mainly talked about the basic knowledge of mentality, sports knowledge, muscle structure and other aspects. Many readers are already impatient for content more directly related to training. If you have not read the first three chapters before reading this article, you must remember to go back and read the most basic content.
But before we start talking about movements, training techniques and systems, there is something more important than this that cannot be missed.
These contents are so important that it may be difficult for trainers who lack understanding to actually get started.
They are likely to face the same dilemma as others: they have read various articles with different progress through various channels, but they feel that various theories and schools are publicly stated and reasonable, and they all seem to be correct and self-explanatory, so that they cannot tell the difference. Right, wrong, rationality, struggle and entanglement in the sea of information; if you don't talk about this part, it would be concealing and irresponsible to the readers.
This article can be said to be elementary content, because it talks about "how to practice";
This article can also be said to be intermediate and advanced content, because its guiding significance runs through the core principles of all trainers, from novices to champions. , explains “why we practice like this”.
There are many theories, schools and practices, almost to the point of dazzling.
However, most methods have their own basis for exercise physiology and are inseparable from common laws and essences.
If we master these and fully understand the principles, then we will have the ability to penetrate and see through everything and get to the essence, which is the real entry.
OK, after talking about the premise, let’s get to the point.
All training is inseparable from muscle contraction, and muscle contraction has its own unique rules.
As mentioned in the previous article, muscles cannot contract on their own, they can only contract under the control of the nervous system .
A bundle of alpha nerves and all the muscle fibers under its jurisdiction form a motor unit. It is the most basic unit of muscle contraction (note that the most basic unit of muscle contraction is not muscle fiber, but motor unit).
The above pictures are all in English, but some of them are easy to understand: The Motor Unit is the movement unit. Motor Neuron is the motor nerve, that yellow thing.
If we compare the alpha nerve to an officer, and the individual muscle fibers to a soldier. So, according to military law, no soldier can act alone without permission. At least one officer must lead all the soldiers under him to act together, right? This is easy to understand.
These actions follow the following rules.
Size Principle
Let’s first talk about how to pronounce the word Principle: Penseboou. Read it boldly. It doesn't matter if you mispronounce it and get criticized. Just don't blame me for teaching you. [Alcad said]
The law of size is one of the most important discoveries in the field of neurology in the last century. It means that the recruitment of motor units during muscle contraction follows the order from small to large.
So what are the differences between large and small motor units? It means that the motor units differ according to the number of muscle fibers under the jurisdiction of the nerve. It’s easy to understand looking down.
The more fibers controlled by a bundle of nerves, the larger the motor unit is, and vice versa.
Medically, it has been found that the largest motor unit is located in the thigh, and the number of muscle fibers controlled by a bundle of nerves can exceed 8,000; the number of muscle fibers controlled by a bundle of nerves in the arm is about 500-800; the smallest motor unit is located in the face, and a bundle of nerves is only Controls 5-25 muscle fibers.
From the perspective of muscle fiber types, we already know that muscle fibers include type I, type IIa, type IIx (also called llb) and several intermediate types. The names in different books are slightly different. Here I temporarily use the name on exercise physiology .
Scientific research believes that the average number of muscle fibers in ordinary people is that type I accounts for about 50%, type IIa accounts for about 25%, and type IIx accounts for about 25%. Let's review the content of the previous lesson.Type
I is a slow-twitch muscle fiber and can be roughly understood as "small motor unit"; type
IIa can be understood as "medium and large motor unit"; type
IIx can be roughly understood as "almost the largest motor unit".
But in fact, the above three types are just a rough division in scope. Even within a certain muscle fiber type, there are still different sizes. For example, among type I units (small motor units), there are slightly larger ones (with the number of muscle fibers under their jurisdiction ranging from one hundred to several hundred) and slightly smaller ones. (the number of muscle fibers under its jurisdiction is less than one hundred).
The basic content of the law of size is :
(1) The recruitment of motor units by the human body is orderly from small to large.
(2) According to needs, the smallest and smallest part will be raised first.
Please remember these two basic points.
is not difficult to understand. Please read the explanation below.
