[00:00:00] Well, hey there. I'm so glad you're here today because we are going to be talking about muscle activation. Muscle activation is a key factor in improving your strength, adding muscle, seeing more definition, having more functionality from stronger gains in your strength, and so much more. When I used to train clients in person, one of the most common things people would say to me is, Where am I supposed to be feeling this or I can't feel this in the muscle I'm working.
For example, I can't feel this squat at all in my glute. And while we're going to be focusing on the glutes today, because that is a really common one people have a hard time turning on. This can happen in many, many different muscles. It can happen in your quads. It can happen in your back. It can happen all over.
But I'm going to be focusing a little bit more on the glute. But I want you to think about you And what muscles are overcompensating or what muscles might have some weak muscle activation and how you can [00:01:00] improve it, which is going to honestly improve your strength, improve your muscle, which improves your metabolism, which improves your functionality, which truly just gives you freedom when you have more functionality.
I also want to give a quick shout out to Jasmine Jean for her podcast review. I had been following Andrea for a while and recently started listening to her podcast and I could not love her more. I swear each time I listen, she says something I've been thinking of or need to hear. Also, who needs a studio when you have a closet that works so perfectly? Thank you, Jasmine Jean. You're right. Who needs a studio when you can just go in your closet is exactly right. And it's a perfect example of how we overcomplicate.
things and think, Oh, I have to have this perfect setup to make something work. Nope. Make work what you have. It's going to make you more effective and you're going to be happy. You started. Thank you so much for that review. And if you find this episode helpful or any of my episodes, please let me know, write a review.
I love to hear from you. It helps the podcast grow and it also helps me see your [00:02:00] needs and the things you might want on the show. Or even any critiquing,
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So let's get into it. Let's talk about some simple ways that you can really improve your muscle activation and make sure you are working the muscle in truly a more functional way.
As I explain some of these simple tips to really improve your muscle activation and make sure that you are [00:03:00] turning on the muscle you are trying to work, I do want to start with a little bit of explanation and probably a little bit of science y stuff. And as always, you know, I have linked my research papers that I read to cover this topic, but
One of the biggest things that you need to know about muscle activation is truly it's triggered a lot by the mind body connection. body connection. The way that your mind connects to the muscle to help it activate.
And that connection starts in the humunculus. The humunculus in Latin simply means little man. So I want you to imagine, I'm sure you've seen it in commercials or like movies where there's like a little man in your brain controlling your limbs, controlling how things move.
This is basically the way that your brain maps out the sensory neurons that control each part of your body. So little person in your brain controlling all of your limbs. That is what the humunculus does The humunculus triggers your hands to [00:04:00] move, to pick things up, to move every limb, which is going to affect you while strength training.
The better we are able to map out and connect to the different parts of our body, the more motor neuron excitability we're going to have, which basically means that the muscle is going to contract better. We're going to have more control over it, and we're going to have more connection to improving that contraction.
So basically I'm saying In this process, the better we're able to recruit the muscle fibers, the more efficiently we are going to be able to build muscle and to feel the connection to that muscle.
So there are a couple of different ways that we can work on this mind body connection and things that we can do. Honestly, now today to really help the muscles turn on to activate properly when needed and not have overcompensation of other muscles, ligaments, tissues, different things going on, which commonly happens, which we will talk about.
One of the most basic [00:05:00] ways that we can really focus on muscle activation is focusing on one muscle at a time. I know sometimes we get busy and we want to work through a full body workout, where we're using tons of different muscles, tons of compound movements, using lower body and upper body and a lot of things are going on.
But when we do this, it can be very tricky for us to really focus on, for example, turning on the glute when we're doing a squat with a lunge with a shoulder press. It doesn't mean these type of movements are bad at all. I use them all the time. But if you're struggling with muscle activation and feeling the muscle, then you're going to want to use one muscle at a time and really focus.
Focus on that muscle activating.
