When I was a pre-teen, I used to read a lot those Choose Your Own Adventure books.
Each story was written from a second person point of view, with the reader assuming the role of the main character. After an introduction to the story, the reader was given choices about how the story should progress. For instance:
If you decide to sweep the leg, turn to page 47.
If you decide to use some stupid crane kick that you learned from Pat Morita that would NEVER work in a real fight, turn to page 49.
Depending on the reader's choice, the plot would unfold in different ways and eventually lead to many different possible endings. Unfortunately, I never came across a book where the ending resulted in me either becoming an honorary member of the A-Team or getting to ride shotgun in Airwolf.
I can't help but feel that there are many people reading this article who are taking part in a real life Choose Your Own Adventure with their training. On the one hand, we have those who continue to utilize sub-maximal loads (3 x 10, 5 x 5, etc.) for every movement, and are still benching the same weight now as they did two years ago.
On the other hand, we have those who consistently incorporate lifts at or above 90% of their 1RM into their training, and understand how crucial they are in terms of getting bigger, stronger, and enhancing athletic performance.
Care to guess which one uses the Rule of 90%? Hint: It's the one who actually looks like he lifts weights.
That being said:
If you're happy with the fact that you've been training for over five years and can only deadlift 275 pounds, this article isn't for you. Stop reading now and find a new hobby. Coin collecting perhaps?
If you wish to learn how and why incorporating The Rule of 90% will lead to increased strength gains, increased lean body mass, improved athletic performance, and make girls want to hang out with you, then keep reading.
The CNS: Cliffs Notes Version
When a motor neuron fires, all the fibers it serves are simultaneously activated and develop force. A motor neuron and all the muscle fibers it innervates are referred to as a motor unit, the basic functional entity of muscular activity.
Motor units can span a range of muscle fiber sizes (Type I and Type IIa/b), which also allow different force productions. Motor units are recruited in the order of their size, from smallest (Type I) to largest (Type Iib) depending on the force they must produce.
For example, when you do light load resistance training, you're recruiting predominantly Type I (slow twitch) motor units. When the load is increased, the Type Iia (fast twitch oxidative and glycolytic fibers) will be recruited with the help of the Type I fibers. When high intensity loads are utilized (90%+), the Type IIb muscle fibers (along with Type I and Type IIa) are recruited in order to produce enough force to complete the lift.
Very simply put, getting stronger is really about making the CNS more efficient at stimulating high(er) threshold motor units, maximizing the number of motor units activated, and improving the discharge frequency of those motor units. Typically, to get to a high-threshold motor unit, all the motor units below it are sequentially recruited.
Thus, with heavy resistance training, all the muscle fibers get bigger, because they're all recruited to produce more and more force with heavier weights. (This is assuming, of course, that you're getting sufficient volume in your training.)
In short, like Ron Burgundy, the CNS is kind of a big deal. As a matter of fact, during the early phases (two to eight weeks) of resistance training, a trainee's strength gains can be solely attributed to improved CNS development (not muscle growth). This is due to:
1) Increased inhibition of antagonistic muscle
2) Improved co-contraction and increased activation of synergistic muscles
3) Inhibition of neural protective mechanisms (Golgi tendon body, muscle spindle complex)
4) Increased motor neuron excitability
That's not to say there isn't any lean body mass gain during the initial stages of resistance training, but it's definitely not as profound as you may think.
The CNS, like Ron Burgundy, is a big deal.
Okay, How Can I Get Stronger?
In his book, Science and Practice of Strength Training, Vladmir Zatsiorsky states that there are essentially four methods to developing strength:
1. Lifting a maximal load (exercising against maximal resistance): the maximal effort method.
2. Lifting a non-maximal load to failure, with the muscles developing the maximum force possible in a fatigued state during the final repetitions: the repeated effort method.
3. Lifting (or throwing) a non-maximal load with the highest attainable speed: the dynamic effort method.
4. By not being an asshat who perform squats on a BOSU ball.
Look in the dictionary for the definition of "asshat." This picture is next to it.
For the sake of this article, I'm going to focus mainly on the maximal effort method (loads at 90% or above your 1RM), because I feel that this is the one area many people tend to neglect.
But First...
Repeated Effort Method (a.k.a. What most people perform): While it's well known that muscles with a large physiological cross-sectional area produce higher forces than similar muscles with a smaller cross-section, this doesn't necessarily equate to improved strength. How can this be?
