shitty not so great flavor is just feeling the muscle existing cool but like you should be able to do that anyways like being a human being and knowing where your body is in space fuck if I know anything about that the best mind muscle connection occurs when you perceive tension and burn and you progress in load and Reps with that technique that maximizes tension and burn with every single rep closer to failure a lot of times people start with a good technique but then they'll kind of like try to get away from it because it's too much they use their biceps a ton on the first couple reps they're like oh my God this hurts my biceps I'm gonna flare my elbows out a little bit use some other muscles too if I can take the tension off the buys wrong so mind muscle connection use properly is not an alternative to the pain and the suffering that comes with pushing a set with excellent technique close to failure that lack of Escape mind muscle connection is not an off-ramp my muscle connection is something that helps you stay in the lane and make sure you're going as fast as possible down that highway of death and destruction that is a set very close to failure so it's not so much oh Hey listen don't worry about the Reps and load think about mind muscle connection it's actually a little bit different it is hey goal wraps and goal load are super fucking important but every single rep you do had to better be tension and burn in the Target muscle and thus we check both boxes that is a really good idea real talk yes the Mind muscle connection people have a point it is possible to push so hard for reps and load that you lose total Touch of your muscles total touch from your Technique and you're just moving around on space look you can go to any gym in America and the world and see some guy benching and be like that's for his pecs three four five reps six rep that's for his soul that's for his ego that's for his future injuries that's for his ex-girlfriend time to go save him cause the shit goes from here this kind of shit guys trying to bring their leg up to bench with that's for sure nonsense don't do that instead what you can do is during the warm-ups really try to feel which muscles are working you won't get a ton of tension or a ton of burn because it's warm-ups the time for that original old school style muscle can my muscle connection is in the warm-ups set that technique begin to do repetitions with an appropriate load with the goal of hitting a mini PR relative to last session last week and then as you do that let tension and burn be your canaries in the coal mine they fly in hopefully they fly back out let them guide you to how to make sure your Technique stays on track yes elbows in I told myself that and oh my fucking god this tension is crazy ah the burn blah blah blah instead of oh tension and burn I don't want this pain I'm gonna let my elbows flare out the best way to gains is critical set in stone hard fucking training with good technique and then on top of that the way you stay in good technique is monitoring your tension and your burn and yes there is a place in warm-ups for just feeling the muscle out to make sure your Technique is really good but it ends there and once the work set starts it's all pain all day you know the real psychic kind of pain you don't ever recover from you're sleeping trying to go to bed at night and you just feel about set three man set three of hack squats hurt me in a way maybe I'll never recover from you know but I'll be okay but just never the same you know you know like kids playing with a balloon and he lets go and he's like Mommy Mommy look up you come up to the kid and you're like you know see that balloon that's never coming back it's like a part of me that I lost during hack squatting and the lady's like what the fuck are you doing talking to my kid taser and then you're out for the 50th time that's why I don't hang out at playgrounds anyway like hit that like button apparently YouTube likes it hit the Subscribe button if you're not yet a subscriber if you are hello we meet again hit the notification Bell it's got the video guys that a thing we want people to do sure why not look it's Dr Mike and he's annoying and he's on your phone and then uh we have a membership section we get even more crazy nerd content in-depth breakdowns well never ever ever stop posting all the free shit on this channel that you love so much it might never ever I mean you know like assuming I don't get killed with car accident or something uh but we will have membership and that's extra always extra all right folks thank you so much for tuning in tell your friends about this channel if they're good people if they're bad people um tell them anyway because I shit we'll charge your money see you next timehey folks it's me Dr Mike from Renaissance critization and on today's hypertrophy myths series episode we'll be talking about overvaluing the Mind muscle connection that is mind muscle connection is more important than everything else we'll talk about what the myth is talk about some of the good points it makes some of the bad which is why it's a myth and a little bit of real talk at the end to make sure we're on the same page as to what actually works well so this idea that the Mind muscle connection is ultra Ultra Ultra important is not just something that we have observed that people sort of say they say it rather directly so something I've heard many times read in muscle magazines seen in YouTube videos and Instagram posts by professional bodybuilders sometimes is that you have to focus on the muscle then don't worry about the weights or the Reps another thing people say is bodybuilding is about making light weights seem heavy it sounds like some Voodoo something cool I don't know exactly why that's a good thing but it has something to do with how your muscle is sort of exposed to the weight and a lot of people will say look don't chase PRS don't worry about how strong you are just make sure that you focus on the working muscle and that's all you need now there are some good Silver Linings in there one is that a strong mind muscle connection properly done can enhance the muscle growth potential of a lift specifically with respect to the muscle that you are focusing on like triceps in a skull crusher for example there are