Strength Training: A Scientific Approach Entry 1

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!