Troy Van Spanje Of Inpower Fitness Explaining How Heavy Weight Strength Training Optimizes the Function of the Nervous System and Results in Weight Loss
This Whole Article is based around the training principles I have used for over a decade on myself and also my clients. There is a science to everything I do and I want to share with you the benefits of what I do, How I do it and How Heavy weight Training will actually help you lose weight. Heavy weight strength training not only optimizes the overall functionality of the nervous system, but, that it also aids in weight loss. According to studies conducted by medical professionals, the muscles make up well over 40% of the total body mass of an individual. Not only do each of us depend on our muscles for movement, but, they also play a large role in the energy-based reactions that occur within the body, due to their overall mass. The most common energy reaction that occurs in the body as a result of the muscles is metabolism. If your muscles are strong and well-developed, you will find that you have an increased level of strength, you are able to perform day-to-day tasks with a high level of ease, you experience fewer injuries, and your overall health is optimized. In order to reap the highest level of health benefits from your strength training, it is important to opt for heavy weights.
Muscular Strength and Your Muscular Endurance
Before delving into the neurological benefits associated with heavy weight training and weight loss, I feel it is first important to outline the difference between muscular strength and your muscular endurance. Muscular strength is the total or overall amount of force that any of your muscles within the body is able to produce with a single effort, at maximum degree of force. Muscular endurance refers to the distinct ability to hold and/or repeat a type of muscular-based contraction for a long period of time. According to medical professionals and those that specialize in strength training, the body’s nervous system may be enhanced by heavy weight exercises that focus on coordination, structural-based workouts, and traditional-based heavy weight lifts.
Improving Your Performance, Physiologically
If you have a desire to improve your overall performance and achieve weight loss, you must acquire a basic understanding of how to optimize the nervous system through heavy weight strength training. It is a known fact that many different factors contribute to the power of the muscles within the body. Yes, muscle size is, in fact, very important; however, even more important is your nervous system. It is directly responsible for transmitting impulses on a continuous basis to your muscles. The load that you attempt to lift places that amount of stress on the nervous system. By engaging with heavy weight strength training exercises, the response of your nervous system will be enhanced. As a result, your strength training will improve your overall performance, on a physiological level, by increasing muscle mass and encouraging a greater response from the nervous system.
The Activation of the Motor Unit
In order to optimize the efforts of your strength training and increase the response of the nervous system, it is important to ensure that you learn about the activation of the motor unit and the role that is plays in this. The motor unit is a special type of unit that is contained within the muscles. It is responsible for activating muscle fibers. These fibers are responsible for contracting. They also aid in generating the force that is necessary to respond to the stress that you are placing on the muscles of your body. The fiber-based contractions are directly responsible for the amount of power that your muscles possess. By engaging in heavy weight strength training that is more than 80-90% of the maximum that you perform with just one repetition, the motor units will be activated. Once this happens, a response from the endocrine system occurs and vast arrays of anabolic-based hormones are released. Not only do these hormones assist in strengthening the body, but, they also assist in weight loss.
The Speed Behind Activating the Muscles’ Motor Units
When engaging in heavy weight strength training, it is essential that you activate as many motor units as possible to increase strength and lose body fat; however, it is important that you do this very quickly. The speed of activation matters. Professionals refer to this as “Rate Coding”. In order to increase the amount of speed in which the motor units in the muscles are activated, you should combine the lifting of heavy weights and using lighter-weight products in a fast manner. In order to be successful at this, you should engage in training that uses 90% or higher of the single repetition maximum or 80%. When engaging in this form of strength training, be certain to pay close attention to your technique. If you fail to maintain technique, your heavy weight training will not be successful in strength training or weight loss. I have since added this type of protocol to my group classes which is a rare thing to find in gym classes today. It is extremely important for everyone who wants to not only improve physical performance but fight the battle of the bulge.
The Role of Coordination
When you engage in strength training exercises that involve the use of heavy weights, it is critical that you understand the role of coordination in building muscle mass and improving the response of the central nervous system. There are, essentially, two main types of coordination. The first type is called “Inter-Muscular” and the second type is called “Intra-Muscular”. The inter-muscular coordination assists in coordinating a wide assortment of muscles in a task that is skill-related, such as performing a certain lift with a solid technique. The intra-muscular coordination is the unique ability to regular the firing patterns of the individual fibers contained within a muscle in order to perform in an optimal fashion. By developing both of these types of coordination, you will find that you are able to lift more and that you experience higher degrees of weight loss. Overall control over these types of coordination will help your muscles work together in a more efficient manner and will greatly enhance the force output of these muscles. In order to increase both of these coordination types, you should ensure that your strength training is at over 80% of the capability of your one repetition. When you accumulate the mass of your muscles and optimize the coordination of those muscles, you will dramatically increase your strength and drop unwanted kilos from the body.
Synchronization – At a Glance
The motor units experience a type of firing that is based upon the overall training load. The fibers within the muscles are recruited when they are absolutely needed. These are typically selected from smallest to largest. The body’s ability to recruit the fibers that twitch is a process known as “Synchronization”. This process allows the individual performing strength training to create more strength in a quicker fashion. In order to train up this aspect of your strength training, you should ensure that the training load that you use is higher than 85%.