When we move a very light weight or body part (such as blinking, picking up a toothpick), the body will only recruit the smallest and smallest number of motor units;
When we pick up an object with some weight, such as a toothpick, Get a bowl of rice and take it When you lift a bottle of mineral water, your body will recruit slightly larger and more motor units;
When the weight that needs to be lifted or moved is larger, the body will recruit larger and more motor units. The limit of squat and deadlift is When lifting weights, the body must recruit all motor units.
is as shown below:
is easy to understand, right?
and above is the rough meaning of the law of size.
That is, the greater the weight being moved, the greater the force required, and the larger and more motor units are recruited.
Moreover, this order is fixed, it must be small first and then large. What does this mean? In other words, when the largest unit is recruited, units smaller than it must also be recruited.
Below, we will break down several points to explain the guiding significance of the law of size to our actual training.
. The significance of recruitment order and weight
According to the law of size, the first valuable information is:
In regular resistance training, small weights are basically useless (very new novices, post-surgery rehabilitation practitioners, disabled people Partial training for individuals, training for young children and the elderly is not considered routine). Why, because a small weight can only recruit a very small number of motor units.
Some readers may ask: Isn’t it bad for small units?
Answer: To a large extent, yes. The smaller the motor unit, the smaller the potential for strength and size development.
Some studies have shown that type I units (small motor units) can only increase in volume by about 5-7% even after long-term training, while the largest unit (IIb) has been observed to increase in volume after long-term training. 45%.
According to Hezhi Serial. Chapter 3, we have discussed that under the same other conditions, especially neural efficiency, , myofibril circumference is basically positively correlated with muscle strength and sports performance.
Therefore, for our group whose main goal is to increase muscle and strength, medium and large motor units are our main goals.
Since many years ago, netizens have communicated with me and said: "I wish I had seen the knowledge you wrote on the Internet earlier. I was delayed a lot by the light-weight article about perceiving shrinkage. I have been cautious for a year or two. I dared to aggravate my condition, but as a result, there was basically no progress, and later my friends all surpassed me.” There are really not many netizens who have said similar things to me.
If you use a small weight for a long time, you will not be able to fully recruit the largest motor units.
Large motor units also have a name called "high threshold motor units", referred to as high units. Below we will use high order to express it.
High orders are not easily recruited in normal times, and are in a "latent" state in the bodies of ordinary people who lack exercise. However, it can be activated under some extreme conditions, especially situations of special psychological significance, such as fights involving life and death.
There is a news report that a 9-year-old foreign child Jeremy weighed about 29.5KG. When he saw his father repairing the car under the car and was crushed by the jack, he struggled to lift a corner of the car and asked his mother to use the jack to rescue him. Losing his father can be regarded as a special extreme example for us to peek into the potential of high orders.
On the contrary, the result of long-term disuse is to use it or lose it. Exercise physiology believes that for people who lack exercise, the number of high units in the thigh muscles will significantly decrease, and the number of low units (low threshold motor units) will significantly increase. Moreover, observations have also found that the same is true for human aging: as age increases, physical labor and strength decline, and the high muscles in the thigh muscles gradually atrophy and are replaced by low muscles.
You can also understand this from another perspective: track and field athletes' bodies are very strong and their physical fitness is excellent. And the sprint champion has a very large proportion of large units on his body.
’s observation of athletes also found that type I units (low single) in the gastrocnemius muscles of marathon champions account for 93%-99%; while type I units in the gastrocnemius muscles of sprint champions only account for 25%.
Careful readers will find a problem, that is, the bodies of marathon runners are dominated by I-type units, with small units accounting for a large proportion. Are they also unhealthy? It seems hasty to draw conclusions about whether they are healthy, but we can make some thoughts from the following three perspectives:
. Everyone knows a common sense that competitive sports pursue performance rather than health, and the two are inseparable to a large extent. are competing for resources and conflicting with each other. If someone converts all his units to low orders, is he doing it for special results or for health?
. I have seen some data about the sudden death of football players. Statistics were conducted on related topics, and the top three causes of sudden death in sports: 1. Football, 2. Cycling, and 3. Marathon, all of which involve excessive use of the heart and lungs.
. barrel theory: The amount of water a barrel can hold depends on the shortest piece of wood. People with more military history and sports knowledge will know that human endurance (that is, the low-level strength endurance mentioned in our previous series) is actually quite strong, or in other words, has great potential. In some discussions, it is often mentioned that during long-distance marches in ancient times, the infantry stopped to wait for the cavalry.
