Central nervous system (CNS) recovery is what separates beginners from the elite athlete, but in an opposite way than you would think. Beginners can hammer their CNS with little to no repercussion. Advanced athletes, however, must be very careful to get enough recovery between max-effort days. Too little rest will lead to overtraining, but too much rest will slow down progress. How can you find out the speed your CNS recovers at?
The easiest way to assess your CNS recovery is by using a hand-gripper (aka dynamometer). Although they’re made to measure grip strength, they can show you exactly how much CNS power you have on a given day, making it easier to plan max-effort workouts throughout your training program.
What Is a Max Effort Workout
Max effort workouts are exactly how they sound, you’re summoning as much of your strength as possible to complete a certain goal. This can be lifting a heavy weight, running a certain distance, completing a workout within a certain time, etc. You’ll also know you’ve had a max effort workout just by how you feel afterwards. After a true max effort workout, you shouldn’t be able workout at the same intensity the next day.
Benefits of Max Effort Workouts
Max effort workouts are almost required for performance gains. In order to get stronger, faster, more explosive, etc., you’ll need to know where your body is performing right now. Max workouts also help to push the body beyond what it was capable of before. This, however, will require proper planning of max effort workouts; and proper planning requires knowing how long it takes the CNS to recover
Max Effort vs. Going to Failure
“Going to failure” is not the same as max-effort, but they can easily get confused. Most beginners and intermediates who “go to failure,” sacrifice their form on the last few reps of the exercise. For example, to get 1-2 more reps on the bench press, some people will bring their hip off the bench, bend their elbows in weird directions, etc. Despite pushing the CNS to maximum, this also increases the risk of injury and overtraining.
Max-effort workouts, on the other hand, require perfect form throughout the movement. This difference can be as little as doing a single rep less than you physically can.
Using a Hand Gripper to Assess CNS Recovery
Since CNS recovery is so individual, how can you find out your own recovery speed? One of the simplest tests involves a hand gripper, or dynamometer.
How Does a Hand Gripper Assess CNS Recovery?
Grip strength is directly correlated with CNS strength; the stronger your grip, the stronger your CNS is at that time. This is because gripping uses the same muscular principals as any other explosive exercise. Explosive exercise requires you to recruit as many muscle fibers as possible and as quickly as possible. On top of this, muscular recruitment is entirely governed by CNS strength. This explains how the recruitment of grip strength translates the muscular recruitment for the rest of your body.
Below is a step-by-step guide on how to use the Dynamometer test:
1) Purchase a Dynamometer
You can get one from amazon here (https://amzn.to/38nC8A0). This is a worthy investment since CNS recovery will change throughout your athletic career, making it important to redo this test many times in the future.
2) Get a Baseline Reading
The baseline reading will help you know what a “normal” CNS day looks like. To know what normal is for you, you’ll have to spend a week working out at a “normal” intensity; not too intense, but not super light either. As long as you walk out of the gym feeling like you worked out, but you didn’t max out on anything, you’re having a normal workout.
Right before each of these normal workouts, use the dynamometer to see where your CNS is at this day, then write it down. After a week of doing this, you should have roughly an average to represent a normal CNS day.
3) Perform a Max Effort Workout
Now that we know your baseline, it’s time to perform a max-effort workout to use as much CNS power as possible.
As mentioned, this can mean different things depending on your sport. However, the best way to get maximum CNS output is power exercises. Two of the easiest power workouts are max-effort weightlifting or sprinting
Max Effort Weightlifting
This is essentially powerlifting; doing a squat, bench, and/or deadlift for a single rep at the most weight you can handle. If you’re not familiar with these exercises, try sprinting instead. Someone’s who’s unfamiliar with them cannot get the maximum CNS output because they’re still learning technique and building the required muscles
Sprinting
Although sprinting does require a lot of technique, it’s much easier to get into than powerlifting. How long you can sustain a sprint depends on you background, but it will likely be around 15-30 seconds. Here’s a recommended sprinting protocol that can act as a max-effort workout:
- Sprint as long as you can. As soon as you feel you speed drop slightly, slow down to a jog
- Once you’ve recovered for a bit (this usually takes twice as long as your actual spring), begin sprinting again
- Repeat this cycle until your sprint speed becomes significantly slower and slower
General Power Exercises
As an alternative, doing a workout of mostly power exercises should do the trick as well. Here are a list of the best power exercises to fire up the CNS:
- Box Jumps
- Plyometric Pushups
- Kettlebell Swings
- Dumbbell/Barbell Snatch
4) Continue to Measure Grip Strength Before Each Workout
If you truly had a max effort workout, you should see that your handgrip is much weaker the next day. Because of this, take it easy for your next few workouts. In other words, go at a lighter intensity than the “normal workout” from the beginning.
