CNS Burnout

[BendtheBar]

Originally Posted by BRaWNy

Good read, but I'm not shure if I understand all of that you're talking (because English is not my mother language).

I have to agree with (taken from the conversation):
-I will go as far to say that your CNS controls your gains.
-your CNS controls how many muscle fibers are allowed to fire at one time.
-you need to prime the CNS as part of a good warm-up before you hit your working sets.

And something about this:
-I forgot to mention that Thib's claims are complete bull.

I have to say that, I read Thib, I follow and understand some recommendations/methods of his in training, and I had some decent gains again lately, after about 18 years of training and being 44 years old, like I was a beginner.
My training is mostly CNS based.
So I give a "thumbs up" to Thib.

Brawny...my comment is regarding thib's specific claims to have pressed more then some world records. That sort of mumbo jumbo is attached with the I bodybuilder program. Any program that contains nonsense and hype, I tend to pass on. I respect much of his writing, but for some reason he sold his soul for $$$ on this one.

His specific claims relating to this topic are:

Christian gained 27 pounds of muscle in 6 weeks, and was doing seated overhead presses with 375 pound for 5 cluster reps. Christian is already an advanced-level bodybuilder

[BendtheBar]

I want to also state that I realize the CNS is conditioned for beginners. It has to be to lift more. What I am in essence saying is that for many beginners, muscle growth is more of a shock reaction to the training stimulus, and comes fast and easy.

In this article by Casey Butt, we see that most muscle is gained in year's 1 and 2...beginner to intermediate trainees...

Rate of Drug-Free Muscle Gain

An average trainee can gain about 15-16 pounds of muscle in year one. Every year after, and boiled down for the sake of simplicity, gains are cut in half after that.

Year 1 = 16 pounds
Year 2 = 8 pounds
Year 3 = 4 pounds
Year 4 = 2 pounds
Year 5...welcome to the grind....

So, because most gains by naturals happen as beginners, and that few gains happen when we get into the level of intermediate to advanced, and are pushing for powerlifting style poundages, it seems that the greatest factor for muscle growth is the physiological and hormonal response to the initial shock of training.

Yes, their CNS is getting conditioned during this time, but I don't believe that the central nervous system is the prime mover and prime factor in the gains.

With that said, I reserve the right to be wrong. I am basing this analysis on what I know. And I have not read anything about the corrulation between beginning lifter's CNS and their rate of muscle growth.

Since intermediate and advanced lifters gain very little muscle, again we're talking natural, but work the hardest at CNS conditioning, I don't see the connection between training the CNS, fiber recruitment, and muscle gains.

Maybe I'm completely wrong about just how conditioned a beginner's CNS is becoming the first two years?

[BendtheBar]

A muscle can be worked so that it is fatigued before many muscle fibers are recruited. This comes from light weight movements and higher reps. But there is little muscle tension.

Basically, a muscle is shut down before it really is rocked for hypertrophy.

I train to add tension, while postponing fatigue. I do reps, rest, do reps, rest, do reps, rest. This is how I've trained most of the year.

I don't like going deep into the "fatigue" zone. I don't believe it, or failure, is needed for hypertrophy.

Why am I bringing this up? It's how I train my CNS.

[AthleteCreator]

Originally Posted by MuscleandBrawn

Since intermediate and advanced lifters gain very little muscle, again we're talking natural, but work the hardest at CNS conditioning, I don't see the connection between training the CNS, fiber recruitment, and muscle gains.

I'm not sure how you will do this, but can you elaborate more on what you mean here?

To me, you're saying that you don't think there's a correlation to CNS in fiber recruitment. I have a response to that, but I want to make sure we're not arguing the same thing again.