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First You Grow, Then You Don't |
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Friday, 19 May 2006 |
 Remember when you first started lifting weights? Remember how soon you added first few kilos in your weight stack and how fast your muscles balooned? After training for a while you noticed that all your gains have platoed and the improvements are not so easy to come. There may be many reasons for the body's response, but the most common one is motor neuron adaptation. The first initial adaptations to training include body's better ability to recruit motor units. In other words, when you start training the brain has to learn how to utilize the nerve cells that are attached to your muscle cells thus improving neuro-muscular facilitation.
Each nerve cell sends out sprouts to multiple muscle cells, so when your brain activates the nerve cell, your muscle cells or fibers contract. During the first 8-12 weeks of training brain's quick learning process allows you to gain strength dramaticlly. After that period, your body-brain connection stagnates, possibly due to general adaptation syndrome. Just like you get used to cold weather when you change your climatic zones, your brain and muscles adapt to repetitive stress of resistance. So, in order to continue gains you need to challenge your body through peridized training programs that progressively increase the resistance over several weeks. Proper rest, nutrition and supplementation are of equal importance and should be looked at on an individual basis. |
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