Continue to use the gripper before each workout. Eventually, you should be back to your baseline numbers. On top of this, you should see the number go above baseline and stay there for a bit. The former means your CNS has fully recovered. The latter means it’s fully adapted. Here’s the difference between the two:
CNS Recovery
This occurs when your CNS is back to normal working condition. When this happens, you can exercise at the same max-effort you did earlier in the week. The number of days it took your gripper to get here is how long it takes for the CNS to recover for you. However, if you wait a couple of days longer before maxing out, you may see CNS adaptation.
CNS Adaptation
Adaptation is the best possible outcome of training. This means you’ve not only recovered, but have gained more CNS output for stronger workouts in the future. You’ll know you’ve adapted when your new “normal” is higher than the baseline from the beginning of the test. When this happens, you can workout at an even higher output than your previous max-effort exercise.
What Slows Down CNS Recovery
99% of people reading this are doing something that slows down their CNS recovery. The other 1% would have to be a professional athlete, or someone who’s entire job is to perform at absolute maximum efforts.
Below are the three common reasons someone’s CNS is not recovery as fast as it should.
Poor Sleep
Despite all the different opinions on the internet, the consensus is this; you need 8 hours of sleep every night for proper recovery. If you’re only getting 5 or 6, adding a couple of hours can make significant changes in your workout performance. However, it’s not just sleep quantity that matters. Sleep quality matters just as much, or even more.
Sleep quality is affected by light levels, sounds, and what you do before sleep. The first two are obvious; the room has to be pitch black, and there should be no sudden noises while you sleep. Not so obviously is how sensitive the body is to light. A study has even found that there’s a significant difference in sleep quality between a pitch black room and a room with a single LED light. That LED light can be as small as the ones on TVs and computers, but it’s enough to effect sleep.
Lastly, what you do before sleep plays a significant role. Generally, it’s best to shut off electronics, especially ones that emit blue light, at least an hour before bed. During that hour, it’s best to only have soft, yellow-red light while doing something relaxing like reading. This hour gives your body time to wind down. Similar to how you need a warm-up before a good workout, your body need a good wind-down before good sleep.
Inadequate Nutrition
A lot of gymgoers with performance goals don’t give enough emphases to nutrition. They often think dialed nutrition “is for bodybuilders.” However, paying attention to what you eat can make the difference between a slow, unresponsive CNS to a fast-recovering and powerful CNS.
Macronutrition
Using a calorie calculator (like this one from Active.com) can help you get started. Most people use this to lose weight, but those looking for performance can use it to eat at or slightly above their maintenance calories. Matching or exceeding those calories will ensure you’re providing plenty of fuel to your workouts.
Once you know your calories, make sure you’re hitting your protein goal every day. 1g per pound of bodyweight works for almost every athlete. If you carry a bit more bodyfat (20%+), you can bump it down to 0.8g per pound.
Lastly, divide your remaining calories between fats and carbs. How much fats and carbs completely depends on the person, but most performance athletes will do well with 20-30% of their calories coming from carbs. Higher carb helps with recovery and fueling glycogen-dependent workouts. Just don’t go too extreme with carbs. Getting too little fats can effect hormones, which will make performance tank in the long-run.
Bad Workout Programming
The worst programming mistake is to not allow proper rest between max effort workouts. This is more common in beginners who try to go as hard as possible every workout. They can get away with it for a month or so, but eventually they need to slow down and recover.
At this point, you should know exactly how long your body needs to recover using the hand gripper test. As long as you follow your body, and not let your ego get in the way, you can design your own personal workout program that sees results.