External attentional focus with Squat, Bench, DL technique

Training Q&A [Moderated]
1

Hey BBM crew,

Thanks for all the great content you provide.

I have a couple of questions regarding attentional focus. I’m thinking you are likely aware of the concept of having an internal vs. external attentional focus when completing a motor task, where internal focus is when one is concentrating on things like body part or body position and external focus involves the person completing the movement with a focus on something external to his/her body. The attached study showing greater jump heights with external focus has me wondering if external attentional focus would be beneficial for the powerlifts. I know it’s difficult to generalize the results from this study to the training and execution of powerlifts, but I could see where a hypothesis might develop that external attentional focus does improve performance of the powerlifts.

Personally, I find myself usually using an internal attentional focus for the three lifts. I try to follow squat, DL, and bench technique recommendations that are pretty much in line with information from BBM on Alan Thrall’s youtube channel. Doing so, I normally use an internal attentional focus.

My questions are:

  1. With your experience lifting/coaching, do you think there’s generally a benefit to performance using an external attentional focus? Are there potential negatives to using the external attentional focus?

  2. This may be a moot point depending on the answer to number 1, but what are some good ways to incorporate external attentional focus to squat, bench, and DL while following BBM technique?

Thanks!

2

David,

We use both and though there isn’t an explicit “BBM coaching progression” with respect to using cues, we all have a number of similarities in our coaching techniques. We tend to focus on internal cues during earlier phases of teaching a new movement and when the weights are lighter. Conversely, during heavier/higher intensity sets we tend to use more external cues.

I think it is a mistake to use only one or the other during the entire coaching experience.

  1. Yes to both, of course.

  2. There is no one way to do this, however typically we use external cues at higher RPEs/heavier loads and/or when internal cues fail to produce the change we’re seeking.