PRE-ACTIVATING YOUR MUSCLES

We all want to know the secrets allowing us to achieve more than others. I love human vanity, I’m a human myself.  That’s one of my most favorite vices, because it provides motivation to achieve any goals.  Today I decided to use your desire to know the secrets of strength training. And while the word ‘secrets’ is not quite ideal for what I’m about to tell you today, you’ll still learn some very rare secrets.   Do you want to your muscles to give a much better result than usual? There is a special technique that allows you to activate the strength potential of your muscles before the set by about 10-30%.  Today I decided to tell you about this technique and its versions.MAXIMUM ACTIVATIONOur muscles, like girls on a date, can do more than they show. And although everyone wants to get more from them, only a few manage. Ha-ha.Why do muscles provide much less power than they can? They do that for security purposes and in order to keep a reserve for emergency situations.  Evolutionarily, it became profitable to have a certain strength and power reserve.  Using this reserve puts a dangerous burden on many other body systems, so it is detrimental on an ongoing basis. BUT when there is a NEED, these reserves can save an individual’s life. So they’re beneficial. You’ve probably all heard the typical stories about women lifting cars to get a child out from under the wheels and other examples of “hysterical power”.  That’s exactly what I’m talking about.  Perhaps you yourself have demonstrated amazing muscle contraction after you were frightened to death, for example.  In such situations, a person can jump over a two-meter fence and take no notice of it. What’s the conclusion? Muscular potential allows for much more than we can normally use.    Is it possible to get this potential out and use it? Yes, it’s possible.   To do that, you should create the appropriate NEED for its activation!What does create such a need? Most often, it’s severe external stress.  That’s a very versatile concept. In terms of strength training, we’re talking primarily about severe STRENGTH STRESS!  If WEAK STRENGTH STRESS IS PRECEDED BY SEVERE STRENGTH STRESS, THE MUSCLES ACTIVATE STRONGER THAN USUAL!This is the gist of the trick I’d like to share with you today. The bottom line is that muscle strength and performance depend on their contractile activity.  If the muscle had to take a heavier load before moderate work, it will demonstrate a higher potential during this work.WHY DOES IT WORK?
There are many mechanisms that explain this extra potential.  I’ll outline the two main ones (although it’s only the tip of the iceberg):Involvement of more motor units (fiber group + neuron)
Increased sensitivity of myosin heads to calcium
The first mechanism helps to increase the potential “from the outside” by improving the quality of nerve commands for muscle contraction.  And the second mechanism increases the potential “from the inside” by boosting the contractile apparatus of fast myofibrils.  In fact, you’re “tricking” your muscles. You tell them that the problem is much worse than it really is, making your “frightened” muscles give more than usual.Who first thought of that? I guess we can safely say Mr. X (the one who invented plyometrics, just so you know).  Once this outstanding sports physiologist made the following analogy:   By doing 3 heavy repetitions before an easy set, you make your nervous system think that you’re lifting a full can of water, while you’re only lifting 1/2 ... .....HOW TO PUT THIS INTO PRACTICE?Let’s take BENCH PRESSING as an example.  Ideally, we need a POWER RACK to safely carry out the required activation.So, let’s say you usually press 100 kg 6 times. Under ordinary conditions, you cannot do any more reps with this weigh.  Let’s try to fix it now...  To do this, take a much heavier weight you can press only 2-3 times.  Let it be 120 kg, for example.Our task is to lift this heavy weight and hold for 10 seconds in the mid-range (static load).  The most convenient way is to put safety bars in the power rack above your chest (about 10 cm high) and put the barbell on them. Do several good warm-up sets and then creep under heavy weight. Pull away the barbell from the safety bars and hold for 10 seconds.The load is unusually heavy (stressful), which boosts motor units and sensitivity of muscle myosin heads. You can slightly swing the barbell up and down (micro presses).  In 10 seconds, lower the bar to the stops and rest for about 2 minutes.Then put our usual (lighter) weight and do 6 reps. Most likely you’ll be able to do 7 to 9 reps thanks to muscle activation.   Experts say that activation amounts to 25-50%.  I believe it depends on the number of reps in the set and the number of fast muscle fibers in the muscle:The more reps, the greater the activation percentage.  For example, if you pressed 6 times, you could do 7-8 reps, and if you pressed 10 times, you could do 13-15.
