Strength Training: A
Scientific Approach
Entry 1
The Dilemma:
So you want to workout, but you
“get too bulky” or “add muscle fast” when you lift weights; sound familiar?
Well, I call bull!!! I don’t
believe it and science doesn’t support it. Just for the sake of arguing I’ll say that 1% of the
population actually has this “problem”.
Those aren’t good odds and chances are that you don’t fall into that
category. If your dream is to be
completely jacked and larger than life then this isn’t too great, but if you
just want to be “toned” and “in shape” then this actually works in your favor
if you think about it! You can
train hard in the gym and try various training routines and you should get
nothing but good results (if you try hard enough). Next step: try
crossfit, P90X or some other “metabolically” challenging routine right? WRONG!
Every training routine should start with a strength base. Notice how I said “training” and not
the words workout or exercise.
That is because that is what we need to do to our bodies; Train
them! Expending meaningless
calories isn’t always the answer.
And more research is shining light on the fact that calories in calories
out may not be best. The body
doesn’t go by the laws of thermodynamics all the time no matter how bad you
want it to. Throughout this
article I will discuss the positives of strength training and why we need to
implement a strength base first and foremost and why just losing weight isn’t
the route we want to go.
The Background:
“Why
do I need to strength train? I
don’t want to be a power lifter or get too huge!” I’ve heard this too many times and it is about time we get
our act together and our heads on straight. Muscle strength does not always accompany weight gain and in
the beginning phases of your training, it is one of the last structures to
change in your body. What I want
you to concern yourself with at this time is your brain. That wasn’t a typo I really mean the
brain. That is where a lot of
changes occur and not a lot of us think about this. The question that everyone has when training is how do I get
my muscles bigger? How do I lose
body fat? There is a theory that
the muscles themselves need to be surrounded by what you can call an anabolic
environment. When I say that I am
not referring to what you do in the gym, I mean your nervous system! Think about it: your brain is what
sends all the information down to your muscles. Your muscles would not move without your brain/nerves so why
would we think that we wouldn’t need to train those structures? Throughout this article I’ll explain
what changes can be seen in these structures and how this could benefit your
muscles.
The Changes:
The
Brain:
Instead of always training with the
intent to feel “exhausted” or “trashed” let’s start at the top and work our way
down. There are a few studies that
research what happens to the brain when individuals’ weight train (in this case
the motor cortex, cerebellum, basal ganglia, etc). When we train most people think of only the muscles that go
through changes or adaptations.
While the muscle do obviously adapt, the beginning phases of training
are more predicated around “neural adaptations”. For a fair amount of time this was a valid theory, but not
initially fully understood. Within
the last few years, however, more research has been establishing what
structures change and what these means for the peripheral environment (our
muscles). Without going into all
the specifics (frankly because I’m not a neuroscientist and we should focus on
the basics) let’s first think about signals being sent within the brain. The brain has various feedback and even
feedfoward loops that help predict and react to the environment. The brain also sends excitatory (go)
and inhibitory (stop) messages that can start or stop a movement from
happening. Remember the game “red
light green light”? That’s more or
less what is happening in your brain.
The brain decides to initiate movement, green light, or inhibit movement,
red light. The more we train (and
with better quality) studies have shown that there are less inhibitory messages
being sent and more excitatory messages being sent. What does that mean?
That means our brains stop holding us back! Our brain and bodies are made to adapt to the environment. If we get train to get stronger our
brains theoretically recognize this and help create the proper environment for
change (bigger and stronger muscles) by increasing electrical impulses down to
our muscles!
The Motor
Nerve:
The motor nerve is what carries the
signal from the brain down to the muscles. There are a lot of pathways the
signal goes through prior to the motor nerve, but those will not be
discussed. Electrical signals are
transmitted down a nerve by moving ion particles (Mostly sodium/potassium)
across membranes propagating the signal down further and further until it
reaches the muscle. I’m sure your
first thought is “who cares about sodium and potassium? This isn’t chemistry class.” Well, the answer to that question is
YOU SHOULD CARE! The more you
train (preferably the stronger you get) there is an increase in the
channels/pumps that move these ions back and forth. Again, what does this mean? This means that signals are sent down faster to the muscles! The faster you can displace and replace
these ions, the faster and more forcefully we should be able to contract our
muscles. I don’t know about you,
but in any sport or aspect of life, this is how we move! Hanging upside down or pushing against
a TRX won’t have the same results. To recap, we have two distinct changes and we haven’t even
gotten to the muscles! Essentially
the brain sends more signals and faster!
The
Neuromuscular Junction (NMJ):
The
NMJ is the space between a motor nerve and the muscle it innervates or “attaches”
to. Because of this space the
motor nerve transfers it’s signal to the muscle through a neurotransmitter
called acetylcholine (AcH) enclosed in little packets (vesicles). The nerve transfers AcH to the muscle
where it binds to certain AcH receptors.
Once attached, more of those sodium/potassium channels that we discussed
open up and start the electrical signal all over again (whew, that was a lot of
info). Again, what does this mean
for a strength-trained individual?
When we strength train it is thought that there is an increase in the
number of AcH molecules sent to the muscle itself. The more AcH the more ions will pass across those membranes
we touched on. The more ions that
pass the faster and stronger a signal can be, again pointing to a faster and
stronger muscle.
The Conclusions:
So far we’ve discussed three distinct changes that happens
once a person starts strength training.
The changes that take place also cost calories to develop! For all you “calorie counters” this
means that you are going to burn more calories throughout the day and we
haven’t even gotten to the most popular topic: muscles! There is a multitude of other changes
that happens that will be discussed in later articles, but just as in training
one must take the time to learn the basics before jumping all in. Think of strength training as learning
the alphabet before we learn to spell or speak. We could not form a language without first distinguishing
boundaries and rules. Our bodies
are not machines, although they are pretty amazing, and the body needs time to
adapt before we start running marathons (gag) or doing intense exercise
(training). The same can be said
for weight loss programs. One
cannot simply diet and expect to keep losing weight. As I stated earlier, calories in vs. calories out doesn’t
always work, nor should it. Our
bodies don’t care about how many calories we take in. It simply wants to adapt so it will either ask for more
(build muscle) or less (fat gain or weight loss). This divine equilibrium between muscle and fat that everyone
wants to find should start with smart training, which means implementing a
sound progressive weight-training program. It’s not easy, trust me I’ve been there, but it’s your
health! Please don’t rely on
someone to give you all the answers.
I promise you they don’t have them. In the next article we will discuss what happens to the
muscle and how strength training can benefit your health! - Learn, practice, educate!
