Neuromucular Efficiency and Programming: or, why I am not tougher than Nick D'Agostino.

At the recent Starting Strength Coaches' Association conference, I ran into Nick D'Agostino. It turns out that we are running the same sort of programming, DUP or Daily Undulating Periodization. It's an intermediate program where the rep ranges are varied each time you train. It's a bit like block periodization if the blocks were shuffled together. You probably don't need it. Anyway, back to the story.

I regularly run my training in the range of RPE 9, which means that I could probably get one more rep, but not two. RPE=Rate of Perceived Exertion. This can be a useful way of monitoring training intensity for experienced and mature lifters. Nick said that whenever he tried to do sets at RPE 9, it beat him up for the next week or so. I can do RPE 9 every day of the week. What's the reason for this difference? Maybe I'm just tougher than he is. If you knew Nick, you would know that this is not true. He's a very strong man who is also an accomplished athlete.

What does it mean to be an athlete? You will hear talk on the radio or television about players who display a lot of athleticism, and announcers aren't really clear on what that means. Let me propose this: Athletes jump high. But how do you jump high? Let's dig a little deeper.

Motor units (motor neurons plus the connected muscle fibers) are activated according to the size principle. Smaller Type I fibers are activated first, and then the super-strong Type II fibers are activated. Good jumpers are able to overcome this limitation, to tell more of their muscle fibers to contract right now. They aren't necessarily stronger, but they are able to display their strength faster.

There is also the matter of neuromuscular efficiency. We all know that men are stronger than women, even when adjusted for mass differences. The man is better able to use the muscle he has. Watch a powerlifting meet and you will see this demonstrated in the attempt choices, which may be quite broad for the men, but will be clustered for the women. A female lifter may blow through a 120lb bench press, but be pinned by 125. A man may struggle on a 550lb deadlift and still hit 580 on the third attempt. This is why we recommend 5 sets of 3 to women lifters, because sets of 3 will be closer to their muscle's absolute strength, and they will get a better training effect. You will also find, if you have trained women for a while, that they can tolerate volume better. My wife does lots of sets across on press at a percentage of 1RM that would bury me.

So, better athletes are better able to recruit muscle fibers fast, and are better able to use the maximum potential of those muscles. How does this relate to Nick and me? I am not a good athlete. I tested my vertical jump this weekend and came up with 20", which is average, not impressive at all. Nick has more than a 30" leap. He's a very rare individual. I suspect he is also able to work closer to his absolute limit strength. In other words, he's closer to the upper limit of masculine neuromuscular efficiency, and I'm closer to the bottom limit.

There are programming consequences. Let's take 100% as the total limit of strength, which may never actually be displayed in action. Nick is able, when he wants, to work really close to that 100%, perhaps at 95%, where I can't get above 90%, and my wife can't get above 80%. This means that when he's working at RPE 9, he's really pushing his muscles. When I work at RPE 9, it's not nearly as stressful, and I can do it pretty much every session. Nick has to reserve RPE 9+ for meets.

You may need to take this into account for your own programming, if you are a natural athlete. You'll know, if you are one of these wondrous people. If you are just average, continue as usual. But, if you are exceptional, in your intermediate and advanced programming you may need to keep some reps in the tank as a matter of self-preservation.

Deadlifting and Shoulder Stability

I was preparing for a Starting Strength Press Camp last month, and in the process of reviewing anatomy, was reminded of how unstable the shoulder joint is. In order to provide us bipedal humans with useful upper extremities, the glenohumeral joint allows lots of movement. In order to allow lots of movement, it is a ball-and-socket joint, but the socket is so shallow it might as well be called a ball-and-saucer joint.

Looking straight into the shoulder joint

Imagine a wooden dowel articulating with a teacup saucer. Not very sturdy, is it? It's very mobile, but also very easy to dislocate. How is this prevented? First, through a sheath of connective tissue connecting the humerus to the scapula:

Ligaments and tendons of the shoulder

Then, through the muscles of the "rotator cuff", which do not really do much to rotate the shoulder, since their moment arm on the humerus is too short, but mostly serve to provide joint stability. You can see them quite well in this illustration:

Muscles of the rotator cuff

See the supraspinatus, infraspinatus, teres minor? You can't see the subscapularis, since it's under the scapula. Note how they attach right on the head of the humerus. They can't really move the humerus much, but they can keep the humerus firmly seated in the socket of the glenoid fossa (the socket of the ball-and-socket joint).

My epiphany happened as I gazed at figure 4-20 in Starting Strength:Basic Barbell Training. It's on page 116. Go ahead and get out your copy. (You don't have a copy?) When you deadlift, the barbell tends to want to pull your humerus down in the direction of gravity, out of the glenoid fossa. What prevents this? The muscles of the rotator cuff, as well as the ligaments and tendons of the joint, which contract isometrically to stabilize the joint that the barbell is trying to pull apart.