The problem with people new to strength training is that they typically do not have enough muscle mass to recruit the correct muscle fibers for a nervous system response and they will most likely get better fat burning results from body weight training. They should then participate in strength training sessions to build more mass which is then going to help them in the long run. I have seen many clients who have previously done years of aerobics classes find that they no longer receive results from those types of classes because of the lack of strength training involved. Because of their lack of motor units they are now starting to see increases in body fat. I get them to conduct strength training regimes combined with light to medium weight training circuits to quickly condition their body and get them up to speed.
Optimize the Muscle and Bone Health
According to medical research, enhanced muscular strength assists people by helping improve their health and allowing them to live longer. Not only does strength training build muscle strength, but, it prevents the onset of nerve-based degeneration that could compromise your quality of life and increase the risk of developing injuries that could be potentially life-threatening. It has been established that, by the age of 30, most people start to suffer from a condition known as “sarcopenia”, which is the loss of mass associated with the muscles. The combinations of aging and decreased strength could result in complications in performing even the most simple of all tasks. As you get older, the motor nerves that are connected to the muscles that they control may start to become disconnected. As a result, muscles become slower to respond and weaker. Strength training and muscle-building exercises for weight loss assist in optimizing the muscle health and the bone health.
Metabolism and the Health of Your Heart
In addition to optimizing the bone health and the muscle health, strength training that focus on enhancing the capabilities of the central nervous system may also assist in preventing and managing cardiovascular complications and diabetes. First, it improves the glucose-based metabolism. Next, it increases the amount of maximum consumption of oxygen. Then, the blood pressure is reduced drastically. In many, the “good” cholesterol in the body is increased and the “bad” cholesterol is reduced. Additionally, it helps in improving the health of the blood vessels. Muscular strength training will build muscle mass and help with weight loss, but, it will also aid in reducing the overall demand on the heart when you perform regular, day-to-day activities, such as lifting.
Determining the Strength and Endurance of Your Muscles
The most common method of determining muscular strength is by measuring the total amount of weight that you have the capability of lifting all at once. This effort is referred to as “Repetition Maximum”, or, “RM”, for short. The endurance of your muscles is typically measured by the amount of repetitions that you are capable of performing with your heavy weights.
Strength Training and Your Nervous System
In order to improve your strength and succeed in weight loss, you must engage in strength training with heavy weights. Not only will this help accumulate muscle mass, but, it will also allow the nervous system to engage in the act of communicating with the muscles within the body. You should start the process by using a weight level that will allow you to move through several repetitions. As time progresses, you should work your way up to heavy weights. You may do this by gradually adding weights, or by moving from one type of weight measurement to another type of weight measurement. For example, you may move from 5 kilo weights to 7 kilo weights, and so on and so forth….By increasing the amount of sets that you perform on a regular basis, with a fewer amount of repetitions at higher weight levels, you will find that you are able to gain muscle, experience weight loss, and optimize the total strength of your body – with ease. Throughout the years of experience I have in the Fitness industry I have come up with the best periodization model for success which I apply to all my own sessions as well as my clients sessions. Variable sets and repetition goals on a 2 or 3 week cycle works best to see continuous results while preventing overtraining.
Safety in Heavy Weight Strength Training
If you are ready to start a heavy weight strength training regimen in order to build muscle mass, improve communication between the nervous system and the muscles, and weight loss, there are several safety measures that should be taken. By following these steps, you will experience higher levels of success and fewer bouts with injuries and other types of discomfort:
• You should always work with a qualified trainer, with possible, when starting a new strength training regimen. This professional will teach you the proper technique and will assist in spotting you while you perform the exercises.
• Lift weights within your movement capabilities, A proper range of motion analysis should be done of all your joints to see what corrective actions need to be taken in order to perform exercise with optimal range of motion
• When lifting weights, you should do so with a body position that is considered to be stabilized. Additionally, the weights that you lift should always remain as close to your body as you are comfortable with during strength training.
• When working with heavy weights for strength training and weight loss, it is imperative that you protect your body by ensuring that you maintain complete control of your spine, at all times. You should never allow your body to twist while lifting the heavy weights, or, any type of weight, for that matter.
• Good form and proper lifting technique are essential. You should avoid attempting to lift more weight than you have the strength for lifting. This is the purpose and intent of building the muscles and the central nervous system. As time progresses, you will find that you are able to lift more and more. You should never push yourself prematurely, though.
• You should never attempt to engage in strength training and weight loss training if you are sick or you are injured. Many are under the impression that working through pain is beneficial to the body; however, this is a myth.
Conclusion
If you want to engage in strength training, you should always opt to do so by using heavy weights, in a gradual manner. Not only will this help in building muscle mass, but, it will enhance the communication between the nervous system and the muscles in the body. As this communication improves, you will get stronger and even experience weight loss. Many people have no idea that strength training with heavy weights has the unique ability to optimize the functioning of the central nervous system and aid in weight loss; however, now that you have read this guide, you do and it is important that you use the information, therein, to your advantage. In doing so, you will experience optimal health!
Troy Van Spanje
