CNS "burnout"?

I found this piece from Justin Harris and I wanted to put it up because I found it interesting. While I often have to use terms with "CNS" in it because so many believe in this theory (created and perpetuated by bro-science) in relation to training, I have never really believed in the whole "CNS burnout" theory in relation to lifting weights. As Justin notes here, you'll hear this term thrown all over the place on message boards but there isn't any peer reviewed material backing up this bro-science. If anyone can post any up feel free to do so. I personally think it was started by the LSCN master himself. Now you have all of these minions running around spouting it off like it's a scientifically proven theory. I think a lot of it started after Mike Mentzer and his HIT theories resurfaced about a decade and a half ago. People started chanting about how training to failure all the time would result in adrenal burn out, with literally no evidence behind this.

Since then DoggCrapp has had people training to failure over and over again on multiple exercises in a session, 20 rep squats, and high rep deadlifts. All in a week, and what happened? People ate a lot and grew like crazy. Even from a bro-science standpoint, if CNS burnout and adrenal fatigue were true, that's the one program that would have proven it. Yet people just got big and strong on it.

From Harris -

"I won't get too involved with the CNS training and strength sports, but I don't get too excited about that concept either.

Adrenal fatigue is thrown around quite frequently these days and I don't really know why. There is no medically recognized disease of adrenal fatigue. If you look into the term adrenal fatigue you'll find many articles posted on bodybuilding and powerlifting forums, but you'll find no scientific or peer reviewed articles on the subject.
If you search for peer reviewed journals on adrenal insufficiency, you'll find addison's disease, a disease which is caused when the adrenal glands do not produce enough of the hormone "cortisol."
This is the exact opposite of what people write about when mentioning adrenal fatigue. They talk about excessive cortisol production from various forms of stress. Adrenal insufficiency is exactly the opposite of this.

The central nervous system and the peripheral nervous system are quite different systems. The system that is most readily affected by training and forms of physical stress is the somatic branch of the peripheral nervous system.

The PNS connects the "body" to the CNS and is exposed to injury and toxins in ways the CNS isn't. The CNS is hidden away in the brain and spine and protected by the blood-brain barrier.

Specialized strength training is important and has come a long way, but I believe there can be too much specialization. Specialization to the point of limiting progress and variance in physical stimulus isn't progress.

I've always trained to get bigger muscles by using heavier and heavier weights. I don't know whether that is bodybuilding training or powerlifting training.
I know that my training didn't really change a whole lot between training for football, training for bodybuilding, and training for powerlifting and I did well in each of them. Perhaps I could have done better with more specialized training, but I have too much fun at the gym to stress about those things.

I'm not here to get in a debate about the CNS. There are people who've had success with all forms of training. I am never one to discourage anyone from doing something that has brought themselves and their clients success. My feelings on the subject stem from what I understand about psychopharmacology and how it is affected from physical stimulus."


Thoughts?

Training

Pipes and Cannonballs - a few sets

Cardio - 30 minutes on treadmill YUCK

weight is now 238 pounds. I dropped almost all carbs the last few days so I'm sure it's just glycogen loss. I felt flat tonight and looked flatter. 14 more days of this then Vegas.

Training

28Apr10 - Pressing stuff

bodyweight - 240

Incline Press -
135 x 15
185 x 10

225 x 20
225 x 10
185 x 15

Laterals - side front and rear 20 pounders x 20 reps

Notes - Elbow is really hurting tonight. Wasn't feeling great so just got some reps in and called it a night. Just two more weeks and then a long deload (vacation in Vegas). Will ice it some more tonight and some more ibuprofen. Getting old(er) sucks.

Random thoughts about training, life, crap, and stuff

War Stories -

"I used to be as big as you are."

"I was as strong as you at one point."

"My cousin, he benches 600."

"My son, he's in high school, he's about your size."