It's really no different than multitasking in life. When we're using lots of muscles at once, we just don't pay as much attention to one task. So it's the same thing. We want to pay more attention to one muscle. So if you are not feeling your glutes turning on, stop doing [00:06:00] full body movements, full body workouts.
I need you to have just leg days or just movements where we're isolating the glute, where we're trying to see if the glute is turning on, if it's firing properly, if we're feeling it contract and then relax or feeling that tension in the glute alone or whatever muscle you are working on. So that's the first tip.
My second tip is start adding in more bilateral work. When we do bilateral work, that basically means work on one side of the body. So an example would be a lunge, a split squat, a single leg RDL, anything where you're working one side at a time. The reason why is because it makes it a little bit easier to catch and find imbalances.
Sometimes we overcompensate with one side that is stronger and then it makes the side that's weaker even do less work, even though it's already weaker, then it really does less and less and less.
Another key to obviously this bilateral, this one sided movement is, as I mentioned, focusing on one muscle [00:07:00] at a time. When you do a squat, you have obviously two glute muscles, the one on the right and the one on the left. They're both working. So if you switch and you focus on just one, it's going to be easier to tell how it is activating and you'll be able to catch any shifts in your hip.
Anything that's a little bit different because you are focusing on less muscles.
For me, bilateral work has been a game changer. I have talked openly about the fact that I have had hip issues. It has definitely gotten 10 times better. I was misdiagnosed with a vascular necrosis. we believe I actually had transient osteoporosis hip, which has improved, but during this series of time, I shifted into.
bilateral work, working one side at a time, because it really helped me to focus on my glute muscle and make sure that I had balances between my hips, make sure that my form was really good, slow and controlled, made sure I wasn't obviously overcompensating with other muscles. And it really forced me to [00:08:00] work both of my glute muscles evenly because my glute that was With my hip that was injured was weaker and it was having a harder time.
So when I did traditional movements using both legs. My left glute would take over because it was stronger, or I would even have some patterns where, you know, the opposite muscle would take over. So switching into obviously focusing on one muscle at a time, but not only that, but bilateral work, focusing on even each side at a time.
Allowed me to really move slow and methodically and think through my form and making sure that that muscle was activating correctly. Another really nice thing about bilateral work is you don't have to go as heavy and you can still get pretty good benefits from it. Oftentimes if you're working out at home or you're in a situation where you just don't have a ton of weights, Change from a squat because maybe you can't load your squat enough to really see those gains in your glutes and try a [00:09:00] split squat because you're going to hold just as much weight, but you're only working one side, which means you're really going to load that same muscle, but only one side of it, which is going to help with those gains in your glutes and help you really turn it on and activate it, which is going to help you get stronger.
So bilateral work makes a huge difference in learning to activate those muscles and making sure that your form is good. The next thing you want to be aware of when it comes to muscle activation is You need to have some awareness of your injuries. I think sometimes that we get so used to aches and pains that we start ignoring them and we just go through the motions and we don't realize that those aches and pains could be hindering our ability to activate a muscle or even build strength in that muscle or even do the movement we're trying to with good form.
When we have injured ligaments and tissues and muscles, we're going to respond differently to the load of weight and we're going to overcompensate.
This is no different than [00:10:00] when I teach about the core and how if you have a very weak core, guess what happens? Your lower back's going to overcompensate for that weak core. And even if you're doing a core exercise and your core is injured, let's say you have diastasis recti or it's just weak, It doesn't matter if you're trying to work the core, the back is going to take over, and it's going to cause some issues there.
So being aware of your injuries and, you know, imbalances is going to make a huge difference. there are even some injuries that can make your muscle you're trying to work even less effective in activating. So I'll give you an example of myself, and then I want you to think through what you are feeling or what you've experienced. I, when I did injure my hip, I started to get some pain in my glute, and I would be doing glute exercises or things that I knew, and I had decently Good form.
Cause I pay really close attention and I still didn't feel like I felt the muscle activating, but I actually started having pain in my glute. And when I got my [00:11:00] MRI for my hip, one of the things they said is I had tendonitis in my glute. So tendonopathy is the degeneration of the collagen protein that forms the tendon.
