When people think of exercise, they first think of muscle. This makes sense considering one of the main goals of exercise is to develop muscle, whether for aesthetic or performance goals. What most people don’t consider is the importance of the nervous system when it comes to exercise. In fact, if the nervous system wasn’t constantly signaling and coordinated your muscles to contract during your workout, there wouldn’t be any workout at all. Having a fully optimized nervous system is so important for muscle growth that It deserves its own exercise routine.
Training the nervous system (NS) requires the use of explosive movements – producing maximum strength as quickly as possible. Typical NS training involves a 1-5 rep range, using 30-50% of you maximum load, and resting for over 2 minutes between sets. The intention is to move the weight/body with as much force as possible while also moving as quickly as possible.
To understand why this works, it’s important to understand the role of the nervous system in strength training and how it can make every workout much more effective.
Nervous System During Exercise
The nervous system works during exercise by sending electric signals from the brain and spinal cord – also known as the central nervous system (CNS) – to the muscles that are working. This signal is sent through the Motor Nerve, a nerve who’s only role is to activate muscle fibers. A single motor nerve can attach to anywhere between 100 to 1,000 separate muscle fibers, creating what’s called a motor unit. Every time that motor nerve sends a signal, all muscle fibers in its motor unit contract to lift a weight.
Although all muscle fibers in a motor unit always activate together, this does not mean all fibers in an entire muscle group activate to lift a weight. A single muscle can have hundreds of motor units, but each unit performs better at different tasks depending on the type and quantity of it’s muscle fibers.
There are 3 main types of muscle fibers, and each specialize in different tasks:
- Type 1: Slow twitch
- Type 2a: Slow/Fast twitch (medium)
- Type 2b: Fast twitch
Generally speaking, tasks that are low intensity use smaller motor units that are made mostly of Type 1 fibers. High intensity tasks that require a lot of strength in a short amount of time use larger units made of Type 2b fibers. If your repeat a low intensity movement enough times, the smaller fibers will tire out, and will then recruit larger fibers to take its places. This is why exercise physiologists recommended an 8-12 rep range. The average person cannot recruit all of their muscle fibers within less than 8 reps, even with heavy weights. Also, if they’re doing more than 12 reps, they weight may be too light to trigger the larger fast twitch fibers.
Why Train the Nervous System
As mentioned, not all muscle fibers in a muscle group contract during an exercise. In fact, the average person only recruits 50% of their muscle fibers in a workout, leaving the other half untrained. Expert weightlifters on the other hand, can recruit over 90% of their fibers in a single lift. They’ve trained they’re body to effectively use every ounce of muscle for optimum performance.
Maximum Muscle Development
If only half of your muscle fibers are getting a workout, then you’re only getting half of the muscle building benefits of resistance training. Training your nervous system to recruit as many fibers as possible will get the entire muscle worked out during every training session.
Maximum Performance
Almost all sports rely heavily on recruiting maximum strength as fast as possible, also known as power. If your nervous system cannot recruit many muscle fibers in one burst, performance will decrease significantly. For example, sports like football and baseball require powerful sprinting legs. However, if you can only recruit half of your leg muscles, you can only conjure half of your leg power. As a result, sprint speed drops.
Best Exercises for the Nervous System
Any exercise can be turned into an effective nervous system workout by making it explosive. Explosivity means summoning as much strength as possible as quickly as possible. Here are the variables required:
| Sets | 3-6 |
| Reps | 1-5 |
| %1RM | 30-50% |
| Rest | >2min |
Sets and Reps
Explosive movements must be done with low reps to be effective. Although it is common for people to perform box jumps for over 20 reps, high reps trains endurance rather than the nervous system. Anything beyond 5 reps does not force the body into recruiting more and more muscle fibers in a single lift.
%1RM
This means percentage of your one rep max. For example, if the absolute most you can bench press is 100lbs for a single rep, then you should use 30-50lbs to train explosively. Although heavier weights can be more demanding on the muscles, they will also so down the reps significantly, which defeats the purpose of explosive exercise. Anything lighter has the opposite problem – although you may move faster, the weight doesn’t challenge the muscle enough to want to recruit more fibers.
Rest
This is the most overlooked aspect of nervous system training. Not rest for your muscles – muscle can fully recover in less than a minute – we’re resting for the nervous system itself. Resting for 30-60 seconds feels like plenty because the muscles have flushed out their lactic acid and other waste products, making them feel new again. However, if you start the next set after only a minute, the nervous system will not work nearly as well, decreasing the quality of the second set. Quality is the most important aspect of nervous system training; every set must be the exact same speed, reps, and effort. With that said, it’s best to rest for at least a minute if not more to allow the full recovery of the nervous system
Example Exercises
Box Jumps
Directions
- Stand in front of a box with a height between 12″ and 24″ or higher. Most people can start with 18″
- Squat down at a normal speed, and once you hit the lowest point you can reach without compensation, come to a complete stop
- Hold the bottom of the squat for 1 second, then jump out of that position and onto the box as fast as possible
- STEP down from the box (don’t jump down). Reset your stance in front of the box, then repeat for the desired rep range
Tips
- Remember that the ONLY part of the rep that must be done fast is the actual jump from the deep squat. For everything else – stepping off the box and squatting down – go at a normal controlled speed
Plyo Pushups
Directions
- Position yourself in a normal pushup position
- Lower your body until your chest is an inch from the ground
- Push yourself up and off the ground as hard as possible. Try to get as much height as you can
- Land back on your hands with slightly bent elbows. Reposition your hands if needed, and repeat
Tips
- If this is too difficult to do on the floor, place your hands on a box while keeping your feet on the floor. Over time, use a lower and lower box until you have the strength to perform this on the floor