The second part of my epiphany is considering the nature of the force in a joint under tension. In such a situation, 100% of the force is transmitted through the connective tissue. The bones are just links in a chain, and every link in a chain bears the complete force of the load. Consider a series of blocks connected by cables. If you stack the blocks one on top the other, the blocks carry the load, and the cables are unused. If, however, you hang the blocks from a hook, the blocks and the cables both carry the entire load. This means that when you deadlift 500lbs, the entire load is transmitted through the ligaments and tendons, and thereby to the muscles of the rotator cuff, as well as the biceps and triceps, which also traverse the shoulder joint. Your bones are not hooked together. They are chained together, and under tension the chain gets all of the load.

The third part of the epiphany is an article by Hartmann: "Analysis of the Load on the Knee Joint and Vertebral Column with Changes in Squatting Depth and Weight Load." What does an article on squats have to do with the shoulder? He points out various studies which have shown that the patellar tendon in olympic weightlifters is larger and stronger. The ACL of professional weightlifters also are bigger and stronger. The connective tissues adapt, just like muscles. What is true of the knee joint should be true also of the shoulder joint.

In other words, if you want a strong and stable shoulder joint, you need to lift heavy stuff. Of course, you need to press overhead, but I argue that you also need to deadlift. The deadlift provides tensile stress pulling the joint apart, thus provoking adaptations that keep the joint together. If you deadlift, your rotator cuff muscles will get stronger doing their proper job of isometrically contracting to protect the shoulder, and the ligaments and tendons of the joint will adapt to the load by getting stronger.

If I'm right, you need to deadlift. How can you learn to do it? You can buy The Book (SS:BBT), but you can also look at this video on the basic setup for the deadlift. Follow the steps exactly, and you'll be on your way.

Muscle: Your Body's Amino Acid Store

In my previous post, I talked about how your bone is not merely structural, but is also a mineral store for you body. It turns out that muscle is not merely for generating force, or for impressing other people, but is the protein store for you body.

Why should you care? If your body suffers some kind of damage, it will need to repair itself. It will use protein to do so. Where will it get it? From food, or, if there isn't enough dietary protein, from muscle. See this article for details. Burn victims and cancer survivors do better with more protein stores, for example.

It turns out that muscle doesn't just protect you from injury by making you stronger, it provides a necessary reservoir of amino acids to help you get better after injury or illness. As Mark Rippetoe has famously said, strong people are harder to kill, a fact that the medical literature supports.

Is Stress a Bad Thing?

It worked for Conan.

I was talking to some friends the other day, and the topic of weightlifting came up. It comes up a lot because I've gained a lot of muscle mass in the last few years. Anyway, my friend asked what I did, and I told him that I squat, press, bench press, and deadlift. "How much do you deadlift?" I told him that I'm currently at 540lbs, which isn't much for a man my size, but was impressive to him.

"Oh, I could never do that. I'd be afraid to put that much stress on my back."

I explained that you don't start training with 500lbs, but even so, stress isn't a bad thing. It's a stimulus, that gets a response from the body. The human body will adapt to a stress that is put on it. We want this to happen, because a lack of stress is also a stimulus. My friend wanted to protect his back, and so would refrain from doing anything that he perceived would cause stress to his back. How does his back musculature and skeleton respond? They get smaller and weaker!

Let me say this in another way: the strategy he has employed to protect his back is actually making his back weaker, and more likely to get injured. Counterproductive, right?

We all know that muscle atrophies when it isn't used, but bones do the same thing. Your bones are constantly undergoing a process of remodeling, where calcium is removed from the bones and returned to it. Calcium is important for the proper functioning of the rest of the body, and the bones are where it is stored. If you need more, the body will borrow it from the bones, and your body will repay the loan later. If you spend a few weeks on crutches, you could lose as much as a third of the mass of your femur, because your body thinks that it doesn't need to repay the loan. After all, if you aren't putting weight on a bone, why does it need to be strong? That calcium can be better used elsewhere.

Inactivity is not the answer. Find a competent coach, put your body under the right kind of stress, and get stronger.

The Great Calorie Race, and why you shouldn't do it.

Most people are on a diet. Most people, when they exercise, are attempting to balance their calories burned with their calories expended. This is the eternal concern. But, really, isn't this a depressing way to live? Constantly watching what you eat and moderating portions to match the calorie expenditure of a sedentary person takes the joy out of life. It's like being a diet zombie.

May I suggest an alternative? Don't exercise, train! Lift weights and get stronger. Tell your body to get better at something, and then eat to support the gains. Eating with a performance goal is much better than eating simply to maintain one's size.

Conan's goal: to crush his enemies.

A very nice squat camp

Thanks to Jordan Feigenbaum, Starting Strength Coach and Steve Tomczak of Bodytech Crossfit in Mokena for helping to put together a squat camp yesterday. Ten people came to get instruction on theory and practice of the low bar back squat. A good time was had by all, and everyone left with a better squat.

You can find events in your area at http://startingstrength.com/index.php/site/events/

First Powerlifting Meet

I competed in my first meet on April 7, and managed to squat 501.5 lbs, bench press 407.7 lbs, and deadlift 501.5 lbs, for a total of 1411, which is definitely not bad for an old guy. A few years ago I was in chronic lower back pain, but now I feel great, and am stronger than I have ever been. This stuff works. Barbell training is the most effective way to gain strength, for people of all ages.