So, according to the wooden barrel theory, among our various physical qualities, endurance is actually "the longest piece of wood."
And what is the real shortcoming? This is what we lack most. Specifically speaking of muscles and motor units, they are those high-threshold motor units that are rarely used, are difficult to recruit, and continue to degenerate and shrink with age.
As we said above, high orders are distributed more on the legs.
People’s legs age first, this saying is not groundless.
This also explains at some point why we often have poor results in losing weight through exercise, because we are all energy-saving. We are too good at endurance sports and cannot consume many calories.
What a dieter doesn’t want to know is that a lot of running will quickly make the body gain neuroadaptation. The body will quickly discover and adopt the most economical, energy-saving and efficient method to support the calorie consumption of running with the least amount of calories.
Some readers may ask: Is high order so good?
Answer: First of all, from the perspective of barrel theory, this is our shortest link. Even if it is not absolutely good, at least from the perspective of barrel theory, it is high-yield. Secondly, the previous serial quoted a large-scale study in the medical journal "The Lancet", which proved that there is a significant negative correlation between strength and various fatal diseases, which can confirm my personal inference to a certain extent.
In fact, you can find a lot of information on the huge relationship between high orders, systematic training, strength and health, so I won’t go into details here.
Back to the discussion of motor units and weight: to maximize muscle and strength development, aim for at least mid- to high-threshold units.
Therefore, it is necessary to use as much weight as possible on the premise of perfect technique, correct movements, and solid foundation.
Because, in response to weight, as a result of weight stimulation, the nervous system will naturally recruit sufficient motor units and the muscle fibers it contains.
knows this and we can prevent fraud.
There are some seemingly high-end remarks that often promote the view that only by being light in weight can the muscles be stimulated. So the question is, how many units can be recruited if the weight is light? If you can't recruit them, how can you stimulate muscle fibers?
A true story is that a friend attended a training class for an expert. The expert saw him bench pressing and said: Your chest muscles are not tightened. Of course, having never seen exercise physiology, he was frightened on the spot and fell into a state of confusion.
But if we understand the basic information conveyed in this article, we can at least think briefly, how to tighten it? What do you mean it's not tight? Muscles can be recruited as much as you put a lot of weight on them. Of course they can't be tightened without any weight. What's the problem with this?
In fact, as we said in the previous series, the most important thing to overturn metaphysics and prevent fraud is knowledge and mind. In order to facilitate a clearer understanding of the recruitment of motor units, some illustrations are necessary.
Assume that this cylinder is the muscle cross section of Xiaoming classmate. This cylinder is said to be a cross-section of classmate Xiao Ming's muscles. It doesn't look like the real thing, but you don't need to pay attention to these details, right? The main thing is to understand the meaning.
is good, there are 14 motor units in total: 2
IIx type units, each with a force of 20 N; (llx is also called llb) 4
IIa type units, with a force of 10 N each;
I type units with 8 units, each with a force of 20 N 5 cattle.
adds up to a total of 120 cows.
For the convenience of reading, the following dumbbell weights are also expressed in cattle instead of KG.
what? I don’t understand llx (also called llb), lla, what is l? Make-up lesson
Yunzhi Serial: Chapter 3. Basics of muscle-building training - basic information on muscle and some misunderstandings spread [Supplement Appreciation]
Okay, the classmate who made up the lesson has left, let's continue.
The muscle cross section of classmate Xiao Ming is illustrated like this:
(1) When Xiao Ming slowly lifts a 5-N small dumbbell at a constant speed: (a red triangle indicates that this unit is recruited)
(2) When Xiao Ming lifts a 5-N dumbbell Dumbbells, recruitment status:
( 3) When Xiao Ming lifts the 50-N dumbbell, the recruitment situation is:
(4) When Xiao Ming lifts the 80-N dumbbell, the recruitment situation is:
(5) When Xiao Ming tries his best to lift the 120-N dumbbell, the recruitment situation is:
( 6) What will happen if Xiao Ming continues to lift a light weight 5-N dumbbell at high repetitions?
