Whole Movement Strength Training vs. Braced Training

Title is confusing I know but what I am talking about is strength training that trains your muscles as well as your nervous system. By whole movement strength training I mean Strength Training that requires the use of many small stabilizing muscles like that of the rotator cuffs in the hip and shoulder. This training is training that focuses on movements that require balance, constant monitoring of joint position and stabilization of the joint. Exercises like a handstand, chin-up, L-seat, dead-lift, squat and standing military press all have many things in common. The body weight exercises all require constant concentration on balance and use proprioceptive feedback to a high degree, they are also able to train the joints through a complete range of motion and cause a large amount of strengthening in the connective tissue of the joints. The weight based exercises also do these things but, I believe, that they do not provide as much nervous stimulation (relating to less balance and constant monitoring of joint position required) and that the nature of leverage in gymnast style exercises place more stress on the connective tissues of the joints. However, less balance required also means that more muscle force can be applied, making weight-based exercises superior for maximizing muscle motor recruitment and is therefore more effective to train absolute muscle strength.

This is in contrast to training with the body braced against something, where there is usually little nervous stimulation required (There are of course exceptions as all training is on a continuum for intensity of nervous stimulation) and train mostly muscle strength through a specific range of motion (again, ROM varies on the exercise but i’m talking about exercises like bench press that require a rather specific movement pattern). Bodybuilding is definitely the best example of this type of training. This type of training gives you big, strong muscles but without the improvements in the nervous system and connective tissues. I am going to relate the human to a machine, a car for example. Cars have axles, tires, and an engine. This makes them go. They also have a lot of shit like ball joints, tie rods, suspension and many stabilizing metal braces. The human machine also has these in the form of muscles like the rotator cuffs, anconeus of the elbow, and the numerous small muscles of the hand. Connective tissues are similar to those metal braces in cars. So you see, training using only these movements will produce an athlete who is strong but lacks the important stabilizing tissues to prevent injury and use the muscles to their best ability.

That is all I have to say on this matter and will only add that the human body will adapt to any stimulus you provide it, if not too intense or weak, and in time will reshape itself to best adapt and co-exist with that stimulus. Or in less scientific terms a quote by Bruce Lee – “As you think, so shall you become!”

Chimpanzee Strength vs. Human Strength

This article will answer the question of exactly why chimpanzees are so much stronger than modern humans are in detail. Prepare yourself.

Okay first things first. Chimps are animals. Because they are animals and they move around a lot because they must find food to feed themselves. This makes it pretty unsurprising that chimps are vastly stronger than the average human. Most humans are fat and lazy these days. Chimps are also social animals though and there is a lot of feuding to be the alpha. This means epic scraps and beating the shit out of each other on a daily basis. Did I mention they live in trees? So a very active lifestyle plays a huge part in explaining why chimps are vastly stronger than most humans. We are fat and lazy.. mostly.

Chimps are also extremely muscular, check this out.

But even being as muscular as they are, that is not what makes them so much stronger than humans. It has to do with muscle insertions. See, chimps have muscle attachments that are located farther from the joints point of rotation. We all know what crowbars are here, this is similar to the concept of comparing a longer crowbar to a shorter crowbar. The longer handle allows a person to apply more torque at the point of rotation. It is the same with chimpanzees. Just check out this diagram.

If you are insightful you will also realize that this would make chimps move slower because the muscle must shorten a greater distance to produce the same amount of movement that it would if the muscle attachment was closer to the joint. This is the same as having to apply force for a greater distance on a longer crowbar than a shorter crowbar to have the same affect on whatever you are prying. To explain why this just does not happen in chimps is simple but requires a little knowledge of muscle physiology. There are many types of muscle fibers and they all have differing characteristics that suit the organisms lifestyle. These are called slow twitch and fast twitch fibers and from slowest to fastest they are Type 1, type2a, type2b and type2x. Type2x fibers contract the fastest and hardest and use different fuel than slow twitch fibers. Humans have some type2x fibers but mostly slower fibers. Animals, however, have a much greater percentage of type2x fibers than humans. So if you think that a chimps muscle insertions will make it slower, you are mistaken.

