Do bodyweight circuits cause significant CNS stress?

[jijin]

I'm thinking of including some of the conditioning workouts on the rosstraining.com website in place of regular HIIT on my off days to improve my conditioning. I am wondering what kind of stresses do these workouts as well as bodyweight circuits have on the CNS, and whether this will have any effect on my strength gains?

[ParanoidAndroid]

I would think not, as you r CNS is fatigued when you train a large amount of muscle at a very high intensity.(think max deadlift attempt). bodyweight circuits seem to be rather low intensity, so you're probably good.

[gobbla]

it depends on what you're doing, how long you're doing it, and how out of shape you are. they *shouldn't* affect your CNS to any large degree but that doesn't mean that they can't fatigue your muscles to the point to where it hurts other areas.

introduce a little bit at a time and see what happens

[Kevin Larrabee]

Some BW workouts can even be used for recovery. Obviously the intensity is the key factor.

[laxcdn]

It all depends, look at gymnasts.

[Lost Dog]

If you're doing TT style bodyweight "intervals" or doing them EDT style, then I would think you'd have a similar effect to intervals themselves.

[DKing]

Everything is a stress on the CNS, from walking around, to lack of sleep, to heavy deadlifting. Its HOW much stress that is the big question.

And the answer to your question, is like these guys said, it really depends on how you are doing them.

If you are doing moves that you are good at and light enough that they are just a stress cardiovascularly then you should be fine. If you pick moves or weights that are muscularly challenging then you are probably going to find that they tough to recover from.

Danny

[I. Kay]

A bodyweight exercise/circuit could be very neurally demanding. It depends a lot on explosiveness... clapping pushups, depth jumps, kipping chinups... those will all take their toll, and are all "bodyweight".

[Jason B]

Originally Posted by Ian Kay

A bodyweight exercise/circuit could be very neurally demanding. It depends a lot on explosiveness... clapping pushups, depth jumps, kipping chinups... those will all take their toll, and are all "bodyweight".

Those are full force movements though. The mass may be low, but acceleration is high, and CNS fatigue is based more on forced produced than weight lifted. In Supertraining (as I'm sure you all have that book, as anybody who cares about getting stronger should), Siff states that resistance training should actually be thought of as Force training. F = m X a. That's why DE work gets you stronger, you may only have half of your max weight on the bar, but you're still putting full force behind it, which is still stressful for the CNS.

For the original poster, like the other guys said, it depends on your intensity level. Standard bodyweight exercises that you are competent at performing can be done in circuit fashion without too much fatigue on the CNS, just keep the intensity in check (i.e. don't go to failure on every exercise, limit the difficulty of the exercise, etc.). You can still get the heart rate up and break a sweat to get your metabolic effect though.

[I. Kay]

Originally Posted by Jason B

Those are full force movements though. The mass may be low, but acceleration is high, and CNS fatigue is based more on forced produced than weight lifted. In Supertraining (as I'm sure you all have that book, as anybody who cares about getting stronger should), Siff states that resistance training should actually be thought of as Force training. F = m X a. That's why DE work gets you stronger, you may only have half of your max weight on the bar, but you're still putting full force behind it, which is still stressful for the CNS.

For the original poster, like the other guys said, it depends on your intensity level. Standard bodyweight exercises that you are competent at performing can be done in circuit fashion without too much fatigue on the CNS, just keep the intensity in check (i.e. don't go to failure on every exercise, limit the difficulty of the exercise, etc.). You can still get the heart rate up and break a sweat to get your metabolic effect though.

I think you misread what I wrote. I was basically saying what you said: those exercises I listed would be taxing to the CNS... even though they are only bodyweight.

[Jason B]

Originally Posted by Ian Kay

I think you misread what I wrote. I was basically saying what you said: those exercises I listed would be taxing to the CNS... even though they are only bodyweight.

Oh, I knew that's what you were saying, I was agreeing with you. I was just clarifying why those are taxing to the CNS for the benefit of the original poster, so he knew which exercises he could do. Guess it did kinda come off like I was disagreeing with you, my bad.

[I. Kay]

Originally Posted by Jason B

Oh, I knew that's what you were saying, I was agreeing with you. I was just clarifying why those are taxing to the CNS for the benefit of the original poster, so he knew which exercises he could do. Guess it did kinda come off like I was disagreeing with you, my bad.

Aha, I see it now. Same page, different reading glasses.

[dos]

If you're laying in a heap....lips sticking to your gums......wondering what the hell is going on after a set of bodyweight complexes, rest assured your CNS is SHOT as well.

[Alan Aragon]

Contrary to common knowledge, it's not the CNS that ultimately fatigues. In all likelihood, the CNS is the rate-limiter for muscular fatigue. In other words, you can never truly fatigue the CNS, since it governs the absolute limits of motor unit recruitment, oxygen kinetics, etc. In fact, all physiological functions are quite possibly governed by CNS control, to ensure that we can only voluntarily do so much before our own survival is threatened.

Of course there are practical considerations, for example, you wouldn't want to do sprints to a point of frequency through the week that impinges upon recovery from lower extremity training, as indicated by DOMS overlap. These things will vary not only with the individual program, but with idividual recovery ability.

Basically, all this talk about CNS fatigue is misunderstood & overrated, especially when we're talking about the general population who is not likely to cross over into exercise volume/magnitudes that warrent any real concern. And in the latter case, chronic (& acute) joint injuries are a much more pressing issue than the potential for neural fatigue.

[Maki Riddington]

I use some bad ass circuits to get my conditioning up for Judo /BJJ and afterwards I'm shaking like I just got a dose of the holy ghost in me.