Yes, rotation. The first I-type unit will become fatigued, then replace it with the second, then the third... Finally, when the 8th I-type unit also becomes fatigued, the first I-type unit should have cooled down, so it is replaced again. Go back to the first one to continue. This is the rule for recruiting motor units with light weight and high reps.
Some careful readers will surely think that if you keep doing it for eternity, you will eventually reach exhaustion even with light weight and high reps. After exhaustion, will you recruit a larger unit?
The answer is no.
According to the law of size, motor units have a clear and fixed order of recruitment. They are always from small to large, and the small ones must be recruited first, and then the large ones.
If all the small units are exhausted, tired, and unable to respond to the recruitment of nerves, the body cannot directly bypass the small units to recruit larger units.
Therefore, within a short period of time after reaching failure with a smaller weight, the body will not be able to recruit larger units.
As confirmation, we can feel it. When you have walked for several hours and are tired even at the lowest level, you will not be able to squat heavy weights. This is not just a matter of energy, but A neurological mechanism problem: fatigue from low orders will cause the nervous system to be unable to recruit high orders and unable to exert greater force.
If you don't use enough heavy weight during training, you will not be able to recruit the units with the greatest strength and volume potential.
This is why for regular resistance training, light and medium weights should not be the mainstay of training.
At the same time, this also tells us the fact that those claims that allow you to use lighter weights to stimulate your muscles more fully are actually quite inconsistent with real science.
The above is the first point about the law of size, the significance of recruitment order and weight.
. The value of speed
Most popular online fitness articles will emphasize slowness and weight control. In fact, there is some truth. Slowness and control increase the time a muscle can withstand mechanical tension. The term is called TUT, which stands for time under tension.
What is mechanical tension?
Mechanical tension refers to the size of the external force exerted on a motor unit. The greater the force, the more thoroughly the nerves will mobilize the motor units, and the more muscle fibers will be stimulated. Actual training is usually achieved by adding weight, of course on the premise that the movements are correct.
However, this method of emphasizing slowness and weight control has an unacceptable drawback, that is, it is impossible to raise high orders at a slow speed.
Why? Slow and controlled means putting out less force.
explains from the perspective of F=MA, M (mass) is certain and A is small (speed is slow), then F (power) must be small.
That is, the weight of the object has not changed, but the moving speed is slower, then it must be because the force emitted is smaller.
According to exercise physiology, the force emitted by a single muscle fiber is almost constant, and a smaller F can only represent the result of recruiting fewer and smaller motor units.
Based on the above, everyone can understand why slow motion feels so difficult?
The reason why the slow centripetal stage is difficult is because F is small and the units recruited are small and few. Letting small units bear the load is a difficult task, of course.
And why is the centrifugal phase of slow motion so difficult?
is actually in Hezhi Serial. Chapter 3, Hezhi Serial: Chapter 3. Information about muscles and some views on training and resting states - [Supplement Appreciation]
has actually discussed the part about eccentric contraction. It is also a relatively small number of motor units (motor units were not mentioned in Chapter 3, so the concept of muscle fibers was used instead) to bear a relatively large load. For example, 59% of the motor units bear 60% of the load, and 100% of the motor units bear 120% of the load. Do you still remember?
Therefore, the slower and more controlled it is, the more it stimulates low orders, and the damage caused is also aimed at low orders, and subsequent repairs are also mainly focused on low orders.
Therefore, it is impossible to develop excellent strength with small and medium weights, and the effect on muscle development is also relatively limited.
This is not just a theory, it is also supported by many samples (people) in my long-term practical observation and teaching. Over the years I've been collecting samples by carefully observing everyone around me, including those who don't exercise. Among those who exercise, those who have long-term use of small and medium weights for contraction perception training, and use small weights for slow movements and control training, the body shape they have developed is not much different from that of those who have never practiced, and even they do not even have "novice period benefits" ” (meaning that people who train hard, eat enough and rest normally can make rapid progress and rapidly increase a large amount of weight, strength and muscle size in the first half to two years after starting training) cannot enjoy it.
Some readers will ask: So, is it impossible to play with small and medium weights?
Answer: Of course not. Personally, I suggest that the correct way to play with small and medium weights is high-speed movements, or explosive movements.
