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CNS Fatigue: A Real Concern or Just Another Lame Excuse?
By Jason Ferruggia
The CNS controls everything; if it’s fried your performance is going to
suck. So you have to be careful about CNS intensive methods and allowing
for proper recovery of the CNS. CNS intensive training methods are the
max effort method in which you are lifting extremely heavy weights for a
max or near max attempt and the dynamic effort method in which you are
lifting light weights very fast. Sprinting and all types of plyos are
also CNS intensive activities.
Ideally, you never want to perform two CNS intensive workouts on back to
back days. The nervous system needs adequate recovery and although you
may not be sore the next day after a CNS intensive workout, that doesn’t
mean that you are ready to train.
So if you do a 1 rep max squat on Monday you need to do something like
repetition upper body work and/or some light running drills or cardio or
whatever on Tuesday. What you don’t want to do is sprint, jump or lift
heavy again. You should ideally separate CNS intensive days by 48 hours.
Therefore if you have to incorporate sprints into the weekly schedule it
is usually best to do them as a double session on your max effort days.
So on Monday morning you would run your sprints and then on Monday night
you would do your max effort squats. If you are really pressed for time
you could do a short sprint workout outside and then walk into the gym
for your max squats.
If you are simply training for bodybuilding this is not as important but
if you are training for strength/performance this rule needs to be taken
under strict consideration.
While CNS recovery is important to consider I should also point out that
it has gotten to be a very hot topic recently and I think some people
may be taking it too far. Actually, I know they are taking it too far.
It’s good to constantly make advances and stay up to date on the latest
scientific discoveries and apply them to our training but we never want
to get too caught up in this either. If your schedule doesn’t work out
perfectly with the structure of CNS intensive days and non CNS intensive
days, don’t freak out about it. When we were growing up we didn’t know
anything about this and we were all ok. I used to jump, trying to touch
the rim at least fifty times per day in high school. And when I finally
got there, I continued to jump fifty times per day trying to dunk for
the next few years. That was high intensity plyos being done 365 days
per year and you know what happened? My vertical went up.
Walter Payton was probably the greatest running back of all time and he
famously did hill sprints every single day of every off season. Would he
have been better if he skipped a day between? Who knows? But the point I
am trying to make is that you have to always be aware of and take into
consideration the science, but never be afraid of hard work and breaking
the rules when you have to; we don’t live in a perfect world. The guy
who works harder than anyone else will always have an advantage over the
science geek who worries about and plans his training to the T. It’s
like Rocky versus Ivan Drago…
Years ago nobody ever discussed or heard of CNS fatigue or adrenal
fatigue and now everybody and their mother is worried about it and is p*ssy
footing around like a bunch of school girls. Get over it. If you drink
too much coffee and don’t always get ten hours of sleep and get stressed
out on occasion and train harder than everyone you know, it aint gonna
kill ya. You’ll be fine. I don’t know who is writing this stuff but I
keep getting questions about it and now I feel bad that I ever mentioned
it in the first place. It just gives the weak another excuse to remain
weak.
Yes, CNS and adrenal fatigue are real issues and you should be concerned
about avoiding both of them by trying to adhere to the rules I listed
above. But the reality is most people just need to learn how to train
harder and smarter and stop making excuses.
Besides, rules are made to be broken. Right?
Jason Ferruggia is a world famous fitness expert who is renowned for
his ability to help people build muscle as fast as humanly possible. He
is the head training adviser for Men’s Fitness Magazine where he also
has his own monthly column dedicated to muscle building. For more great
muscle building information, please visit
http://www.musclegainingsecrets.com/ |
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