ways to do a skull crusher we have no idea what the tricep is doing that aren't ideal for triceps hypertrophy but if you really clue in on the right stuff about what the tricep is doing you can alter the technique and alter the execution of the lift such that it actually helps triceps grow more so there's definitely something there in addition to that sort of expanding on it your Technique in an exercise can be really helped by paying attention to what the muscle is doing not just moving from point A to point B for example if you do some kind of pressing movement on a machine cable dumbbells barbell whatever if you just press up and down that's cool yeah but you may feel like oh yeah like my pecs if you pay attention to your what your picks are doing is saying okay they're Contracting they're stretching fine but if you arch your back and you retract your shoulder blades and then you do a press you Guided by mine muscle will be like wow this really does seem to hit the packs much more in every single exercise there are ways of slightly altering the movement that will give you more of a feel in the muscle that you're trying to work and other ways that will give you less of one and if you follow the technical hints at more of the ways that help the muscle work more you're gonna have a better time you're gonna be able to do more of the work for that muscle and get better results by doing that you're lifting the same weight same reps but you're doing it in a technique that is Guided by the Mind muscle Connection by your perception of what's going on with a Target muscle on the one extreme it's like I have no idea what my packs are doing don't care on the other hand it's like your mind is in the peck your brain is a giant Peck could have said that better but on that end if you allow the feeling of what really hits the pecs to determine your Technique you're going to end up with a technique that probably has a bigger stimulus to the Target muscle but because you may feel it lessen your joints because of that enhanced technique you actually need fewer repetitions to get the job done and get close to failure you may have less fatigue and more stimulus better stimulus to fatigue ratio that's a win that's awesome these are all great things however that's taking a very Rosy approach to what exactly the Mind muscle connection is and how it's supposed to be done here's the bad stuff most of the people that say things like the Mind muscle connection is everything or it's super super important when they say mind muscle connection they mean the bicep feels like it's moving and Contracting the muscle feels like it's moving and Contracting but that doesn't really mean a whole lot as far as the stimulus is concerned because mind muscle connection to be truly indicative of stimulus of overload has to be go beyond simple movement and perception after all there is a way in which you can feel your biceps moving and Contracting during a lat pull down but your back does most of the work biceps do a small amount it ends up being like well yeah the biceps definitely help they definitely stretch and contract and you can focus on them during the pull down but because of the mechanics of the exercise the back still does the majority of the work and gets the majority of the stimulus so in reality what you will do is if you really think feeling a muscle contract and stretch is the thing beyond all others that tells you you're doing a good job in the gym stimulating growth you're gonna end up doing like yoga or Pilates and being like now this is a real workout yoga will get you to feel every single muscle stretch and contract depending on the pose but it doesn't grow much muscle because it doesn't push you hard progressing on load reps proximity to failure and so on so the real way to detect a mind muscle connection isn't to fail like yeah I feel my bicep during this that doesn't mean anything you can feel your bicep you can do curls with one arm and no curls with the other unloaded no weight here dumbbell here like yep things are happening well I definitely feel my bicep here too so what there's not even any weight in there if you really do mind muscle connection right you have to use our method we do have an RP method of defining and determining mind muscle connection and that is two part one do you and to what extent do you feel tension in the Target muscle high tension like holy crap my bicep is pulling like crazy and both bones at which it's attached to and two is the burn especially for higher reps that's towards the end if your biceps are burning during a movement and you can feel a ton of tension during them through that movement you do have a mind muscle connection but it's of the kind that makes it likely that you're growing why because tension literally causes muscle growth and the burn is indicative of both getting close enough to failure to cause muscle growth it's also indicative of the fact that that's for sure the muscle that's the limiting factor and metabolites themselves are growth promoting like the burn actually is a symptom of the kind of molecules in there that do turn on growth Pathways like lactate for example that's the way to do mind muscle connection not just oh I feel this muscle feeling is nice but again if you go by feeling you may end up doing um and look with all due respect no offense wussy ass bikini workouts where you get on the assisted pull-up machine and you do that one leg like stomp down thing pedal push and I got my God I really feel my glutes like yes they are moving how far from failure is that is it even possible for you to mechanically load the glute enough where if you did you would stand up off the machine because it's by definition that machine setup less load than your body weight are you so weak that body weight lunges don't work of course not that's the kind of shit the Mind muscle connection gets really wrong it is not enough to feel your muscle working has to be working with a shitload of tension through it and hopefully it higher wraps a crapload of burn now that's not that fun but it's the right kind of mind muscle connection if the Mind muscle connection of feeling the muscle work is how you get to a good technique fine but then on top of that you have to layer in additions of load over the weeks and or additions