I could go on and on all day with these.  20+ years I've been lifting weights and there isn't a week that goes by that I don't hear one of these.  In the gym it's even worse.  At a previous gym there was this old guy who used to watch me like a hawk.  It was quite disturbing actually.  He watched me constantly.  Like a security guard watches skate boarders at the local Target.  Anyway I was having a pretty good session one night and hit 275x5 on the seated overhead press and after I racked the weight he ran over to me and got into my face and screamed at me...

"MY SON HAS 19 INCH BICEPS AND CAN BENCH PRESS 425 POUNDS!"  

"Uh, ok good for him."

I walked off after that but he continued to stare at me.  Sometimes I would catch him out of the corner of my eye walking in my direction and I would bolt the other way.

Anyway, everyone USED to be big or USED to be strong.  I don't know if there is anything worse than a guy that used to lift weights but tries to tell you what you do or don't know.  Go take up a knitting class asshole and have a glass of shut the hell up juice if you don't have the sack to stay under the iron.

Pardon the mild rant. Anyway, every guy that lifts long enough and builds an appreciable amount of muscle will get some of these.


Yeah yeah, great most muscular "used to lift weights" fat guy. I bet you specialized on bench too.

Take your child to work day -

I finally remembered this this year and brought my two oldest.  It was a lot of fun actually and I'm grateful we were able to spend that time together.

Cruising on lifts -

I have been in cruising mode for a while in lifting and I am enjoying it.  I have only really learned this ability in the last few years and wish I had the attitude for it years ago.  I am generally balls to the walls intensity year round but the fact is, you really can't do that without incurring injuries or setbacks at some point.  It's better to maintain your foundation level of strength and then push the envelope a few times a year than constantly be a race car in the red with training intensity.  You won't last long like that and progress will be inconsistent.  Know when to back off.  And I don't mean for a workout, I mean for a few weeks at a time.  You aren't going to get weaker and when you do decide to push it the body will respond.  Plus I love conditioning this time of year.  The weather is great and I can get back to feeling good again.

Be smart and understand recovery over the long haul as well. Two or three months of cruising is nothing in a lifetime of lifting.


Hollywood sucks

There are literally like 200 remakes in the works.  Why can't Hollwood develop new stories?  Does every writer in the world have writers block?  Crap, make a movie about that!  How every writer in the world is stricken with some sort of alien disease and has lost all of their imagination.  And for the love of God can someone stop Michael Bay from making another movie of ANY kind?  Wow this guy is full of the suck.


Someone stop giving this guy money and old movie scripts please.

Peri-workout nutrition - does it really matter?

Anyone who has spent a modicum of time researching nutrition stuff has heard that you need to eat X so many minutes before training, then X so many minutes before training (that's not a repeat, it's two different times BEFORE training), then you gotta have BCAA during training, then you gotta eat X right after training then eat X another 90 minutes later blah blah blah.

Look I've done that before, I don't notice any difference.  I will say that I have figured out that a small bowl of oatmeal and a protein shake in water about 60-90 minutes before I train does help me.  I have a decent amount of energy with this.  During workout I've done everything from BCAA to gatorade, to whatever.  I keep pretty good training logs and I don't ever remember noticing that I benefited THAT greatly from one to the other.  Post workout I just make sure I have something to eat within an hour.  Mainly because well, I'm hungry.  Dudes have been getting big and lean for decades without peri workout nutrition.  Does it give you an edge?  Maybe.  How much?  5%?  10%?  No one can say.  I always hear about scientific studies regarding this but from my own anecdotal standpoint I've never seen a big difference.  If anything I always felt better by using food before and after lifting.  I still play around with this from time to time but I think it's the most overrated thing in all of training nutrition personally.

My Modern Warfare/Xbox 360 Family

I've been playing online with a couple of guys (chicken and bonebust) for I don't know how many years now. Anyway, outside of them we have a group of guys we have been playing with for a long time. I made a joke the other night this one kid we've been playing with has bass in his voice now. So we've been playing online together so long we went through puberty with this kid. I don't know why I find that funny but I do. Another friend that bones and I play with all the time is called KillingKnight. He lives in Cali and is a pot head. Sometimes when we're playing and you can see what he's doing, then suddenly his character isn't even moving. Generally when that happens it means he's smoked so much he's just passed out. Literally, at that moment.

