YOUR STRENGTH TRAINING MIGHT BE MAKING YOU WEAKER

Ok, so you lift weights right?

It makes you stronger right?

Most of the time thats true, lift weights - get stronger.

Especially if you are a super responder.

Whats that I hear you cry!

Well it's a term used in studies to classify how some people respond to the testing.

There are 4 categories:

Super responders - you've guessed it. the respond really well.

Normal responders - respond as expected.

Non responders - no change seen.

Negative responders - actually had a negative change.

you can actually buy kits of the interwebs to check if you are a non responder to things. Hey people have to make cash somehow huh?

Now if you train at the gym, depending on how safe your brain feels, it will use the input information to generate an output - BIGGER GUNS!

Well only if the exercises your'e doing aren't threatening your brain and nervous system.

You see, if your nervous system and brain don't like what your'e doing OR the dosage you're doing it at. It will shut it down.

That means no gains for you!

Maybe you can't manage the force or control the weight well. Maybe you have problems controlling the angles or the volume is too much for you right now or the weight is too heavy.

All of that matters and all of that will be used by your brain to make a decision on if its a threat or not and what type of response to generate.

Thats not to say what your'e doing is wrong.

Maybe it's just the dose that is wrong right now. That where you need to figure out the MED (minimum effective dose) that will allow you to progress.

One consequence of consistently being in a threatened state is hormonal responses.

Name a stress hormone?

Thats right Cortisol.

What does cortisol do?

Eats muscle nom nom nom!

It actually turns the muscle to carbohydrate so it can be used as fuel to help you survive the threat. You can see how this can develop into a vicious cycle of training and not making progress, which leads to no motivation etc etc etc.

So if your training has stalled at the gym or the motivation has jumped ship. Take a step back and think.

Are you doing too much?

Are you overdosing on the exercise?

Because theres actually no such thing as non responders etc, it's just that the right dose hasn't been found for that person.

Thats why we custom build everything for our members.

So if your progress has stalled take a second to think, am I using my muscle as fuel instead of actually building it?