For example, start with the bench press. Use 15-25% of the 1RM weight on the Smith machine, push up with all your strength, let go at the end, and try to let the barbell fly as high as possible, the higher the better, and then catch it when it falls. Because it is very light weight and is a Smith, there is no safety risk.There are also medicine ball throwing and throwing movements translated in some translations, which can also develop explosive power very well.
According to F=MA, M is a fixed value. The larger F, the faster A.
For the same small dumbbell weighing 5 N, if it is lifted at a slow speed, the force exerted by the trainer is 5 N; and if the trainer can exert 30 N, the moving speed of the small dumbbell will be Much faster.
If Xiao Ming exerts a force of 30 N on this 5 N dumbbell, it will be like this:
Similarly, if Xiao Ming exerts an 80 N force on the 50 N dumbbell, the recruitment situation will be like this:
The value of speed is expressed through force : The more units you recruit and the greater the force you exert, the faster a dumbbell of the same weight will be moved.
In other words, the faster the movement, the more muscle fibers are recruited.
If the number of tools or barbell plates at hand is limited and the weight is insufficient, high-speed movements are the best way to train.
High-speed action is the second form of heavy weight training: that is, using heavy objects of medium and small weights to exert a force close to the limit weight.
A senior sports scientist from the former Soviet Union (this teacher’s name is a bit long, just kidding, it’s a Soviet name! It’s uncomfortable if the name is too long! The weightlifting textbooks all call it Victorinox) once had a popular explanation of this training method. For example: You should try to lift half a bucket of water with the same strength as lifting a bucket of water.
Students with good memories may remember that we mentioned in Chapter 2 of Hezhi Serial that speed is a form of power.
In terms of specific training methods, those who have the conditions should perform sprinting, sand jumping, etc.; in addition to arranging special explosive training days, many American powerlifters also perform various jumping exercises.
Fast movements can fully develop physical fitness and athletic ability while building muscle (of course, the premise is that you can play and not mess around).
For the same person (the weight remains unchanged), the greater the strength in general, the stronger the explosive power.
In fact, the relationship between ultimate strength and explosive power/force development speed is relatively complicated. The positive correlation between the two is just a general trend that is not completely rigorous. More details will be explained in a special series due to space issues.
You can feel it. Heyman, who weighs more than 170 kilograms (his squat is 430 kilograms), can jump on a 90+cm box:
The famous weightlifter Liao Hui (who can squat nearly 300KG) has an amazing jump:
Even weightlifting experts can do this:
Mr. Ang, a powerlifting enthusiast from Yunnan, squats 230KG with a weight of 60kg. It is very interesting to watch him jump on a car and jump on people 6:
Back to our topic, when doing movements, the faster the speed, the greater the force, and the raised The more motor units there are, the better the workout. By practicing in this way, we not only have muscles and strength, but also strong practicality and athletic ability.
Regarding explosive power and speed training, there are many specialized methods and tools, which will be introduced in detail later.
Then, after understanding the above knowledge, the disadvantages of traditional control and slow motion are exposed:
For smaller weights, if you still use slow motion and deliberately reduce the speed, lowering the speed means reducing force. This means that smaller and fewer motor units are recruited.
Therefore, some high-level sports articles have mentioned: "For any athlete, slow movements with light weight are meaningless."
Then why do we feel unbearable soreness and swelling when using slow motion? The answer is mentioned in Chapter 2 of Hezhi Serial: Metabolic waste accumulation.
Combined serialization: Chapter 3. Information about muscles and some views on training and resting states - [Supplement Appreciation]
The key to the accumulation of metabolic waste is time. This leads to the next point of knowledge.
. Time
The endurance of different units is different. The general rule is that the larger the unit, the greater the strength, the greater the strength and volume potential, but the worse the endurance and the shorter the time it can continue to work. The opposite is true for small units.
High-threshold motor units are composed of type IIx (type llx, also called type llb) fast muscle fibers. They contract very quickly and have great potential for strength and volume, but they also consume a lot of energy. And for such a fast and high-consumption energy supply, neither the anaerobic glycolysis system nor the aerobic oxidation system can supply it in time, so we can only rely on the ATP-CP system for energy supply.