Xbox live is also a strange place, where everyone thinks that Bonedust and I are black guys and they call us the N word, and where kids curse like sailors. Where are the parents at?

It's also where "we'll see bro" was born and now myself, my work friends, and my family say it all the time. All credit for that is to Bonebust. The story behind that is we were playing against this kid one night that kept running his mouth about how great he was. We lost 1 match against this kid and his team and after that he would not shut up talking smack. So eventually Bones just started saying "we'll see bro" to everything he said to us. Kinda like this....

"I'm gonna beat you guys down again."

"We'll see bro"

"You guys suck. I own all you guys."

"We'll see bro"

"Next match I'm gonna do it again."

"We'll see bro"

"Your team is garbage."

"We'll see bro"

"Why do you keep saying that?"

"We'll see bro"

"That's stupid."

"We'll see bro"

"Yeah, we'll see. We'll see who sucks."

"We'll see bro"

This went on through multiple matches and eventually everyone was laughing hysterically at this kid and he left. So lesson learned, you can be just as annoying as young smart-ass kids online if you really put your mind to it.

HAH HAH! Love you Timmy! No homo.

No psyche -

How often do you have to "psyche" before a set? I've been thinking more about this lately and how much stress it puts on you. If you're training 3-4 times a week and doing say 4-5 movements per session and you have to psyche for every working set, you're getting psyched up a hell of a lot of times that week. I think this is something a lot of guys overlook, but I am beginning to think it plays a bigger factor than we realize.

If you used weights that were at the top of your "casual max" each week, you leave a lot of room for ramping up over months and weeks, and I think you'd get less mentally burnt as often. I think this could be a very easy telltale key in proper programming as well. If you're into the third week of your training cycle and you're already having to get psyched to prepare for that lift, maybe rethink your programming right then and there. Just a thought. I may expound on this idea later.


Save these for just a few weeks in a training cycle.

Tats -

I am tat free, however have thought more about getting one for months now. For my own personal reasons, not to "look cool". I haven't settled on it yet. The wife hates em, so that's even more reason to get a full sleeve done and come home with it. HAH!


I wonder if this guy also changed his name to Skelator?

Conditioning for winter -
Winter ended here only a couple of months ago. The winters here can be bad. I don't mind the cold, but the snow and ice ruin my outside conditioning. I hate machines. I like to do a lot of sprinting and hill running. Sometimes I do this in the snow anyway but after a while it's just a pain in the ass. I have seriously been considering getting a prowler but was wondering how it would work in the snow. I live on a side street so they don't always get around to salting our roads that quickly in the winter.

We'll see bro....


Seems like an awful lot to pay to have something to push around in the winter for conditioning.

Developing your raw squat - Pt. 3

This is the final installment in this series (I swear!).  This part is going to touch on common muscular weaknesses I had and see in other squatters, how I fixed them, and some routines that helped boost my squat.  Keep in mind that unless your squat mechanics are in shape you will not get the full benefit of these.

Once you get these things fixed, you can pretty much just squat using various degrees of volume and intensity (load %) to drive the squat.  Yes it's a strange concept I know but you can actually get a bigger squat by just squatting.  However early on it is helpful to isolate some areas in terms of flexibility and strengthening in order to correct MECHANICAL issues so that you can squat properly.

Weaknesses in the raw squat -

I think the most common problem I see, and the one that plagued me the longest was that stupid knee cave you get when the weight gets heavy coming out of the hole. 

First off, let me say this is BAD with a capital B (I capped the A and D as well).  This can eventually wreck your knees if not corrected and second, it looks shitty.  I think they should red light squats a meets with excessive knee cave.  If hitching a deadlift is out I don't see why excessive knee cave couldn't be out.  It looks atrocious and is bad for the lifter doing it.  My simple rant.  Anyway...........

