I'm not talking about the usual "mind-muscle connection" where you do a bench press and try to feel your pecs.I mean something more specific: consciously contracting a particular muscle and using its contraction to produce the joint movement.For example, with my arms raised, I can consciously contract my pecs and make my arms move into horizontal adduction. I can also do it against resistance.Same with lats: arms overhead consciously contract the lats arms come down through shoulder adduction/extension. I'm not thinking "move my elbows", the cue is basically "contract the lat" and the movement follows.I can do some version of this with most muscles, although some require more concentration.I've seen this discussed as selective voluntary muscle activation, internal attentional focus, or loadless training, but I'm curious how common this actually is.Can you guys do this? Especially against resistance?
>>77550576How stoned are you? You are describing moving.
It’s always a good laugh observing someone with lesser mental faculties try to understand the reality they live in.
>>77550697You don't get it
>>77550697That's exactly what I'm trying to distinguish. I'm not consciously thinking “move my arm.” I'm consciously thinking “contract my pec,” and the contraction itself produces the movement.Basically: “move your arm” vs. “contract your pec and let the pec move your arm.”The interesting part is whether you can voluntarily target the muscle as the motor command, rather than simply moving the limb and letting the nervous system recruit whatever muscles are needed.
>>77550576The other thing you can do is use the other muscle crossing the joint to move instead of the main muscle. For example using your calf to flex the knee instead of using the hamstring.
>>77550727Exactly. I actually tried this the other day on a standing leg curl machine. If I really focused, I could do the knee flexion using either my calves or my hamstrings.I’ve been trying it with different exercises, and I’ve noticed two things: I had to lower the weights I was using before I started doing this, and the muscle engagement I’m getting now is incredible.
>>77550576>I'm not talking about the usual "mind-muscle connection"What you are talking about IS mind muscle connection.
>>77550735So that's it then? It's not just about feeling the muscle. It's actually using that muscle to move the weight, rather than consciously moving the joint and letting the muscle do the work automatically?
>>77550732The glute ham raise is good for this specifically
>>77550576The way muscles contract is by sending 'signals' from brain going through your nerve system to the target muscle (this is the mind muscle shit every1 talks abt) and then being translated into 'electricity' from acetylocholine release at the specific muscle. Then this electricity 'turns on' your muscle fibers adn contract. This is ofc wildly oversimplified but basically correct.You can not move your muscle otherwise. It's not voodoo. When you think abt moving your hand you actually use muscle memory which accumulate through use and focus. Basically your command your brain to send signal for a specific action and then it does the ebst it can do abt it. This is why people with neuro problems wanna speak but cant or move bodyparts and fuck up. Same shit with very little children who still havent developed fine motor skills. They know they want to hold the glass, but they fck it up anyway.You cant access direct muscle in other way. A signal must be sent to the taget muscle. No contraction otherwise. I mean, you can zap a muscle and it will contract but at this point you just skip the whole process and it also tends to be very uncomfi. >Medfag
>>77550744Yeah, I understand that part. I'm not asking how voluntary muscle contraction works. What I'm asking is whether you can consciously select a specific muscle and make its contraction produce the movement, rather than consciously thinking about the joint movement itself.For example, instead of thinking “flex my knee,” I can focus specifically on contracting my hamstrings and let that contraction produce the knee flexion. And I can do the same movement while deliberately switching between hamstrings and gastrocnemius.That's the part I'm wondering how common it is, and whether there's a specific term for it
>>77550576Another way to think abt it is that your brain is an ai that needs training to have a good output (correct movement, etc). It can not have an outpout by itself, you need to command it to do sth and the more you train it, the better it becomes at this output. >Still same Medfag
>>77550740Yeah, exactly. I’ll definitely try that. What I’m really interested in is being able to consciously switch which muscle is doing most of the work while keeping the movement basically the same.
>>77550747You are missing one very critical thing. muscle contraction and movement is not the same. you can flex your biceps and not move them. You need to actively command your body for movement to happen. Else you just do isometric contractions. Look it up.>Medfag
>>77550576It's probably possible but will require deep meditation and training>>77550758Contracting your muscles in specific ways makes them moveWhen you flex your biceps you're also engaging your triceps to prevent movement
>>77550576No unfortunately our interfacing with muscles is mostly through movment/attempted movment. The resistance encountered in doing that is how it recruits and contracts the appropriate types of fibers for the task. It's Henneman's size principle and rate coding making it do that. Why this physically happens is some shit about ohm's low and voltage resistance. Basically bigger cells act easier and this scales up from the cellular level as just the physical expression of effeciency.
>>77550576I can do it in a few muscles. It's only biceps where I can do a full movement through contraction. Everything else, there's only a few inches of movement.
>>77550697brainlet>>77550576Everyone who isn't a brainrot zoomer should be able to do this when clearly focused
>>77550576When I try this one of the issues I run into is the corresponding anti muscle also automatically tensing to stop the movement, but I'm not very focused/relaxed rn
