Muscle Activation and Muscle Control

Hey Guys! Welcome to another of my “What you should know about..” blog series. This time I’m about to write you about muscle activation and proper muscle control.

So get your self a drink, sit on your butt and read, coz I’m not gonna write it twice. (bad joke I get it..).

Muscle Activation and Muscle Control

Let me ask you a question. “Do you want your muscle to grow?” …of course you do. That is why you go to gym four times a week and sweat blood to the death there right?

But did you know that if you want your muscle to grow properly and become strong, you first need to activate it?
I know what you are thinking now. “I get you bro, muscle activation, right. Just where is the switch. C’mon, hit me!”

No switch ladies. “Proper exercise” is your key. Let’s get a little deeper in this topic. Just follow me.

It is all connected to your bodybuilding program.

You have to take to consideration the type of muscle function (concentric and eccentric), volume and intensity of your exercise and, the last but not least, the pause between each series and training periods.

Did you know that guys from NASA figured out, that you need both concentric and eccentric types of muscle contraction to make your muscle go big and strong?

The vast majority of people don’t know about it and they perform only one of these muscle contraction types and that is the concentric one, so their muscles are not properly activated so it can not grow the way they imagine it would.

NASA found out, that using only concentric type of contraction takes double the time to grow a muscle to level you could be on using both concentric and eccentric. These guys rock!

Eccentric contraction simply should be an integral part of everybody’s bodybuilding program! And that includes YOU my precious reader…

That is where the muscle control comes out.

First you need to activate your muscles with the proper exercise by controlling you muscle movements using concentric and eccentric muscle contraction. There are some other types but that is in another blog entry.

“So what is the best bodybuilding program man?”
I’m glad you asked…

The Program

There are many programs around this world and each seem to be more optimal than the other, but if you want to reach the best results, you just need to find what best suits to YOU!

I can just give you some knowledge and facts…and that is just what I’m gonna do now.

So…

For reaching the best hypertrophy (that is enhancement of your extrafusal fibre) of your muscle is to practice with from average to heavier weight (not heavy – I mean not your maximum), that should be around 80% of you max weight on the muscle.

For example is you bench 100 lbs max, you take 80 lbs for the exercise, right.
And the next thing that you should do with it is to lift it up from 8 to 12 times in each of you series. Take 3 or 4 series there.

This way you would not only draw near to activate your muscles right (remember to control the muscle movement) but you will also produce more natural anabolic hormones ...and that is GOOD.

These hormones stimulate synthesis of the protein in your muscles and also the enhancement of the muscle.

It is much better than lifting heavy weights a few times or light ones way too many times. (It is also good to go through these exercises time after time, but since you have no muscles yet, it is pointless).

The Pause

Your muscles also react on the pauses you take between series.
Again, shorter pauses (not more than 2 minutes) in combination with what you just read are much better than longer pauses applied in programs where heavy weights are being used. It stimulates the creation of more anabolic hormones and that is what?? …yeah, GOOD!

So I do recommend shorter pauses.

Take these things (weight, frequency and pauses) to consideration next time you go to gym and implement it to your workout to proper muscle activation and to be able to control your muscle growth right.

Remember – muscle activation is the key!