Remedying my knee cave took two things.  Stretching my hip flexors to allow better function of the glute medius in my squatting, and then strengthening the glute medius itself.  You could have the strongest glute medius in the world but if you are short (tight) in the hip flexors they won't be able to function properly in a deep squat. 

1.  Use the hip flexor stretch I talked about in part 1 at the beginning as part of the general warm up, in between sets of squats, then at the end of squatting.
2.  Do 1 legged squats with one foot on a bench behind you.  If you want to make these harder grab dumbbells or elevate the front foot to allow for a deeper squat.  The 1 legged squat does two things at once.  Strengthens the glute medius AND stretches the hip flexor of the non working leg (the one on the bench). 
3.  Use the adductor machine (where you bring your legs in against resistance) to ensure balance of the antagonist muscle groups. 
4.  Perform a glute and hamstring dominant exercise to keep your posterior up to speed with the dominant quads.  Use a rotation of deadlifts, stiff legs, and hypers. 
5.  Use pause squats so that you can build more strength coming out of the hole using proper hip drive.

6.  Use a squat routine based on low starting percentages and high volume building to a new max over 12 weeks.  

The following routine will help you with that awful knee cave problem.  It will not go away overnight.  This is why you should plan on about 12 weeks of solid squatting to improve your strength and flexibility.    

Squats - Hip flexor strength before you start, between sets, and after you are done with the workout.

Week 1 - 8 sets to 68% @ 8 reps
week 2 - 8 sets to 70% @ 8 reps
week 3 - 8 sets to 75% @ 8 reps
week 4 - 7 sets to 80% @ 5 reps
week 5 - 6 sets to 82% @ 5 reps
week 6 - 4 sets to 85% @ 5 reps
week 7 - 5 sets to 82% @ 5 reps
week 8 - 5 sets to 85% @ 5 reps
week 9 - 6 sets to 92% @ 3 reps
week 10 - 6 sets to 95% @ 3 reps
week 11 - 6 sets to 100% @ 2 reps
week 12 - test new max

The squatting routine is to be used once a week.  As far as the sets listed go, they INCLUDE warm ups.  So week one reads 8 sets of 68% that means the 8th set should be at 68% of your estimated 1RM.  

How you structure your warm ups up to that 8th set is up to you, however I suggest fairly equal jumps.  That means if you are going to squat 315x8 for the last set, something like 135, 185, 205, 225, 245, 274, 295, then 315.  If you are a really weak guy and your max is like 185 just do a lot of sets at small increments.  The volume is part of the key here.  Use the early parts of the program when the volume is high to continue to drill your form.  

Now let me add, you don't have to do the prescribed number of reps for all sets.  Just for the last set.  However I highly recommend keep the reps close to that, especially early in the program.  Something between 5-8 reps for all of the warm up sets is ideal.  

And DO NOT OVERESTIMATE YOUR MAX.  For the love of God do not overestimate your max.  

Pause Squats - reduce the weight from your last set by 15-20% and do 3x5.  Hold in the bottom for 3 seconds.  Keep this in for the whole 12 weeks.

1-Legged Squats - 2x20 for each leg no weight.  Add reps here every week.  Drop them after week 8.

Adductor Machine - 2x10 to failure both sets.  Drop them after week 8.

Hypers/Stiff Legs/Deadlifts (rotate these exercises) - 2x15-20 for hypers/2x8 for stiff legs/2x5 for deadlifts.  Keep these in for the whole 12 weeks.  

This routine is not easy so be mindful of your intensity and load early on in it.  If you go balls out the first few weeks you will likely get burnt.  The whole point of this is to improve your squat weakness and then focus the last 3 weeks on pushing bigger weights.  If you are smart about this the weights you have plugged in will feel easy.  And then on week 12 you'll be happy as you set a new PR.  If were stupid and plugged in a max that is too hight you could get stapled or even revert back to that nasty knee cave.  Be smart in your programming.  

