I always encourage my clients to actually
THINK about what they are doing when they are working out. Don't get distracted by what's going on around you.
THINK about the muscles working. I'm about to get technical here, but I will try no to lose you.
Within the muscle are bundles of
muscle fibers (fascicle), within each bundle are
individual muscle fibers, within each muscle fiber are even smaller units called
myofibrils. So, yeah, these are
tiny. (It's like your anatomy's nesting dolls.)
When your muscles contract, protein filaments within the myofibrils slide across each other which causes the muscle fiber to shorten.
When you weight train, the individual muscle fibers increase by increasing the number of myofibrils. More myofibrils=larger muscle fibers=larger, stronger muscle. Ta-da!
When I am weight training, I always like to envision these myofibrils sliding across each other, making me stronger with each rep. (I close my eyes if I have to.) This connects my mind to the muscle and I get a much better workout in turn.
Try it on your next workout and let me know how it goes.
Another great article on Mind/Muscle Connection:
http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/4-tips-to-help-train-brain-massive-gains-mind-muscle-connection.htm