Well, for starters, you can only go so far with three sets of ten (repeated effort method). I consider it a natural progression for trainee's to start with something like three sets of ten because it establishes a foundation. It allows for initial neural adaptations (as alluded to above), strengthens connective tissue (tendons and ligaments), and also builds some lean muscle mass to boot.
More often than not, this leads to what's called sarcoplasmic hypertrophy, which is characterized by the growth of sarcoplasm and non-contractile proteins that don't directly contribute to production of force.
From there, most trainees will gravitate toward a 5 x 5 or possibly an 8 x 3 program (still the repeated effort method, albeit a bit more strength-training based). Again, this would be a natural progression. During this time, you're drastically improving your CNS efficiency (remember, heavier loads target higher threshold motor units), as well as improving myofibrillar hypertrophy. This form of hypertrophy is characterized by growth of the actual contractile proteins, actin and myosin.
The key point to take home is that while the repeated effort method is valuable in the grand scheme of things, it's also limited. Only the final lifts, in which a maximal number of motor units are recruited, are actually useful (from a strength standpoint).
And as my elaborate drawings above demonstrate (don't ask me how long it took to draw these), just because someone is big doesn't necessarily mean that they're strong. Yes, I'm talking to you, Mr. Quarter-Squat, bodybuilder guy.
Why You Should Lift Heavy Things
I can't stress this enough: the CNS is the key to strength gains. Muscular strength is not only determined by the quantity of muscle mass (cross-sectional area), but also by the extent to which you can improve intramuscular coordination.
Intramuscular coordination is the extent to which individual muscle fibers are voluntarily activated to produce muscle force production. There are essentially three ways to do this:
1. Recruitment: As I alluded to above, the order in which motor units are recruited is controlled by the size of the motor neurons (the so-called size principle). Sorry fellas, this is one instance where size does matter. Small motor neurons, those with the lowest firing threshold, are recruited first. Motor units with the largest motor neurons and highest threshold are recruited last. Full fast twitch MU recruitment is rather hard to achieve in untrained individuals. Incorporating lifts above 90% can improve this drastically because more force is required (hence more MU recruitment) to complete the lift.
2. Rate Coding: This is another method for improving the degree of muscle force. In simple terms, rate coding just refers to the frequency that MU's fire. Generally speaking, the firing rate rises with increased force and power production. Force is increased significantly by high(er) intensity resistance training between 80% and 100%.
3. Synchronization: Under normal circumstances, MU's work asynchronously. However, there's some evidence that MU's are activated synchronously (together) during maximal voluntary efforts (90%+).
Why You Should Lift Heavy Things (Part II)
Additionally, for those only interested in aesthetics and thinking, "Tony, I only want to be jacked; I could care less about strength," consider the following:
Say your current 1RM in the bench press is 225 pounds. If you're only interested in aesthetics, you'll typically train in the 70% to 80% 1RM range, which would mean you'd be using anywhere from 160 to 180 pounds for 8-12 reps.
For the next three months, you decide to get generally stronger (incorporating lifts above 90%) and happen to increase your 1RM to 275. What used to be 80% of your 1RM (180 pounds), is now 65%. When you inevitably decide to return back to a hypertrophy based program, 70%-80% of your 1RM is now 190-220 pounds! It stands to reason you'll pack on a significant amount of muscle.
Moreover, in boys and younger men with two or more years of training experience, it's been shown that utilizing heavy resistance training (85% to 95% of 1RM) seems to be one of the key factors that influences acute serum Testosterone concentrations following exercise. I don't recall hearing many reasons why increasing your Testosterone levels would be a bad thing, unless of course you're a woman who happens to have an unwanted penis.
In a nutshell, lifting maximal weight (90%+) has a number of effects:
1) Maximum number of MU's are recruited
2) Fastest MU's are activated
3) The discharge frequency (rate coding) is increased
4) Activity is synchronous
5) Improved coordination between synergistic muscles
6) Potential for future hypertrophy gains
7) Increased serum Testosterone levels
What About Athletic Performance?
You've probably noticed me using the words "power" and "force" quite a bit, and with good reason. Both play crucial roles in developing strength and athletic performance. Power simply refers to the ability to apply a lot of force in a minimum amount of time (Power = Force x Velocity). In order to improve power, you need to increase force and/or velocity.