And then tendonitis is just inflammation of the tendon. So I had developed tendinitis in my gluteus medius because of my hip issue because I had that weaker hip issue, which was hindering my ability, not only because of the hip, but in general, I was not activating that glue as well because there was an injury there.
The injury partly happened because I was overusing it and overworking the glute, trying to figure out what was going on with my hip, but that can happen to most. Anybody in different circumstances. So being aware of injuries is going to make a huge difference because I could continually try to force, force, force, force, glute activation.
But instead when that's the issue, rest and elevation and some other things are going to help that better. So. If you're trying to activate a muscle and it's creating pain, you need to get in and [00:12:00] see a physical therapist and see what's going on. If he continues and the physical therapist can't help, you might need to get an MRI because the way to get that muscle to activate might be simply healing it because there might be a real injury there that you need to allow to recover.
And then you can really focus on muscle activation with a healthy muscle or tendon.
So injury awareness is going to make a huge difference on your ability to activate your glutes or any muscle that you're working on. My next tip is I want you to slowly load the muscle. Oftentimes people will stack on weight really quickly and then they stop feeling the actual muscle work because all they feel is the burden of the weight and they don't pay attention to what muscle is working.
And then without fail. We start to overcompensate and use muscles that are stronger and have that better neuron excitability to contract. And then all of a sudden the muscle we want to contract and the [00:13:00] muscle we want to work and grow and develop is not working as well. This is a perfect example for someone who is quad dominant.
If you are quad dominant, that means that your quads take over during the work. So as you add weight, your glutes, if they're not activating properly, if you're not pushing through that heel and feeling the glutes activate, your quads are like, Oh, no problem. I'm here as well. Let me just take over and they might overcompensate.
So I want you to slowly add weights. You do need weights, obviously, to force more activation of the muscle and more growth in the muscle, but you want to do it slowly, making sure that you're feeling the muscle fire. This is really, really important for that mind body connection and that you're not just going through the motions, but slowly increasing that weight.
Now, When I do this, this might mean if I'm doing a set of, you know, four rounds or three rounds or even five rounds, I might start a little bit lighter on that [00:14:00] first set. And then I'm going to go a little heavier and a little heavier and a litter heavier each round, making sure that I'm feeling the correct muscle fire.
So I'm really feeling that glute turn on and I'm not allowing my quads to take over and overcompensate. So slowly add weight.
Next, and really this probably should have been first, but these aren't in order, these are just all tips, is gentle massage and touch goes a long way for muscle activation. Now there's a lot of different ways you can do this. Obviously, you can use TheraGuns or any type of massage gun. I love massage guns.
I've spoken about them before. It's not the only way. It does go a little bit deeper into the muscle, but you don't have to overly go into this deep tissue massage to activate the muscle. So it is an option, but a foam roller is another really great option to just kind of break up that myofascia and get that muscle nice and warm and really just kind of turns on those receptors.
Also [00:15:00] touch, and I'm going to explain all of these just simple touch. So in general, when we do any type of massage for a muscle, we produce mechanical pressure, which is expected to increase muscle compliance, resulting in increased range of joint motion, decreased passive stiffness, and decreased Active stiffness. So when we kind of massage out the muscle, whether it's deep tissue to very light, we're helping that muscle move through range of motion.
We're helping that compliance, that mechanical pressure, which is going to increase the range of motion and decrease stiffness, which helps with blood flow, which is going to help with muscle activation.
So before you start your workout, I want you to try to add some gentle movement massaging with whether you use a massage gun on a foam roller or anything else to really warm up that area and get that muscle kind of moving through to create that mechanical pressure and turn it on.
And as I mentioned, even just [00:16:00] touching helps. One of the things that I used to do for clients when I would train them in person is we'd be. Working through a movement and I could tell they were overcompensating with the different muscles. So let's say they're doing a hamstring curl. That is a movement where they would lay on a machine, they would curl their weight up from behind laying face down.
