Hi all, I wanted to start a discussion on something I've been pondering recently. I see a lot of strength coaches and physios talking about the muscle activation during various activities. They'll say something like "squeeze this muscle at the top of the movement" etc.
Is there any sense in this?
Let me explain. Say I do a bodyweight squat. I can do this fine without having to consciously squeeze my glutes or quads or whatever. I can squeeze them as well but am I really gaining any benefit by doing this? Is it potentially harmful to my movement mechanics? Now if I'm on rep 40, I might be feeling a lot more activation or if I'm doing it under a heavy barbell. My current thinking is that the body responds with as much activation as is demanded and that artificially contracting is totally pointless and potentially harmful.
It seems if I only focus on the movement all the muscles take care of themselves. I barely ever hear this advice in the "movement community". This strikes me as so strange.
Is this wrong? What do you all think?