Therefore, the largest motor unit can only continue to contract within 8-15 seconds. This is why, if someone trains with a load that exceeds 90% of 1RM, he can only do 3-4 repetitions at most. Because these 3-4 times take up 8-15 seconds.
As for large and medium-sized units, such as those in the Type IIa category, their endurance is slightly stronger than the largest units mentioned above. The time it can continue to work is slightly longer, maybe 15-30 seconds.
Following this rule, the smaller the unit, the better the endurance. Therefore, typing can last for a long time, and some activities such as walking that exert little effort and only raise low orders can last for N hours.
The difference in unit size and endurance of exercise determines the accumulation of metabolic waste.
combined series. As discussed in Chapter 3, when using small and medium weights to do high repetitions during exercise, the reason why a strong "pump" is produced is because of metabolic waste (generated during muscle contraction, including lactic acid, The accumulation of pyruvate, H+ ions, free radicals generated by oxygen metabolism, etc.) leads to an increase in ion concentration differences in muscle cells and related tissues, resulting in tissue edema.
The large-scale production and accumulation of these metabolic wastes and the increase in the production rate depend on two conditions:
(1) Sufficient time.
(2) Sufficient energy consumption speed.
What needs to be understood is that the accumulation process of these wastes is actually a dynamic process of increasing concentration. That is, the body produces metabolic waste and decomposes these metabolic waste.
Under stationary and very low-intensity exercise, the production speed and decomposition speed can be roughly equal, so it will not cause it to increase excessively;
Under high-intensity exercise, the production speed is much higher than the physiological limit speed of decomposition , thus causing an increase in concentration.
is a bit difficult to understand, right? fine. Consider the following metaphor.
This is a bit like pouring water into a bucket with a small hole in the bottom. If the pouring speed is equal to the speed of the small hole flowing out, the water in the bucket will not increase; if the water is poured too fast, the small hole will not have time to flow out, and the water level in the bucket will rise.
So, let’s move our thoughts one step further to training.
The above principle actually gives us a good visual explanation. Why is the common range of "metabolic waste accumulation muscle training" selected in the range of 8-12 times?
Because, if higher high orders are used to work, they are powerful but have limited endurance, and cannot continue to work for a long time to meet the condition (1) mentioned above.
If you can do it hundreds or thousands of times continuously with a very light weight, the endurance of these units is very good, and they can indeed meet the condition (1). But in this case, condition (2) cannot be met, because as we mentioned above, a very light weight uses very small movement units. Even if it is tired, it will only be used in rotation, and it consumes very little energy. , even if it is in anaerobic metabolism, the amount and rate of metabolic waste produced are very small, so small that it is basically the same as the rate at which these wastes are removed, making it impossible to "keep the water level rising."
The so-called aerobic exercise means this to a certain extent. The speed at which the body produces metabolic waste is roughly close to the speed at which the body removes waste, so you can continue to exercise.
-12 times is actually the range of times that a medium-sized unit reaches exhaustion.
These medium-sized motor units not only have acceptable endurance and can continue to work for a period of time to produce lactic acid, but also have acceptable strength and ability to consume energy and produce lactic acid and other metabolic wastes. They can cause the accumulation of related metabolic wastes to greatly exceed the body's The speed of removal caused "water levels to continue to rise."
In addition, the duration of a set of 8-12 movements under normal circumstances is about 18-30 seconds.
Therefore, from the corresponding relationship between motor unit size and endurance, we know that when training with a weight of 8-12RM, the most that can be recruited is the high-order part of the type IIa unit.
Everyone should understand that time is the mastermind behind the scenes. The number of times is actually a representation.
"Metabolic waste accumulation type muscle training" actually doesn't care whether you do 8-10 times or 12-15 times, or even 15 or 20 times. The essence of the effect is the time required for the accumulation of metabolic waste behind it.
Going one step further, whether you do 20 times/1.5 seconds each time, or 10 times/3 seconds each time, as long as the total TUT is close, the metabolic waste they produce and the subsequent effects are Almost the same (there is a slight difference, but it can be ignored).
When it comes to resting between sets, young trainers don’t have to worry too much about whether it should be 30 seconds, 45 seconds or 1 minute, because generally speaking, they all have a common goal, which is to maximize the accumulation of metabolic waste in a short period of time. This allows the trainer to have a tangible feeling. To what extent the soreness and tissue fluid accumulation in the target area have accumulated, experienced trainers can quantify it quite accurately.
