Stop worrying about 'feeling the muscle' work

John Voo, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

A common question I get from newbies is that they are not feeling 'x' muscle work on an exercise.

"I can't feel my quads when I'm squatting"

"I can't feel my chest when I'm benching"

The implication is there is no way they could be growing muscle and getting stronger without that sensation. Well, I beg to differ.

Muscle activity of the paraspinal muscles being measured Kychot, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

Critiquing the science

In recent years, coaches and lifters have begun pointing to research as having 'proved' that the mind muscle connection is key.

There have been studies done on this topic, however what they actually show is that focusing on the muscle may increases the target muscle activity, as measured via EMG.

The problem with these findings, is that we actually don't have evidence that EMG activity is a proxy for hypertrophy. Additionally, there is a couple of decades worth of research showing that an internal focus (i.e. focusing on feeling the muscle) leads to worse exercise performance than an external cue (e.g. 'drive the bar through the roof').

From the Vigotsky paper linked at the end of this article

Given that it is our performance in the gym that actually stimulates strength and muscle gain, and that we have no evidence that EMG actually predicts hypertrophy, it seems highly unlikely that the 'mind muscle connection' is worth spending a lot of time worrying about.

What I've observed

To add my own anecdotal coaching and lifting experience, I have not observed a strong correlation between sensation and growth.

For example, my traps and quads have always grown relatively easily compared to other muscles. And yet, I have rarely if ever felt these muscle work or even had any significant DOMS in them. Clients also have made significant gains with little or no sensation or soreness in target muscles.

My pecs started growing significantly more when I began feeling them work more. But the major confounding factor there is that I also started training them more in general. Conversely, my biceps grew significantly when I started training them more, despite no noticeable improvement in my ability to feel them work.

Nenad Stojkovic, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

Conclusions

Realistically, if you do a leg extension and don't feel your quads, or do a curl and and don't feel your biceps, it shouldn't really matter. Both those muscle HAVE to be working, as they are the prime movers for that movement.

Until you have been training for some time and gotten significantly stronger in your exercises, it doesn't make sense to spend time on something with very shaky evidence to support it. While bodybuilders swear by the min-muscle connection, we must not forget that they have also sworn by many a thing that science later proved to be either unecessary (e.g. post workout anabolic window) or even counterproductive (e.g. super slow lifting tempos).

Lift, eat and sleep well, and the rest will take care of itself.

For further reading on the science of this, I highly recommend the following article from Andrew Vigotsky and colleagues.