The nervous system is the next think that should be touched on. The nervous system plays a much, much larger role in strength than most people realize. An untrained person will not be able to activate all their muscle fibers in unison because they simply aren’t equipped to do so. There are reasons for this. First, We have many more small motor units than animals do. This differs across the body but humans generally have neurons that are “hooked” up to a smaller number of muscle fibers. This is of course for fine motor control, without it, writing would be very difficult. In animals, fine motor control is of very little importance so they contract many more of their muscle fibers with less effort. So why can’t humans just activate all their muscle fibers you ask? Well we can, but only under special circumstances such as times of enormous nervous stimulation in fight or flight situations. Everyone has heard of people who lift cars off of people with a huge adrenaline rush, this is very similar.

That is a pretty full explanation of why chimps are stronger than humans, although more could be said about the nervous system differences and of course the animal instinct. If you take only one thing from this article let it be this..

Don’t fuck with apes.

Do Bodyweight Training

The myth that you cannot gain muscle mass or significant strength from body weight training is bull-shit. Just look at guys like hannibal for king or barstarz on youtube and you will agree. Sure their legs may be a little under developed but nothing that some deadlifts or squats can’t fix. Anyway you can go extremely far with body weight training. You just need the right equipment and a lot of variety. Ya. A school yard is by far the easiest and cheapest way to get the right equipment and variety.

The main exercises are of course chin-ups, dips, handstands and push-ups. These can be done weighted or with a rainbows worth of variety. The number of variations of body weight exercises are literally limited by your imagination. There are an infinite number of variations if you think about it. Each one can transition to another and body segments can be altered to make it easier or more difficult. Impressive skills that a person can work toward are the muscle-up, one arm chin up, free standing hand stand, superman dips or really whatever your heart desires. I believe that the best upper body training always incorporates core stability at some level. Body weight exercises accomplish this.

Road to the One Arm Chin-up

So it’s been a couple weeks since I last posted progress and I’ve been getting a little creative lately and only been using one finger to assist. Good hand work-out to, my fingers are still sore and this was on the 3rd.

I think it may take around 6 months to own the chin-up, it’s probably one of the more difficult feats of strength out there.

 

A Waste of Your Time.

This is a rant. If you don’t want to hear it than fuck off it’s not for you it’s for me. I’m going to rant because I’m pissed about the lack of intelligence of my fellow man. Fucking idiots everywhere I go. For every intelligent person that steps into my circumference of existence there is usually another 10 drop dead fucking morons. Most of the people I interact with live their life in a fucking fog. I should call it a dream actually, there is no life in these people. Completely oblivious to everything around them, basically the walking dead. Than theres the angry people, the ones always in a rush, rushing towards… what? Shit, I don’t know why there even is a 5 o clock rush hour. Seriously why is everyone rushing at top speed to get home? To park their fat ass on the couch so they don’t miss the start of their favorite tv show or whatever? It can’t wait an extra 30 seconds to a minute which is probably the amount of time you’ll save by cutting people off and tailgating every person who is going slightly slower than you? Oh wait, yes you have a career and your busy. You work 10 to 12 hours a day and have 3 kids. Trying to give them a better life than you had I get it. Wait… what? let’s consider that logic for a moment. You spend most of your waking and coherent hours working.. so that when you get home you can care for your child now that your totally drained from work? So.. a better life for children is one in which they have tons of material possessions but no parents home to care for them? I think that’s pretty fucked up.

I have no faith in humanity. Nobody cares about interesting shit anymore. Society is driven by a few intelligent and or corrupt motherfuckers who lead everybody else, i.e. the mindless sheep. I don’t know why people don’t find a hobby or a skill, most of the people I talk to are only interested in the weekend where they get to pay upwards of $80 to drink themselves into a coma and forget everything by the time they wake up. Fuck. Wheres the drive? Wheres the enthusiasm? Why is it so hard to find people interested in learning new things, achieving awesome shit or just hanging out with friends while not drinking ourselves to a coma? Are we all so busy? Or is it that nobody really gives a shit about social interaction outside of facebook/ shitfaced with a drink in their hand? This culture is too focused on cheap thrills and throw away possessions. Maybe it always was. I don’t know anything different. Maybe I’m the one that’s fucked while everyone else is normal. Wouldn’t be the first time I was told that and not by one person either.

