feeling the muscle versus moving the weight

[gooby]

Any thoughts on this article?

http://www.t-nation.com/free_online_..._moving_weight

[Tom Mutaffis]

There was another similar article published on T-Nation not too long ago titled "The Perfect Rep".

I have a friend who dabbled in bodybuilding and at the time trained with a respected IFBB Pro who had a similar approach to training in terms of quality of each rep versus simply moving as much weight as possible or even focusing on a specific number of repetitions. This makes some practical sense as your intensity can be impacted by a number of things - tempo, load, duration, etc.

Unfortunately I do not have much practical experience in this area to leverage, but perhaps some other individuals here could offer more insight with regard to personal testimonials?

[chris mason]

I perused the information about building speed etc. and that makes it clear the author doesn't know WTF he is talking about.

Now, for bodybuilding, "feeling" the muscles contract throughout the rep is an important factor relative to building as much lean muscle mass as possible. If you watched most pros train you would see that they have mastered the ability to focus on the muscles being trained. Not all of them. Branch Warren being a notable exception that proves that crap form can still build a LOT of muscle. Controlled form, cadence, and a focus on contraction is definitely a safer way to train for the bodybuilder assuming they know proper form for a given movement (which is a big assumption). In other words, no matter how slow you bench and how much you feel the contraction, if your shoulders arc throughout the ROM you are placing an unnecessary strain on the them.

[Matthew Bryduck]

It took at better part of 6 months of repetition to feeling start to master the mind muscle connection. I'm not saying this is how long it will take everyone, but the more you practice the more you "should" start to be able to make that connection. Here's what I do, I close my eyes and place myself in that muscle I'm training. Granted this might sound weird, but it has worked more me. You could also have your training partner tap the area he/she is training.

Matt