Therefore, any trainer who has sufficient training years and muscle accumulation, once he realizes that "the essence of muscle-stimulating bodybuilding training is to repeatedly and mechanically accumulate metabolic waste", then he will automatically have a difference. Under normal circumstances, , without the choice of medicine, they will enter the level of instinctive training.
For a trainer at this level, many variables such as the action form itself, rep range, number of sets, intervals between sets, etc. are no longer important to him. They are just external forms. As long as the essence is mastered , no matter how the external form changes, everything is under control.
This is a bit like the moves and mental techniques in martial arts novels. Beginners learn empty moves and moves, thinking that they can win. To advance to become a master, you need to have a strong mind. Moves are just formal movements that release this mental technique. Swords can kill people, branches can kill people, bare hands can kill people, anything can be done. Different forms only carry different interpretation methods.
This is also my preference in life and in everything I do: Substance over form.
Therefore, when talking about mentality in Chapter 1 of Hezhi Serial, we talked about the unwiseness of sacrificing substance for form. As the ancients said: "Those who have form but no spirit are deceitful."
Back to training, it should be noted that bodybuilding training is not just about "muscle stimulation". This is just a branch of bodybuilding training, and this proportion should be at least less than 40% in a scientific bodybuilding system. This topic is quite complex and requires more space.
For this article, the purpose of our article is to understand the connotation of training through motor units, size rules and time.
. The revelation of time: the nature and law of strength failure
How training produces fatigue, how strength fails, the significance of failure, and when a set of training should be terminated are very important in actual training. The problem can only be clearly revealed after we fully understand the basic recruitment laws of motor units.
This is why we must first spend a lot of time explaining these basic principles. If you skip it, everyone will be confused about the following content.
The principle of fatigue is complex and is restricted by quite a few factors.
To give a rough summary, it includes at least:
- The depletion of energy substances in cells;
- The accumulation of metabolic wastes that hinders contraction behavior (especially lactic acid);
- The fatigue and fatigue of the nervous system The ability to generate action potentials is reduced;
- the frequency of nerve impulses is reduced;
- the spontaneous protective inhibition of the nervous system;
- myofibrils are injured and broken;
- the oxidative stress experienced by various organs in the muscle cells, etc.
For this article, the two most important points we need to know are:
(1) As mentioned earlier, motor units of different sizes have different endurances, so the time to "strike" (exit the ranks of contraction work) is different. .
(2) The work of motor units follows the "all or nothing" rule, that is, a unit either contracts completely or does not contract at all.
Going back to the beginning, everyone knows that the body recruits motor units to lift heavy objects based on need.
However, this recruitment did not occur at the same time, but occurred sequentially within a short period of time.
When we try to deadlift 200KG, in the first 0.0001 seconds, the body does not know the weight of the barbell;
As time passes by a small margin, the nervous system discovers that the muscles failed to contract successfully, and then realizes that the weight is larger. larger, so more units are recruited;
then with the passage of time, if the weight still cannot be lifted, more large units are recruited, until all. The relationship between the size of the units raised by
and time is expressed by such a curve. Type I is the smallest, type IIa is in the middle, and type IIX (also called IIb) is the largest. Please look carefully:
Then, less than 10 seconds later , the largest unit type IIX (also called IIb) began to withdraw from the ranks of contraction, but types I and IIa are still working. At this point, the power has begun to decline.
The red line can be seen as both the size of the units raised and the strength level. Because to put it simply, there are as many units as there are and how big they are.
After that, some time passed, and Type IIa's endurance was exhausted, and they also quit. The curve becomes like this:
Further back, the larger parts of the I-type units also withdraw, leaving only small units that are still working:
The further back, the smaller the remaining units are and the stronger their endurance is. . The number of quitters gradually decreases, and the remaining ones are those with very strong endurance and can persevere.
Thinking readers may wonder, how much weight is used? How is it possible to raise the highest high-volume orders and last for such a long time?
Don’t be surprised. In fact, this picture is just a schematic diagram of the changing trend, not a schematic diagram of a specific weight to tell you how it changes.