Motivation part 2

Motivation is significantly affected by lifestyle factors. I am sure of this. Unless you have unusually strong willpower, a shitty lifestyle will get ya down. Sleep, nutrition, soreness and laziness (lack of will) are the main things that derail my train. There is a direct correlation between how well you control these factors and your motivation to exercise.

The problem with these factors is that they pay off later, not now.

This picture sums it up pretty good although it depends what you consider hard work. Example: Damn I know I should avoid mcdonalds because it will make me feel like garbage later but it’s sooooo good. I should get sleep now because it will give  me energy later but I am stuck in this trance on facebook and can’t seem to click the x in the corner. Likewise with going overboard lifting weights. If you strain too much you will be sore as fuck and this is going to affect how you feel later.

These factors can also be seen as limiting factors for achieving self-actualization or your ultimate potential. Think about it. Sleep affects tomorrows energy levels, nutrition affects tomorrows (or today) metabolic rate, energy levels and long-term health and soreness affects the consistency at which you can lift. There is no doubt more factors than these but these are the ones that I find affect me most often.

Sleep is the one that I have the most problems with and it affects everything else. If you are tired you will not have energy, you will not grow strong as quickly, heal as quickly, make good food choices (tired people like sugary snacks) and it negatively affects your willpower. Anyone ever heard that “knowledge will set you free”? It is 100% true. But knowledge is not enough! I have heard people quote GI Joe that “Knowing is half the battle”. It is NOT. Action is all the battle! Knowing is shit that you do before you start the battle. It is totally up to you whether you take control of your strength training and use the knowledge you have acquired. Get sleep, eat real food, don’t lift like a gym idiot and motivation will follow. But you need the willpower to set the wheels in motion. Without willpower you, me, everyone is destined to fail.

Biofeedback and Musculoskeletal Longevity

One of the reasons I feel that biofeedback is important is the long-term health of you musculoskeletal system. If you train with great effort with focus on pulverizing your muscles to encourage growth I think you are making a grave mistake that you will likely pay for later rather than now.

In my last post I wrote about the tissue system and how tissue irregularities will form from abuse. Well abuse from exercise will also create tissue irregularities. Most people are familiar with scar tissue, it forms on skin wounds during the healing process but usually remains after the healing is complete and is left as a reminder of the incident that caused it. Muscles and fascia are no different. Scar tissue is formed inside muscles and fascia when they sustain significant muscle damage due to intense exercise. There is evidence of this from electron microscope pictures or whatever the fuck its called that were taken after intense exercise and showed severe damage to muscle cells. Scar tissue acts as a cast to prevent the muscle from being re-injured during the healing process. This makes sense as muscle fibers are elastic and if damaged they would pull apart and make for a tricky healing process. Consider your bones for example, broken bones don’t heal so well if they are not properly aligned and immobilized after the break.

Now, we know that scar tissue does not simply disappear after the injury is healed (think scars on your skin), so basically we get a build up of scar tissue inside the muscle and fascia, limiting the function of these tissues and making them less elastic. There are of course many reasons why people may lose fluency of movement as they age but by training like a master by avoiding excessive tension and making all training look easy, I think that it could be a huge step in the right direction.

The Tissue System

Look At this picture.

This picture is from an article in the journal of massage science. It details the structure of the underlying system of fascia beneath the skin which stabilizes, protects and gives shape to our muscles and body structure. The fascia system is very complex and thought to spread, uninterrupted, throughout our entire body. Deep-tissue massage takes advantage of this knowledge and uses it to work out muscle and fascia adhesion’s (scar tissue) which impede flexibility, muscle elasticity, cause injury and lower a persons quality of life. Injuries are a normal cause of developing this thick scar tissue which is usually in muscles. Massage is especially important to professional athletes who rely on the sound integrity of their bodies to feed their families. Ask any truly knowledgeable massage therapist and they will tell you that this scar tissue builds up over time.

From here on out however is my own theory on how the tissue system works.

