What's up guys?
Jeff Cavaliere, ATHLEANX.COM.
If you're looking to get as big and as strong as you possibly can, you have to understand
muscle contraction,
Because we know that muscle contraction, obviously, is where it's all at.
If we're trying to workout, we've got to get our muscles to contract.
But what is it about contraction that drives the results that we see, or the lack of results?
Well we have to understand one thing first, you've probably heard people talk about all
or none contraction.
I've talked about all or none contraction before.
But when you look at an entire muscle belly, it's not the entire muscle that's contracting
all or none.
You can get a graded contraction of a muscle, you get an all or none contraction as a motor
unit.
Which is one single nerve that runs to a bundle of muscle fibers of the same type, it's either
a slow twitch or a fast twitch fiber,
that when they reach a certain threshold with this stimulus of this nerve impulse, that
will contract all or none, ok.
But the number of motor units that are recruited to do a job is going to be proportional to
the task at hand.
So if I had to curl a piece of paper or this pen, up to my head, then I wouldn't need as
many motor units participating,
and therefore, participating is overall contraction of my bicep, as I would if I had to pick up
this 80 pound kettlebell, I can't even get into the picture here.
Ok, so the idea is, the participation, yeah is obviously influenced by the amount of weight
that you use.
That's why a lot of people will argue for lifting heavy weights.
That's one of the best and efficient ways to make yourself stronger and to get bigger,and
guess what?
They're right but there's another component here that I think is entirely overlooked when
it comes to the overall results that you'll see when you're working out.
If we know that a graded contraction can occur in a muscle, and we know that the number of
motor units are going to be recruited based on the task at hand,
well there's something else that we have to consider, and that's the effort level that
you're providing when you do your workout.
Because we know that effort is mostly determined, guess where?
Up here in our heads.
It's what kind of effort do you want to create and devote to the activity that you're participating
in.
So if we look at this footage here of me doing a Standing Row, you can see that, yes I am
doing the wrong movement in this first case.
I am pulling my arms behind my body, my upper arms back into extension, I'm retracting my
scapula.
I'm doing everything that the muscles of my back are supposed to do.
I'm going through the motions, so to speak, I'm going from point A to point B.
But when I actually put intent behind it, and I haven't changed the weight.
The weight is exactly the same.
When I put intent behind what I'm doing and I try to recruit as strong of a maximal contraction
as I can,
you can see there's a lot more going on here in my back.
I'm recruiting a lot more motor units to do the job.
I'm eliciting a much stronger contraction and therefore that, in conjunction with heavier
weights is going to provide the best results that you can possibly get.
But it starts again, up here in your head.
And the same thing applies here.
You can see that I'm doing this Cable Crossover variation,
that yeah, I can pull the weights across my chest, I can go into adduction with my upper
arms, which is a function of the chest.
I can extend my arms out in front of me, a function of the chest, but what happens when
I actually put some effort behind it.
Clearly you can see there's much more work being done by that muscle.
That muscle's being overloaded much more significantly than it would be if I'm just moving from point
A to point B.
So now, what's the point here?
Start moving with more than just an intent to move from point A to point B, we talk about
it all the time.
Start moving like it's the only thing that matters at the moment.
Like your family's life depends on it.
Start to contract, don't just move from here to here but go from here to here and push
as hard as you possibly can.
Actually start worrying about your effort level and I tell you, you will start to see
some really really big changes in the way you look and how strong you get.
And again, we can force that by using heavier and heavier weights because we're going to
have to push harder to move them,
but even there, get that weight to the end and then squeeze as hard as you possibly can.
Focus on the contraction when you're there.
Guys this is just another example here of what we say Putting the Science Back in Strength
but a lot of is also Putting Common Sense in what we do.
You know that you can go to the gym and halfass it and guess what you're going to get?
Halfassed results.
But if you put in a serious effort and you give it your best,
I can guarantee you that's going to be the spark and the stimulus to see great things
from your hard work and your hard training.
We train hard with ATHLEANX guys.
If you haven't already, head to ATHLEANX.COM right now, get our ATHLEANX Training System.
In fact we've devoted an entire phase of our NXT Program to exactly this.
Eliciting stronger and stronger contractions by upping that intensity level with a very
specific way that we do it, with triple contractions at the end.
But that's over at ATHLEANX as well.
In the meantime leave your comments below.
Let me know if you like this video if you found it helpful.
And of course, whatever else it is you want to see, tell me, we'll make it guys, three
videos a week.
I'll be back here soon to bring those videos to you as you request them.
See you soon guys.