I would look and I would notice their lower back was firing and their hamstrings weren't doing as much of the work. So I literally would touch their hamstring with my fingers and say, Hey, I need you to To use this muscle, just a very gentle touch. And sensation is real because without fail, when I actually touched the muscle, I wanted them to work, I would see it fire.
And because it helped them connect their mind, Oh, she is touching where I'm supposed to be working and they would turn on that muscle. So, if you're in the middle of a workout and the muscle is not firing, you don't feel it, I want you to stop, put the weight down, I know it's annoying, but put the weight [00:17:00] down, try getting on a foam roller, rolling it out, tap that muscle up and down, just touching it, being like, this is where I'm activating, or have someone literally put their hands on you during the movement.
To help you remember, Oh, this is a muscle that's firing. Obviously someone you're comfortable with, but it can make a huge difference. I sometimes will do this with my husband when I'm in a movement where I can tell him overcompensating and he will tap and say, here, here, you're working here. And it really does connect that mind to the muscle.
And that doesn't have to be anything complicated. That's a gentle touch or even between the sets, just tapping that muscle, just turning it on, reminding you what you're working.
My next tip is trying to improve your jammed joints. I know that probably seems crazy, but yes, your joints get jammed. And this is why active mobility over just static stretching makes a huge, huge difference. Because the more buttery our joints are, the more they can move through a range of motion, The better our muscles are able to [00:18:00] activate.
If you're wanting to learn a little bit more about mobility and that muscle activation and why that range of motion in mobility makes such a difference over just, you know, lean and stretch that static movement. I highly suggest you listen to episode 127, Mastering Your Aches and Pains Using Mobility with Amir.
He is from Beard, The Best You Can Be. He is amazing at showing how moving through that range of motion and active mobility makes a huge difference. And he's actually one of our experts in the app. He is covering all of our mobility videos to help you better get a better range of motion, which is going to make your lifts better.
So again, before your workout, you need to add in some of those range of motion with active mobility to unjam those joints and make them really fluid and buttery or Even in the middle of the workout, if you're not feeling that muscle activates, stop, put the weight down and go through a series of, for example, if it's your glute, a cars movement, which is helping your hip [00:19:00] move or an movement with your ankles, whether it's your shoulders, you know, cars with your shoulders and go back to that episode to kind of explain that what that is, but that's moving through a range of motion all the way around.
And he does give exact examples in that episode.
I'm also sure that you've probably seen a chiropractor or a physical therapist where they kind of like pull on a limb and pull it back. And one of the things they are doing is also unjamming those joints. One of my most favorite exercises that my physical therapist gave me for my hip when I wasn't able to activate my glute as well Is I would take a long resistance band and I'd loop it around my foot Actually, I would loop it around a stable surface first.
So whether it's an island post a deck post a stable You know, table chair, a rack post, a telephone pole, whatever it is, just a stable surface, a stair banister, loop it around, and then I would loop the other part around my foot, and I would lay flat on the ground and [00:20:00] scoot away from wherever the band was hooked.
away from it. So I had that stretching of the band and it was pulling my leg down a little bit. Now, I'm sure you're thinking of that like torture machine where like they would pull on your limbs and I'm not talking about that, but it kind of is that same idea that it kind of pulled my leg a little bit down and out because as my PT explained to me, my joint was getting all jammed up in my hip socket and he wanted it to just have a teeny bit of wiggle room to move fluidly and One of the ways was mobility. And one of the ways was kind of just getting it to pull down a little bit. So I would lay on the ground with my foot attached and the banister and scooting away and just allow my leg to lay there for about a minute, just kind of pulling it down.
And that helped me. And that was something I could do at home. if you can't get into a PT, but it was a simple move that I could do at home
that really unjammed that socket. Try that out. Try out those mobilities. Make [00:21:00] sure those joints are nice and warmed up.
Make sure you're warming up thoroughly before and you're getting that good range of motion with the mobility and pause in the middle of your workout again if you're not feeling that muscle activate.