For another example, if we want to consider the specific maximum weight that we can lift, we must draw a horizontal line at a certain point on the vertical axis. The level of the horizontal line can be roughly understood as the load of the heavy object.
The blue horizontal line represents greater weight, and the green horizontal line represents lighter weight.
It should be noted that this picture is a general schematic diagram and is not based on real actual measurements. The trend of this picture is generally correct, but the specific time and corresponding points are not absolutely accurate. As long as everyone can understand the meaning. Let's continue looking down.
According to the picture above, the point where the red line touches the blue line when it descends is the point at which failure is reached under that weight.
It will be clearer if the two blue and green lines are marked on the horizontal axis: at time points A and B, it is the time point when the trainer reaches failure under the weight represented by these two lines.
The above is a trend chart of an overall trend, which takes into account the maximum recruitment of motor units caused by the maximum weight.
Considering other situations, if we want to specify a certain weight instead of the maximum weight, the picture will become as follows:
That is, the smaller the weight we use, the smaller the raising unit.The sequence of what happens next is:
A: After enough units are recruited, the units below the green line continue to work. At the same time, there are many larger motor units above the green line that are idle and will not join in.
B: The motor units below the green line will continue to work to the upper limit of endurance, and then the larger units among them will fail first, and the red line will appear a downward inflection point;
C: Then, among the units below the green line, from large to small, Exit one by one, and finally keep the smallest unit to continue working, so the power continues to decrease and the red line continues to fall.
That is, the essence of power failure in a set of actions is the process of "strike" of motor units from large to small in sequence.
Please pay attention to this rule. The larger unit must exit first. After the larger unit withdraws, the number of muscle fibers participating in contraction decreases, and the strength decreases.
And, according to (2), because the motor units either contract completely or do not contract at all, the attenuation of force is entirely caused by the change in the number of motor units involved in the work, rather than the reduction in the contraction force of the single motor unit itself. In other words, the contraction force of the same motor unit is basically unchanged during work.
The above rules give us training inspiration:
In a set of movements, the movement speed begins to slow down significantly, which means that the largest and most valuable motor unit has withdrawn.
At this time, because the number of participating units will decrease, the strength will decrease. See:
F=MA,
M (the mass of the object, that is, the dumbbell we lift, such as 20kg) remains unchanged,
then F (give the object The resultant force of acceleration) decreases, which must mean that A (the acceleration generated by the F force) decreases. From this, we know that the speed of action slows down. Otherwise, how could F be reduced, right?
For example, in the formula 45=5*9, the number 5 does not change, but 45 suddenly becomes smaller and becomes 30. It must be because the number 9 becomes smaller and becomes 6. Very understandable.
If we continue training at this time, we will not be able to recruit the largest motor units, they are already off work! By continuing to train we are really just putting more pressure on the smaller employees who are still on the job!
can only use force to perform movements. As training continues, smaller units cannot withstand such large mechanical tension, and are damaged one after another, and myofibrils are torn. Therefore, we can Feel the tissue swelling and pain caused by inflammation.
Therefore, for strength training and muscle groups such as large muscle groups, legs and hips that are mainly high-strength (please pay attention to this premise), failure should be done, not only from the perspective of recovery, but also from the perspective of recovery. We should look at the problem from the perspective of fundraising rules.
Hard training that endures failure and continues to lift light weights can create inflammation, but because the largest motor units have already exited first, they do not continue to withstand excessive mechanical tension and loads, so they do not suffer much trauma. , the repair and thickening are not much.
On the contrary, those small units with lower strength and volume potential are obviously repaired and grown the most due to the mechanism we mentioned above.
Therefore, sensible high-yield strength training (strength training in a broad sense, including all training using heavy objects, not just specific powerlifting and weightlifting) should be like the picture below. After the withdrawal of large units, we Just end the fight immediately, stop this group, and don't continue. The time point falls approximately in the approximate range between C and C1.
Thinking readers will find that this training method is actually heavy weight and low repetitions.
Yes, science is like that.
is the only group that is truly efficient in a sports sense.
This article ends here.
This article tells you the principle. According to the principle, you can use it for your own use. Because you understand the principle, there will be more room for operational flexibility.
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