Okay so every persons body structure is determined by at least 3 things which are bones, muscles and fascia. Irregularities do not generally occur in bones as they are quite solid and unless there is a nutritional deficiency, most people will not experience problems with bone structure. Fascia and muscles however are very plastic (think of plastic as an object which fills and takes the shape of its container) and adapt to changing environmental conditions. Fascia is made from the same stuff as tendons and ligaments which means that it is very strong and can be either very stiff (ligaments) or quite elastic (Achilles tendon). In comparison to building materials, fascia could be compared to ropes because they exert a pulling force when taut and are used to stabilize body structures and prevent your muscles from tearing apart when stretched too far. When you stretch, you are actually stretching the fascia system inside the muscles to allow your muscles to extend farther. Fascia will tighten and stretch if forced into an unusual position and will adapt to that position (plastic remember?). That last sentence is important to remember, read it one more time. I want to talk about muscles briefly. Each individual muscle fiber is wrapped in connective tissue. The tendon exits bone and when it reaches muscle it branches into the muscle according to where the greatest pulling forces are. At the belly of the muscle this connective tissue has spread thin to allow the muscle fibers to do their thing without hindering movement. It is important to realize that the connective tissue is what bears the load during exertion. When someone gets a muscle tear it is the fascia that is torn and not the muscle tissue itself. When seeing things this way everything make more sense.

So with this information in mind, the tissue system is basically muscles exerting constant elastic force on the bones and keeping the fascia system taut, which will either maintain balanced posture or pull in one direction if imbalanced. The fascia system limits excessive flexibility which would damage our joints and tear our muscle fibers. With frequent exercise the fascia becomes elastic and pliable (think a professional athlete) but with disuse it becomes stiff and unyielding (elderly people). If the body is forced in an unusual position (office worker posture) the fascia will tighten and stretch, adapting in response to this new body position it must maintain. With this understanding of my body I think I can alter my physique to promote better posture, eliminate pain, reduce injuries and get better, faster.

An even shorter way to see the tissue system is as a complex system of levers (bones) attached locally by large elastic and contractible bands (muscles). The whole muscle and bone system is then globally connected and practically sheathed by the expansive layer of connective tissue which covers, supports and stabilizes everything relative to body position (fascia).

There you have it. The tissue system as I see it in a nutshell.

Now for an example, think about an office worker who spends too much time sitting down. Their spine is forced into a stooped posture, stretching the fascia on their posterior chain and tightening the fascia on their anterior chain of their bodies.

And now for a picture.

Fucking sexy I tell you.

Regardless of how much tv time this fella has at home lets suppose he had magnificent posture before he started his career in the office. He sits down letting his back and neck sag to get a better view of his computer. So in this position he is stretching the muscles and fascia covering his back entire back and leg region (Fascia covers everything, don’t forget) while his hip flexors, abdominals, neck muscles and fascia covering his anterior chain is scrunched up at the front. His body adapts to these new environmental conditions and his anterior chain tightens up while his posterior stretches.

Additionally, muscle cells can go into a chronic spasm-like state where they are constantly contracted and slow blood flow to the area. This usually only happens in small patches on muscle groups and is caused by injury or shitty posture which puts too much strain on too few muscles. This muscle tissue becomes diseased as it can no efficiently remove metabolic wastes and as a slap in the face it also hinders healthy muscle tissue surrounding it.

One Arm Chin Progress

I’ve been messing around with rope assisted one arm chins and playing with different lengths of rope to isolate one arm. So far there doesn’t seem to be a whole lot of difference between grabbing the rope farther down from closer to the top. I will work on these until i can easily get about 5-7 without rest. At the moment I am getting 3 on the first set and 2 for 4 sets after that. Once I reach 5-7 I should be ready for more strenuous training like timed holds, controlled negatives and pulley-like weight assisted chins.

 

Happy Training dude brehs.