Interesting to note, from a velocity standpoint, it's been shown that power output increases as the weight lifted decreases from 100% of 1RM to 90% of 1RM. In fact, for the back squat and deadlift, power output for a load at 90% 1RM may be twice as high as the 1RM load due to the large decrease in the time required to complete the exercise with the lighter load (1).
This obviously shows how velocity plays an important role and why using the dynamic effort method is a great way to improve strength. Optimal speed and power can only be maintained for approximately six seconds. Anything more and lactic acid accumulates and the additional hydrogen ions interfere with the contraction of the fast twitch muscle fibers.
In his book, The Vertical Jump Development Bible, Kelly Baggett talks about how the vertical jump is one of the best predictors of athletic performance. Essentially, how much force you can generate in a short amount of time (0.2 seconds for the vertical jump) is going to separate a superb athlete from an average athlete.
Because I'm more of a visual learner, I'm going to share an example from Kelly's book:
Bodyweight
Maximum force or strength without time constraint (squat)
Max force put out in the vertical jump (0.2 sec)
Athlete A
175 lbs
400 lbs
200 lbs
Athlete B
175 lbs
300 lbs
225 lbs
As you can see, athlete A can squat more than athlete B, but athlete B is going to have a better vertical jump because he can generate more force, rapidly. However, Kelly makes a point in stating that, "Although being able to apply force rapidly is a very useful characteristic, you still need to have enough potential force to tap into for anything to happen. Basically, a strong athlete will beat a weak athlete any day of the week."
Maximum strength is the foundation for everything (power, strength endurance, force development, etc.). You can't have strength endurance (being able to lift a sub-maximal weight repeatedly) or generate maximum force without first having strength.
Here's another example from Kelly's book to help illustrate this point:
Bodyweight
Max Force (strength) in the Squat
Max force in vertical jump
Weak athlete
200 lbs
100 lbs
95 lbs
Ideal athlete
175 lbs
400 lbs
325 lbs
The weak athlete is able to utilize 95% of his potential force and has a good rate of force development; however, he's only able to squat 100 pounds. He has very little to "tap into" and is only able to generate 95 pounds of force off the ground. Needless to say, he's going to be that guy who's lowering his adjustable rim in his driveway to eight feet so he can dunk a basketball.
The "ideal" athlete is only utilizing 75% of his potential force (20% less than the weak athlete), but is generating 325 pounds of force off the ground because he's strong. Again, strength is the foundation for everything. More specifically, relative strength trumps absolute strength from an athletic standpoint.
How to Apply the Rule of 90%
For my own peace of mind, I provided the following list of exercises that would be acceptable to use, questionable to use, and well, just plain dumb to use. This certainly isn't an all encompassing list, but I think you get the general idea:
Acceptable Exercises
Questionable Exercises (probably not the best choice, but "doable")
You deserve to be drop-kicked for even thinking about performing these with 90%
Squat Variations (back, front, Anderson, box)
Good Mornings (cambered bar, chain suspended, etc.)
Biceps Curls
Deadlift Variations (conventional, sumo, against chains)
Dips
Leg Curls
Bench Variations (standard, floor, board, chains)
Romanian Deadlifts
Calf Raises
Overhead Pressing
Weighted Sit-Ups
It's no surprise the best movements to use are the basic "money" exercises (squat, bench, deadlift). As such, I think the best way to approach things is to use a three-day, full body split, with each day focusing around one of the three main movements.
Also, be cognizant that more isn't better. Like many trainers and strength coaches, I like to set up programming where volume/intensity is fluctuated each week to coincide with CNS fatigue and/or to stave off overtraining. Lifts above 90% are very CNS intensive and aren't something where you're going to need (or want) to do a lot of volume each and every week.
The following is a sample three day split. Please note that I purposely left out specific sets/reps for all the accessory movements because everything would depend on the weaknesses or imbalances of each individual.
