Have you gone bored over your push-ups? Losing confidence in bodyweight exercises? Wait a second and let me break down what Anthony Arvanitakis calls the mind-to-muscle connection (MMC) that you may have lacked in all your workouts. Get yourself ready with a new perspective on what advanced push-ups ought to be.

The Secret Of Truly Working Advanced Push-Ups

Perhaps you’ve been so used to push-ups that they don’t challenge you anymore. Worse, it seems they no longer work on getting your muscles any bigger. Not getting challenged anymore? Here’s what Arvanitakis has to say:

“…if you can do more than 20 repetitions in any strength-related exercise, it simply means that its intensity is not challenging enough for you anymore. You’re not stimulating your muscles to any serious extent, and that’s why you’re not building any more muscle and strength. All you’re doing is building endurance at pushing yourself up and down off the floor.”

Quite straightforward but true. So, what’s the solution in a minute?

The Mind-to-Muscle Connection

Arvanitakis says that the secret to further muscle building after a seeming push-up plateau is what he calls the mind-to-muscle connection.

“By learning to master the Mind-to-Muscle Connection, you’ll be able to increase muscle tension and do fewer, but more qualitative, repetitions.”

He says that instead of just focusing on “external strength-training cues” such as

• reps,
• sets,
• resting times, and
• good form,

…you need to level up by combining them with internal strength-training cues.

“ are the inner sensory feedback your body gives during your training.”

So, these internal cues include the muscle burns and muscle pumps that you feel after a particular set of exercises. To me, the author is saying that for his suggested techniques to work, you need

• greater mental focus on what your body is going through while doing the exercises,
• to do fewer, but higher-quality reps, and
• to feel more significant control over your body while doing the advanced push-ups.

I’d tell you these are quite hard to imagine unless you try the technique yourself.

Applying MMC To Your Advanced Push-Ups

The author lays down step by step through the following techniques:

• Activating your pecs. It’s all about switching your chest on. His demo video surely helps one picture how it’s done.
• Pre-stretching your shoulders. I’ve been doing this, and I think you should because this prevents injury.
• Leaning forward to put more weight into your arms.
• Bending your elbows a bit while on top. This works by keeping your muscles tense all the time!

Mastery Starts In The Mind

To me, really mastering advanced push-ups begins in the mind. If it can take some time to follow what the author is suggesting, that’s because you’re so used to doing more than doing it right. Let that sink in and soon, MMC-inspired advanced push-ups can be your best bodyweight exercises yet.

View original article at artofmanliness.com.