of repetitions per set you have to continue to make each set harder in a measurable way step one okay I know this works my packs step two let's actually make sure I'm doing the work if you don't do that second part you'll do all kinds of cool flies and presses and yeah I really feel it you guys people will do that shit where they get on the machine sideways and they'll put the one arm on the share let me get my fucking pecs bro word up how many reps do you do this week how many last week well looks like you underloaded you have to progress thus the training sure absolutely you have to not have to I'll take that back it's better if you feel the muscle working than not it's even better if you feel it it's highly tensed or highly burned but within those contexts you also have to make sure it's progressing so when people say dude just think about the muscle Contracting in these cable curls don't worry about how many reps you're doing how much load that's good and well if you're doing a warm-up set where you're teaching the technique but once you're doing the work sets you got to grind and for a specific purpose and to a specific point I did 10 reps last week this week it's 11. I did 105 pounds last week this week it's 110. something so the Mind muscle connection doesn't predominate over everything as a matter of fact that core of good technique with load and rep progression is the thing mind muscle connection is something you oh magic fairy dust you sprinkle on it and the best flavor of magic fairy dust is tension and burn a shitty not so great flavor is just feeling the muscle existing cool but like you should be able to do that anyways like being a human being and knowing where your body is in space fuck if I know anything about that the best mind muscle connection occurs when you perceive tension and burn and you progress in load and Reps with that technique that maximizes tension and burn with every single rep closer to failure a lot of times people start with a good technique but then they'll kind of like try to get away from it because it's too much they use their biceps a ton on the first couple reps they're like oh my God this hurts my biceps I'm gonna flare my elbows out a little bit use some other muscles too if I can take the tension off the buys wrong so mind muscle connection use properly is not an alternative to the pain and the suffering that comes with pushing a set with excellent technique close to failure that lack of Escape mind muscle connection is not an off-ramp my muscle connection is something that helps you stay in the lane and make sure you're going as fast as possible down that highway of death and destruction that is a set very close to failure so it's not so much oh Hey listen don't worry about the Reps and load think about mind muscle connection it's actually a little bit different it is hey goal wraps and goal load are super fucking important but every single rep you do had to better be tension and burn in the Target muscle and thus we check both boxes that is a really good idea real talk yes the Mind muscle connection people have a point it is possible to push so hard for reps and load that you lose total Touch of your muscles total touch from your Technique and you're just moving around on space look you can go to any gym in America and the world and see some guy benching and be like that's for his pecs three four five reps six rep that's for his soul that's for his ego that's for his future injuries that's for his ex-girlfriend time to go save him cause the shit goes from here this kind of shit guys trying to bring their leg up to bench with that's for sure nonsense don't do that instead what you can do is during the warm-ups really try to feel which muscles are working you won't get a ton of tension or a ton of burn because it's warm-ups the time for that original old school style muscle can my muscle connection is in the warm-ups set that technique begin to do repetitions with an appropriate load with the goal of hitting a mini PR relative to last session last week and then as you do that let tension and burn be your canaries in the coal mine they fly in hopefully they fly back out let them guide you to how to make sure your Technique stays on track yes elbows in I told myself that and oh my fucking god this tension is crazy ah the burn blah blah blah instead of oh tension and burn I don't want this pain I'm gonna let my elbows flare out the best way to gains is critical set in stone hard fucking training with good technique and then on top of that the way you stay in good technique is monitoring your tension and your burn and yes there is a place in warm-ups for just feeling the muscle out to make sure your Technique is really good but it ends there and once the work set starts it's all pain all day you know the real psychic kind of pain you don't ever recover from you're sleeping trying to go to bed at night and you just feel about set three man set three of hack squats hurt me in a way maybe I'll never recover from you know but I'll be okay but just never the same you know you know like kids playing with a balloon and he lets go and he's like Mommy Mommy look up you come up to the kid and you're like you know see that balloon that's never coming back it's like a part of me that I lost during hack squatting and the lady's like what the fuck are you doing talking to my kid taser and then you're out for the 50th time that's why I don't hang out at playgrounds anyway like hit that like button apparently YouTube likes it hit the Subscribe button if you're not yet a subscriber if you are hello we meet again hit the notification Bell it's got the video guys that a thing we want people to do sure why not look it's Dr Mike and he's annoying and he's on your phone and then uh we have a membership section we get even more crazy nerd content in-depth breakdowns well never ever ever stop posting all the free shit on this channel that you love so much it might never ever I mean you know like assuming I don't get killed with car accident or something uh but we will have membership and that's extra always extra all right folks thank you so much for tuning in tell your friends about this channel if they're good people if they're bad people um tell them anyway because I shit we'll charge your money see you next time\n"