Training Session #1
Week #1
Week #2
Week #3
Week #4
A. Squat Variation
5 Lifts 90%+
4 Lifts 90%+
7 Lifts 90%+
3 Lifts 90%+ or Reps
B1. Vertical Push
B2. Lower Body Unilateral
C1. Horizontal Row
C2. Triceps Movement
D. Rotator Cuff/Core Work
Training Session #2
Week #1
Week #2
Week #3
Week #4
A. Bench Variation
5 Lifts 90%+
4 Lifts 90%+
7 Lifts 90%+
3 Lifts 90%+ or Reps
B1. Horizontal Row
B2. Lower Body Unilateral
C1. Vertical Pull
C2. Lower Body Iso-Metric Hold
D. Rotator Cuff/Core Work
Training Session #3
Week #1
Week #2
Week #3
Week #4
A. Deadlift
5 Lifts 90%+
4 Lifts 90%+
7 Lifts 90%+
3 Lifts 90%+ or Reps
B1. Horizontal Push
B2. Horizontal Row
C1. Lower Body Unilateral
C2. Bicep
D. Rotator Cuff/Core Work
Conclusion
There are many reasons to incorporate lifts above 90% into your training. I think many lifters are experiencing their own Choose Your Own Adventure when it comes to their training, and they're getting less than stellar results.
You can either choose to keep doing what you're doing and not make any progress, or you can choose to embark on a new adventure and take your body to places it's never been before. The choice is yours.
About the Author
Tony Gentilcore is a certified strength and conditioning specialist (CSCS) and personal trainer (CPT) through the NSCA. He currently resides in the Boston area and can be contacted at tgentilcore18@yahoo.com.
References
1. Baechle, T., Earle, R., and Wathen, D. Resistance Training.. In: Essentials of Strength and Conditioning (2nd Ed.) Baechle, T.R., Earle, R.W.., ed. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics, 2000.
Tony- in your hypertrophy diagrams your one on the left is showing fiber hyperplasia and not hypertrophy.
Most research out there (read: anything i've seen) shows that hyperplasia of muscle fibers doen't occur.
Just wondering about your thought process?
Sorry for nit picking just interested in the finer details.
I'm not Tony (so sorry if I'm intruding ) but I remember seeing several studies that suggest hyperplasia does occur in humans, just not enough to account for a significant portion of size or strength gains (like 10% tops).
Here are a couple studies:
Gonyea, W.J., and Sale, D, Gonyea, F., and Mikesky, A. 1986. Exercise induced increases in muscle fiber number. European Journal of Applied Physiology 55: 137-141.
McCall, G.E., Byrnes, W.C., Dickinson, A., Pattany, P.M., and Fleck, S.J. 1996. Muscle fiber hypertrophy, hyperplasia and capillary density in college men after resistance training. Journal of Applied Physiology 81: 2004-2012.
Kadi, F. Eriksson, A., Holmner, S., Butler-Browne, G.S., and Thornell, L.E. 1999. Cellular adaptations of the trapezius muscle in strength-trained athletes. Histochemistry and Cell Biology 111: 189-195.
As an aside: Man, I used to love those Choose Your Own Adventure books. hehe.
But seriously my quastion is could you explain a little more about 2. Rate Coding Im not sure I fully grasp what you are saying here.
Chad Waterbury went into a lot more detail about rate coding in his recent T-Nation article Motor Units & Mad Libs.
Here's the relevant section, but the whole article is well worth reading. Chad's one very smart guy.
Quote:
Motor Unit Recruitment and Rate Coding
We all lift weights to get bigger and stronger muscles, and we do this by lifting ever- heavier loads. Our nervous system is what's driving our muscles' ability to lift these ever-heavier loads, but what mechanisms are your nervous system using to develop greater strength and muscle mass?
There are two primary processes the nervous system uses. The first process is motor unit recruitment. Specifically, I'm referring to your nervous system's ability to recruit more motor units. The more motor units (muscle fibers) you recruit, the more force you'll produce.
Small force tasks recruit few motor units; large force and/or explosive tasks recruit many motor units. (1) So when you lift heavy or fast, you recruit the most motor units and your body responds to this stress by increasing the percentage of motor units that you can recruit.
It's safe to assume that no one can voluntarily recruit all of his motor units. Let's say you perform a lying leg curl, and let's say that you have 1000 motor units in your hamstring muscles. An untrained person might recruit, say, 500 motor units; a highly-trained person might recruit, say, 800 motor units.
So with training, you increase your ability to voluntarily recruit more motor units. And that's why many researchers don't report muscle mass gains during the first few months of a strength training study (the people are simply training their nervous systems to recruit more motor units, among other things).
The second step, once you've tapped out your recruitable motor unit pool, is something called rate coding. Rate coding is another way for your nervous system to make your muscles develop more force by enhancing the rate at which your motor neuron sends an electrical signal to your muscles.