My next tip is to check your form. If you are doing a squat, but you are folding forward, or your knees are bowing in when you squat, you're not going to be able to activate your glutes correctly. And this goes for any movement where you're trying to strengthen a muscle. The number one thing you can do is film yourself, check your form, and if you're not sure if your form is right, take the time to either see a Personal trainer in person, or if you have a trainer online, send them a video of you doing it.
We often have clients that they say, Oh, my knees are hurting or, or I don't feel. You know, a squat in my glute. We say, can you send us a video of you doing it? I want to see what it looks like. And when we see it, we're able to write them back and say, Oh, you need to do this, this, [00:22:00] and this. So, find someone who can review your video, who knows exercise really well, or sometimes we can catch our own mistakes when watching.
If your form is off, I promise your muscle activation and your ability to grow your muscles and to get stronger and to see muscle definition is not going to happen. Form is a huge, huge key factor.
My last tip is patience. It takes time to build that mind body connection. It is definitely not going to happen quickly and it's just going to take time and that is okay. It is the same thing when we are working to connect our mind with our pelvic floor, learning to lift that pelvic floor, to brace the deep core, wrapping in your transverse abdominals and learning to relax the pelvic floor as they both matter.
And in strength training, they both matter. It's not just about squeezing your glute muscle or contracting your glute muscle. If that's all you're focusing on, you're not going to [00:23:00] see the muscle gains in that as well. You're not going to see the muscle definition because you have to know how to fully relax.
muscle as well. It has to lengthen and contract. It has to do both.
So, in order to make that happen, quick recap, we're going to focus on one muscle at a time, really seeing if it's activating. We're going to focus on bilateral work, so not only one muscle, but one side at a time, making sure our form, our balance, our movements are good. We're going to focus on muscle awareness.
If you have an injury, trying to force your body to do something through an injury is not going to help you. You're going to need to allow it to rest and you're going to need to go a different path for a little while until that muscle, ligament, tissue, whatever it is, is strong enough to do that movement correctly so you can get better muscle activation.
We're going to slowly load the muscle, which means we're just going to slowly add weight. you can't keep a lightweight forever if you want the muscle to change and get stronger and show definition. [00:24:00] You've got to increase your weight and that's the same thing for strength. For both of those things you need to slowly increase and slowly is going to help make sure that you are actually activating the right muscle and not overcompensating.
Add in gentle massage and touch. I gave the idea of a massage gun, of a foam roller, those make a huge difference, of actually just tapping the muscle, connecting the mind body to it, and even touching the muscle during the movement to help it remember, oh yeah, I am contracting right now during this movement.
Be aware, if your joints are jammed in your mobility, we really want those joints to be fluid and move through a range of motion with mobility. CARs are a really great way to do that. There's a lot of different things you can do for that, but also, as I explained, it's not a bad idea to see a PT if you're having constant pain in a joint and see if they can work on you.
I really love that stretching and lengthening of the limb for my hip joint where I connected that band, but in general, being aware of your joints and that they're able to move through a range of motion [00:25:00] because you can't activate a muscle properly if your joints are not fluid and able to really give you that range of motion.
Check your form, film yourself, make sure that your form is on point. You're not going to activate the muscle if you are not having good form, because the right muscle isn't put in the correct position to be able to activate correctly. And lastly, patience. Patience, patience, patience. This is something I've worked on for years.
I definitely am not someone who has this giant backside. I'm very proportionate. But I have improved it over the years as I have worked on it compared to where I started a couple of years ago. And even with an injury setting me back almost a year and a half and as I mentioned developing tendinopathy in my glute, I have still slowly worked my way back from that, allowing it to heal and then slowly increasing it.
So Be patient with yourself. Fitness is a journey, not a race. You know, I mean that from the bottom of my heart. You got this. I [00:26:00] know you can work on that muscle activation and I know you can see and feel changes when you learn to properly activate muscles. All right, that's it for today. You got this and know you are doing so much better than you think you are.
We'll chat next week.