Why Training Uncomfortably Does Not Make Sense

So I had a long argument with one of my buddies the other night who didn’t agree with my idea that training using minimal effort is the most effective way to do things. He believes that training while uncomfortable and always striving to put yourself in progressively more uncomfortable training situations will yield the greatest results. Now that’s pretty fucking vague so I’m gonna try to clear this shit up. First lets consider the word uncomfortable. What exactly does he mean? I am assuming he’s not talking about all uncomfortable situations because training while totally hung over is definitely not the way to go, nor is training with an injury. These are both uncomfortable situations but clearly not optimal for improving physical performance. So, considering my friend is speaking from a martial arts/combat perspective, I am going to have to assume that he means that training uncomfortably produces physical and mental toughness to both prevent pain from physical trauma and continue strenuous exercise under trying conditions i.e. continuing to throw punches while bleeding from your face. This makes sense because in a street fight/martial arts competition situation you cannot stop and say owwwie my face hurts, wait while I apply ice and a band-aid. So now that that’s cleared up, lets talk about training to improve physical performance while in an uncomfortable situation. I think it is reasonable to assume that pushing yourself to the limit while training is also quite uncomfortable and something he would be an advocate of. Anyways time for a new paragraph.

Ahh, that’s better. Now where was I? Right, training uncomfortably. Ok now this is the part where I tear apart his argument using logic and science. Training uncomfortable is not the optimal way to train to attain greater physical performance. There are loopholes in this statement and I will address them later but for now I will speak in defense of my beliefs. Okay, so the goal while strength training is to improve either maximal strength, muscular endurance, aerobic endurance or body composition. These are performance goals, I did not include muscle hypertrophy because it is not beneficial in many sports and beyond a certain point, it is detrimental. Now, you wouldn’t perform bench press in a blizzard, run a marathon with a fractured tibia, go for sprints on a 40 degree humid day or… shit you get the idea. These things are most certainly uncomfortable and some quite painful, they will increase your physical and mental toughness… but they will NOT increase your physical performance compared to training comfortably. It is irrational to assume that putting yourself in these situations will help you achieve your fitness goals. Example time: Go set up your bench press outside in the middle of winter. I will leave mine inside in a heated gym. We will do bench press 3 times a week for a month. I GUARANTEE that your strength will not improve more than mine because you were uncomfortable while doing bench press. Shit, lets ramp it up. Do your bench press with a drill sergeant screaming at you with a friend tickling your foot and someone else burning your hair with a lighter while doing a bench press outside during a blizzard. You are significantly more uncomfortable than me in my comfortable gym at room temperature minus people testing my sanity but once again it is ridiculous to believe that you will acquire some additional training benefit by putting yourself in such an uncomfortable situation.

Now that I’ve finished my rant about why it is silly to train with the focus of being uncomfortable, I want to discuss training to failure once again. I’ve spoken on this before and made it pretty clear that I am not an advocate of training to failure. I believe it causes unnecessary muscle soreness and undoubtedly increases the risk for injury as you are intentionally ignoring your biofeedback telling you to stop exercising. Additionally, I see no valid argument about why a person should train to failure if improved performance is their goal. Fuck, I mean think about it. In the wild, failing means you are dead! Eaten by a fucking tiger! Why someone would continuously do this to themselves, pushing their muscle and connective tissues to the breaking limit (remember that things BREAK when they are pushed to the limit), regularly draining their bodies energy systems and severely limiting the frequency of training sessions they can have is completely beyond me. If you get better at things that you do most often than by training to failure you are getting better at failing. Think about that little tidbit of logic for a moment. There is definitely a better way.

Now when I began this article I said that there was some benefit to training uncomfortably, and there is. By training in uncomfortable situations (i.e. doing a military press while being punched in the stomach and having your ass branded) you are undoubtedly improving your physical and mental toughness… if you don’t start crying that is. People who get in fist fights all the time become less sensitive to pain or at least are able to ignore that pain. This is good if you are probably going to get in future fist fights. Training to failure will also have this effect. You will be able to ignore your bodies biofeedback (pain, discomfort, burning acid feeling) and continue lifting/exercising. Do the benefits surpass the consequences? I say fuck no. But never the less, there are benefits, and who says you have to train uncomfortably all the time to get the benefits of improved toughness and pain tolerance? Lifting weights without using effort doesn’t make you a pussy. It will make you tough. Although definitely not as quickly as intentionally causing pain to your body.

Training uncomfortably is especially useful for some people and much less so for others. If you participate in an elite sport, it is very likely to benefit you if you have high physical and mental toughness. It should be noted though that many elite athletes are genetically equipped with high physical and mental toughness.

This is all I have to say on this matter. For now at least.

Peace out.