The more fast muscle fibers, the greater the activation percentage because we work in those energy supply methods that are typical for fast muscle fibers (FMF), not slow muscle fibers (SMF).
Okay.  One of the most popular questions is about REST between a heavy and a light set.  How long should it be? Why? Can there be no rest?I’ll tell you right away that it’s up to you whether to rest.  These are different techniques. However, having rested, you’ll do better because you’ve spent energy in the activation phase (holding a heavy weight).  One of the things about our physiology is that the MEMORY of a heavy load (your muscles being frightened) stays LONGER than FATIGUE.  Your task is to restore energy and take advantage of muscle readiness for hard work before it “goes away”.   The energy restoration period is individual and depends on your training level and genetics.  The 2 minutes I recommended are just a GUIDANCE! You should find it by trial and error.  Take a look at the chart:It shows that fatigue runs parallel to activation.  But if the fatigue is too severe, this will limit your abilities due to lack of energy. Therefore, the best “windows” for a light load is immediately after activation and a couple of minutes after rest when the fatigue went down.  In the first case, you’ll see smaller achievements than in the second case compared to regular numbers (number of reps).  However, they will be equal in terms of load.FOR WHOM DOES IT WORK?There’s little research in this regard. Most experts believe that such activation works better for STRONG and FAST than for ENDURING people.  The reason lies in Fast Muscle Fibers (FMF), which work in this training.Thus, the more you are capable of strength training, the more you’ll get from such activation.What about other sports? The method is very widely used in many sports.  However, it works best where you need the maximum single contraction. High jumping for example. The method is less effective in sports involving cyclic load that requires a number of speed contractions - for example, running or a bicycle track.SPEEDActually, this is a very delicate topic, because most sports physiologists are confident that the maximum muscle STRENGTH conflicts with the maximum SPEED! Since in order to demonstrate the maximum strength you need to reduce the equipment’s speed (that’s why lifters press, pull and squat slowly).  On the other hand, there are strength sports where you need both strength and speed (explosion). Weightlifting can be an example.So if you decide to practice this muscle activation method to gain strength, you should be prepared for speed loss. As well as in case of any other methods that are customary in lifting and bodybuilding.  Don’t want to become slow? Do speed sets after heavy strength work (this will teach the muscles to work diversely).But there is also good news for those who train speed (fighters, sprinters, etc.). Muscle activation can help you develop speed if you set such a goal.  All you need to do is do a heavy compound exercise before a speed exercise.   For example, you can do 2-3 reps of bench press before throwing for speed.  This activates the strength potential of your muscles. It will make you throw easier than usual.To sum up: we get what we train.  You can use muscle activation to develop both the maximum strength (volumes), and the maximum speed. That’s why all high-profile sprinters use activation options using heavy squats.What if we reverse the order? If you do speed work first and then activation (heavy strength).  Most likely, this will significantly reduce your possible maximum in strength work.  You’ll get reverse activation because you’ll load the muscles with a lighter load (you’ll have to do this for speed). So when moving to heavy work, your muscles will think they’re dealing with 1/2 glass of water and not the whole.  This will reduce their strength potential.ANOTHER VERSIONThere are tons of activation options. It’s always about the same: heavier stress goes before more moderate stress.  I’ll tell you about another “trendy” option.Suppose you want to do 25-50% more reps than usual in your working set. How to pull this off?  One way is to do ONE REP with the submaximal weight before your working set.This is not about holding weight as in the traditional version, but about full-value SINGLE.  You should rest a while longer after it, 3-5 minutes.  Then put the usual weight on the barbell and do a set.  Most often, if you usually did 10 reps, you can expect to see an extra 3-5.  If you did 6, you can look for another 1-2 reps.CONCLUSIONThere are many ways to use such muscle “tricks” to activate them.  If you read the article carefully, you’d come up with something similar yourself.  It’s quite simple: a very heavy short load comes first, then rest and then a moderate, usual load.The technique does not work equally well for everybody.  It depends largely on the experience and the number of FMF. However, everybody sees the difference. It’s just how big the difference is.  Try it!