I posted a reply to a comment made under a forum post entitled, "heavy or light weight" and i thought i'd make it an open discussion.

a user named "manlytt" said (and i quote), "You can flex your muscles with no weight at all. I feel I get a better workout when I dont let my ego take over and I concentrate on flexing the muscle I intend to work. Until you make a mind muscle connection you really won't get the best out of your workouts. I hope this helps. Egos can be the hardest thing to train."

to which i responded, "you bring up an interesting point so i thought i would reply and see if anyone else agrees with me:

some of the exercises i do (bicep curls in particular) i am very aware of my max weight. however, if i were to flex my bicep without any weight i feel like i can put much more pressure into the flex than what i could possibly lift. another thing is that i do always make sure to flex each muscle as i work it out, but my biceps don't ever seem to be able to flex as hard with weight as they do without.

i don't ever notice this with other muscle groups. for example, i know for a fact i can leg press much more weight than the amount of pressure i exert to flex my thigh. maybe that's a bad example... okay, when i flex my hamstring i know for a fact that i can lift more weight than i can flex without.

come to think of it, i think i put more flex power into my chest than i can actually lift...

anyone with any thoughts on this?"

now, i'm not sure if the thing i'm describing for myself is so much an "ego" thing... i'm more interested in the idea behind the "flexing with no weight at all" he proposed (although he probably meant it a little differently than what i've turned it into).