Help I'm in a good morning and I can't get up! -

I touched on this in terms of bar placement, but some guys get folded over even in a proper squat once the weight gets heavy.  The midsection feels weak, the abdominals give way, and then the next thing you know you're in a good morning.  

Obviously taking some serious time out to work on the abs, obliques, and erectors is needed here.  But you need to include some glute work in there as well.  If you are doing full squats the glutes become more prominently into play.  And the faster you can get out of the hole, the less you'll be likely to get bent over like Ed Norton in American History X.

Run the same squat routine as above, but afterwards do the following to help with this problem.  

Ab Roller - 

weeks 1-4 - 30 total reps

weeks 5-8 - 50 total reps

weeks 9-12 - 75 total reps 

If your gym doesn't have one of these laying around just use a barbell with some plates on each side.  This makes things more difficult as well. 

1-Legged Hyperextensions -

weeks 1-4 - 5 sets of 3 per leg

weeks 5-8 - 5 sets of 5 per leg

weeks 9-12 - 4 sets of 8 per leg

If these are too easy with bodyweight only, only an appropriate plate that makes it harder.

Db Side Bends - 2 sets of 12 using as heavy a dumbbell as you can use.

  The over-warm up -This method is meant more for advanced guys who know their real limits and have their mechanics in order.  The only exercise in it is the squat. 

A few reasons it works is because it's designed to work with you on how you feel on every particular day.  Having an off day?  You can still have a good squat workout.  Having an awesome day?  Try to set a rep PR.
Basically this is how you will use this approach.
After your general warm up, throw a plate on the bar and start your warm ups.  As you warm up, you want to get an idea of what top warm-up single you would like to hit for the day.  However the single isn't the focal point really, it's the down set after that.  The single should be nothing more than your last warm up.  After that you should decide on a weight and a number of reps you would like to hit for that day.  For example...
Squat - 135 x 10, 225 x 5, 315 x 5, 405 x 3, 500 x 1, 535 x 1, down set - 500 x 9 (was shooting for 10). 

Notice the last single was not a lot more than the down set that was used for reps.  The last warm up single should not be a great deal over the weight you plan on hitting for reps.  In this example is somewhere around the 7% range.  I would suggest something in the 7-10% for your last warm up single over your repping weight.  This approach is somewhat instinctive and some guys can get carried away with the last single.  Remember it is not about the single here it is about the rep set.  The last single helps prime you to move the repping weight more easily.  So don't get carried away with the single.  If you grind the single because it's too close to a true max, you will be too taxed to really get after the reps on the down set.   

Conclusion -
These are some things I have used to help fix and increase my squat.  Now that my mechanics are in order I generally just squat or pause squat to improve my squat, especially come meet prep time.  When I am not training for a competition I will relax a bit and play with some machines and not squat too heavy usually unless I've had an extended layoff and need to build some foundation level strength back.  So if your squat has been suffering, or you're not a natural squatter make sure you spend plenty of time working on your technique and mechanics and figure out the mental and physical cues that work best for you.

Training

Conditioning - 10 hill sprints at maximum speed.  Minimal rest between runs.

Training

24Apr10 - Deadlifts

Weight - 240

stiff legs - 135 x 20, 225 x 10

deads from floor -

315 x 5
405 x 3
455 x 1
500 x 1

550 x 1
585 x 1
615 x 1

500 x 8

surgs - 405 x 20

Abs and Calves

Notes - Was not feeling the greatest today as I had a little bit to drink last night and I was DEFINITELY feeling it today. Sluggish and tired to say the least, but it was time to test the dead from the floor after several weeks from mid-shin. The 615 was fairly difficult but I am probably good for 630-640 on a good day. If I had felt better I would have pushed it but that's when bad shit happens so I just shut it down from there.  Same for the 500x8.  As you can see the reps were easy but as soon as I felt rep speed slow just a bit I shut it right down.  I never grind my deadlifts.