Your motor neuron sends an electrical signal to your muscles that, through a series of reactions, causes them to contract. Importantly, this electrical signal is known as an action potential. The more action potentials that your motor neuron discharges, the more muscle fibers you'll potentially recruit. To iterate: rate coding sends a more powerful signal to your muscles, thus more powerful muscle actions usually follow.
So in the above example with your ex-girlfriend and her SUV, your motor neurons are discharging a huge amount of action potentials to your sprinting muscles. Why? Because you need to contract a lot of muscles, very quickly. And in order to avoid getting steamrolled by 6000 pounds of Cadillac Escalade, you need to quickly contract a lot of glute, hamstring, and calf muscle fibers. Again, this increase in rate of discharge of the motor neuron is known as rate coding.
Research on rate coding has demonstrated minimum and maximum values during contractions. On the low end of the scale, it appears that the minimal rate at which we can discharge action potentials to our muscles is 5 to 8 pulses per second (pps) during very slow voluntary contractions. (2, 3) With isometric contractions, average rates of 30-50 pps have been recorded. (4) With regard to rapid contractions (my favorite, of course), values have been recorded in the 100-200 pps range! (5,6,7)
Importantly, both motor unit recruitment and rate coding are taking place as you produce high levels of force with your muscles. Research has demonstrated that the first 85% of your maximal force development occurs by recruiting more motor units. The last 15% is accomplished entirely by rate coding.
For example, if your 1RM for the leg extension is 200 pounds, the force you produce for the first 170 pounds is accomplished by recruiting more motor units. To lift the last 30 pounds, your muscles are relying on rate coding to jack up the force production. And this is as good of a reason as you'll ever find to work with loads greater than 85% of your 1RM (you'll theoretically enhance rate coding).
So if you're trying to recruit more motor units, it makes scientific sense to focus on rapid contractions and isometric contractions since both have been shown to result in the many pulses per second. And rate coding becomes a factor when you train with heavy loads, or any load that allows you to develop maximal force.
Key Points: Focus on fast contractions and isometrics for maximum motor unit recruitment. Focus on heavy loads and fast contractions to enhance rate coding.
__________________ - It's Rage, the rules are different!
- Rage is more ... testosteron-y
- Keep a rage handy to wipe your fingers so your not tempted to lick them
Chad Waterbury went into a lot more detail about rate coding in his recent T-Nation article Motor Units & Mad Libs.
Here's the relevant section, but the whole article is well worth reading. Chad's one very smart guy.
cheers Lisa I shall have a read of that now
much appreciated
yep great article he does write in a very readable style. I tend to avoid T nation and only go back infrequently oherwise its just information overload and I end up skim reading it
__________________
BFG
"The time for talking has passed, actions are speaking louder than words."
For my own peace of mind, I provided the following list of exercises that would be acceptable to use, questionable to use, and well, just plain dumb to use. This certainly isn't an all encompassing list, but I think you get the general idea:
Acceptable Exercises
Questionable Exercises (probably not the best choice, but "doable")
You deserve to be drop-kicked for even thinking about performing these with 90%
Squat Variations (back, front, Anderson, box)
Good Mornings (cambered bar, chain suspended, etc.)
Biceps Curls
Deadlift Variations (conventional, sumo, against chains)
Dips
Leg Curls
Bench Variations (standard, floor, board, chains)
Romanian Deadlifts
Calf Raises
Overhead Pressing
Weighted Sit-Ups
These are the acceptable exercises? How about some of the dumb ass ones?
Your going to overtrain so quickly if you follow that program.. holy shit.
Westside guys have the problem of overtraining with only 2 90%+ efforts per week! I dont think many lifters could do that program tony.
I really like the article.. makes a hell of a lot of sense. But I feel sorry for the poor dude that trys that program.. Unless they are not advanced.
I made some comments in the thread that follows the article at t-mag. For beginners, it's fine (for awhile). If you're advanced.....you should limit your sessions above 90% to 7-9 PER MONTH.
EDIT: to say that there should be a "revised" template put into the article sometime today.
Last edited by Tony Gentilcore : 11-02-2006 at 06:39 AM.
Tonys new article
) but I remember seeing several studies that suggest hyperplasia does occur in humans, just not enough to account for a significant portion of size or strength gains (like 10% tops).
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