I’ve read in several articles that weight lifting is hard on the Central Nervous System…what is meant by this, exactly?
Most BB rags will talk about weightlifting and the CNS in a negative light.
But realistically, you want to lift heavy and stimulate the CNS during your weight lifting sessions. The more full body movements done, the more CNS stimulation you have, the more suitable of an environment you will have to stimulate muscle growth, use fat for energy, and see increases in strength.
Thus, making large/full body movements like pull-ups, deadlifts, benchpress, squats, snatches, clean and jerks, a staple in your routine is ideal. Routines that require you to balance during the movement are also CNS stimulating. Unfortunately, alot of gyms out there will not allow some of these movements above.
You can over do it for sure, too much CNS stimulation and you dive into the realm of over-training, start to see negative results, energy/motivation crash, attitude changes, sleepy/tired, etc. This can be obtained by training too much, too long, too hard. Finding the sweet spot in how many days a week, how long of a session, and how hard of a session, is crucial to maximize your time. Doing alot of long, intense cardio is also crushing to the CNS.
Having a great workout with a shitty diet afterwards will not allow you to recover from a heavy session. Eating correctly combats cortisol that is released during/after your workout. So do not go home and have a cup of coffee, or a pepsi and eat doritos.
Wait whats wrong with coffee?
Gosh, I’m 46, do long intense cardio combined with weights, drink coffee, and for some Godawful reason I am muscular, lean AND have tons of energy.
Must be doing something wrong…
Yes, but why?
A maximal contraction, like a 1RM type thing, requires your CNS to fire and recruit as many muscle fibers as possible. In fact a lot of your strength gain from lifting comes from CNS development. A novice weightlifter is only able to recruit a fraction of their fibers. weightlifting theoretically this can fatigue the individual nerve cells if you overdo it. Realistically you’re not getting into that territory unless you’re maxing an exercise three or four times a week. Even then you’d have to do it for weeks at a time. If you’re worried about it you can supplement with albumin which supposedly helps.
I would like to know as well. Not trying to be contradictory I am just curious because I would like to know more. At what point are you over-stimulating, over-training, etc…?
I’ve been deep into Overtraining Syndrome a couple times, but due to prolonged amounts of cardio. Overtraining is all about CNS overstimulation, from what I’ve read, but it also said that Overtraining is more common to weightlifters than cardio guys, so that is what is confusing to me…how is many hours a day on a bicycle comparable to a few hours of heavy lifting?
lol no one answered me, what is wrong with drinking coffee?
i do it all the time, if there is something wrong with this i gotta know!
Nothing wrong with drinking coffee. I think he meant in lieu of proper post-workout nutrition.
Okay that makes sense
Sorry for my delay, haven’t logged in for awhile.
Nothing is wrong with coffee, in the correct amounts and proper times. If one is trying to lean out, balancing out cortisol levels is huge. Caffeine is a big contributor to adrenal fatigue, cortisol spikes, and so on. So, a small cup of coffee or some espresso right before a workout is good to go in my opinion. But constant overdosing through out the day can be problematic.
I guess the simple answer would be is that we weren’t designed to “over do it”. We are surely capable of doing long intense marathons, or lift weights until our hands bleed, but our bodies are better equipped at being intense at short bursts of high level activity, or long and very slow endurance (walking).
Granted, this is extremely individual dependent
Some are blessed with great genes…