A small change for big gains.

2026 Day 146. #TrainingDays.

There are many studies that show the importance of the muscle-mind connection when you are weight lifting. Working out with slow controlled movements and connecting your mind to focus on each muscle during the entire movement will lead to building more muscle than lifting weights distractedly. This can also be backed up with psychology where believing and imagining yourself working out is a great add on to actual exercise.

As someone who was really motivated by his beginner gains, I quickly moved on to heavier weights. My thought process was simple and naive.

“The quicker I get to heavier weights, the quicker my gains will be. More weight = more muscle.”

While true in some sense of the word, it was the beginners approach. I can only thank God for not letting me get injured before people helped me out with a better approach. This was still not the ideal way but it was an improvement on what I had planned out myself. This instilled the idea of learning and improving not only in the gym but also outside of it. YouTube videos and blogs were my biggest sources of information.

The most important thing I learned from this was about the mind muscle connection. Somehow I could never get it to work. I had to put in a lot of conscious effort into the exercise which would take away from the physical effort that I was applying. I tried in much more stable exercise like pull motions but in pushing exercises I could not do much easily. Instead of trying to get better, I simply moved on from this idea. I focussed more on my form and pushing just enough that I do not force and injury.

I saw good gains and was very happy with the progress that I was making. I had completely forgotten about the mind muscle connection idea. Maybe it was useful, but I was seeing great results regardless so I did not pay much heed to it again.

After a while I started running. It was much harder than working out at the gym. Suddenly I realised that with all the muscle I had built, if I could not even run a few minutes without running out of breath, then what use is going to the gym. I decided to get better at it. To take the pain of the run away I chose to distract myself with scenarios in my head. I could run longer without feeling the pain, but the instant my focus was brought back to the run, it would start to hurt.

Again the idea of the mind muscle connection popped into my head. This time I had a little more advice and a little more hope. This was mostly inspired when a random dog decided to chase me and I had outrun it while having ran 15 or so minutes previously. This inspired a sudden change that improved my running and weight lifting ideas.

Running.

My interval splits look like

30 seconds at 90–100% effort (run as fast as I can).

1 minute at no effort (slow, comfortable pace walking).

During the 30 second split I imagine a similar dog is out to bite me. I must outrun them to survive. They will give up after 30 seconds. I cannot outrun them unless I go full effort. This highly motivates me to do my best. While running my focus is on my posture, my breathing, and the effort that I am putting through my feet. I experiment with stride length, minimising the sound of my feet touching the ground, backward extension, contact placement and more. All of this is to help me figure what seems best for me. Then I compare that what is best according to coaches. In balancing personal experience and advice, I have improved greatly.

When I walking, some of my time is spent taking deep breaths and recovering from the last push. I try to focus on my breathing and my lungs. I imagine that I am in a calm forest, the temperature is a little cool even though the sun is out. The canopy prevent direct sunlight on my face and I am enjoying the fragrance of the meadow. I take in the deepest breath to enjoy it. The air goes in through my nose and into my lungs. I can feel my chest expand and lift. I also try to imagine the bronchi reacting to thsi fresh breath of air. I want to believe this improves my breathing. My VO2 max has improved, though I would not attribute it to only this practice, I have no way of figuring out how much this individual idea has contributed to it.

Weight Lifting.

This was still a challenge and then I only understood because I was bound by the constraints of the home gym. With limited weight I had to focus on good form and the mind-muscle connection but I never got around to understanding it, until now.

The answer lies in imagining that you are lifting more than you actually are.

Let’s pick a simple exercise like bicep curls.

Assume 7kg is medium effort and 12.5kg is medium-hard and 15kg is hard.

The way that these weights move in the curling movement can give an indication of your relative strength.

7kg moves quick and easy, you might feel like doing 12–15 reps.

12.5kg moves easy but you tired yourself quickly with 8–10 reps.

15kg moves slowly for 1–3 reps and that is your limit.

Again, this is just an assumption for the sake of understanding.

The most effort that you are putting in is at 15kg. Your brain is focussing on lifting it somehow, you might be making a compromise in your form, and it is also focussed on getting injured. Your muscle is doing your best to lift it but it is genuinely out of reach.

While working with 7kg, your brain is barely focussed on the exercise. It knows that is easy to lift and relies entirely on your muscle to move it. There is no risk of injury and thus no need to pay it much attention.

12.5kg seems like a good compromise between the two. My solution though is slightly different.

I pick the 7kg/10kg weight while imagining I am lifting 15 kilos. My mind is strained and wants to lift this weight with great consciousness and minimising injury, so it moves the weight in a slow and controlled manner. Because the weight is much less physically than it is mentally, my bicep is not at a risk of injury. My brain is pushing appropriately and utilising each muscle in my arm to life the heavy weight.

I am unsure of the long term benefit but I feel the burn much better in the short term. I had never felt so exhausted and tired after ann easy workout. I believe this will lead to better gains but that remains to be confirmed.

I suggest any runner or weight lifter to try this out for themselves. This advice is applicable to everyone, but particularly to intermediate lifters and runners who have hit a wall with the physical training. I have been where you are and it is not easy to get out of the run once the initial success start fading away. It is always important to know that every step you take towards fitness counts somewhere. It is thus important to know the direction and how to take the steps to maximise the output(gains) and minimise any possible negatives(injuries).

See you tomorrow.