Muscle Fatigue Decoded

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to there is a Method to the Madness.
My name is Rob Maxwell and I'man exercise physiologist and
personal trainer.
I am the owner of Maxwell'sFitness Programs and I've been
in business since 1994.
The purpose of this podcast isto get to the real deal of what
really works and, mostimportantly, why things work.

(00:21):
Hence the name.
There is a method to themadness.
Before I get to today's show, Iwant to thank Jonathan and Lynn
Gildan of the Gildan Group atRealty Pros.
They are committed to providingthe highest level of customer
service in home sales.
Why don't you give them a shoutand figure out what your home
is worth?
386-451-2412.

(00:47):
We get to pick this up talkingabout some muscle fatigue today.
This is part two of the podcastthe other day, where I was
talking about what exactlyhappens when the muscles are
broken down Like.
What does that look likephysiologically and what do we
do to help it recover?

(01:08):
Help them recover.
So now let's talk about thebest way to break them down
Because, as I said in the pastpodcast and I say it all the
time that is the goal of astrength training workout.
We want to make sure that we'vecreated the muscle damage and,
in some cases, the metabolicdamage so we can have the

(01:32):
muscles repair, recuperate andcome back stronger.
That's the whole idea ofresistance training.
Resistance training when we useresistance, those things happen
.
The muscles break down, thebody recovers, you come back

(01:55):
stronger.
That, in a sense, is theoverload principle.
So what is the best way to dothat?
Now, when it comes to strengthtraining outside of showing up,
we have to show up to getbenefits from strength training
Right, and that means show up athome, at your home gym with

(02:16):
your dumbbells or your bodyweight.
That means show up outside.
If you've got resistancetraining equipment, you can use
outside.
That means if you're going tomy gym, that's great, you got to
show up outside.
If you've got resistancetraining equipment you can use
outside.
That means if you're going tomy gym, that's great, you got to
show up.
That means if you're going toanother gym, that's great, you
got to show up.
So we have to first beconsistent with our strength
training.

(02:36):
I think that is the obvious.
We can't do any of this if wedon't make a commitment to
showing up on a regular basis.
After that, the most importanttwo variables you need to focus
on in the gym often getoverlooked, and that is number

(02:57):
one form.
Because not only is it a safetyissue like a lot of times
people think, well, form is justabout.
You know, I can hurt my back,that's true.
With bad form, could hurt myelbow if I'm just flinging
weight down, pulling down reallyhard, that's true.
I mean that can happen withpoor form.

(03:17):
But as equally important is thefact that good form recruits
the right muscle groups, andthat is very, very important.
It's not just a safety issue,it's a quality issue, because
ultimately, what we want is foryou to reach or get close to

(03:40):
what is called concentric musclefailure.
That is the point where themuscles cannot do another
quality repetition in good form.
That's concentric musclefailure.
No matter how many sets you do,no matter how many reps you do,

(04:01):
what kind of load you use, theimportant thing to tear down the
muscle fibers so they can berebuilt and come back stronger
is you have to approach failure.
There's some debate on how muchyou have to reach failure, like
if you have to reach it everysingle set on every different

(04:24):
exercise.
I mean that really depends.
That depends on how far alongyou are in your workout cycle,
that depends on your fitnesslevel, that depends on your
motivation.
Like, not everybody can push tothat level, so that's a big.
It depends and that's going tobe the main thing I talk about

(04:45):
today Like how do we figure thisout?
How do we do it?
Like there is no magical way toknow?
The truth is, we have to reachmuscular failure, or get close
to it, to further break down themuscles.
It's not going to happen justby doing more sets of an easy

(05:05):
intensity.
That's not how we do it.
How much, though, is veryindividual, extremely individual
.
As I talked about in the lastpodcast, we don't know exactly
that point where we're going tocause further damage if we keep
going, but we do know there'sabsolutely a point to

(05:29):
diminishing returns.
Okay, so getting to muscularfailure in good form is our goal
of every strength trainingworkout.
Now let's say you hurt your kneeand you're coming back from
rehabilitation right, you justdone some rehab and you're
coming back from rehabilitationright, you just done some rehab,
you're coming back.
Does that mean you go tofailure the very first time you

(05:52):
do your leg extensions?
No, we build into it, but whatit does mean is, every time we
come in, we challenge that alittle bit more until we can get
there.
It doesn't mean we just sitthere and do subpar repetitions
and sets over and over and over.
It's not the quality or it'snot the quantity that's going to

(06:14):
get it done, it's the qualitythat's going to get it done.
Now, in my industry there arethings called acute program
variables and that is oftentalked about, talked about too
much.
How many sets should somebodydo?
How many repetitions?
What's the magic number ofrepetitions?
You know, what load percentageshould somebody use?

(06:35):
And it's, it doesn't matterreally.
All right, let me take the repsfirst.
For the longest time and there'san organization that's still
guilty of it, but they'll say sofrom 6 to 12 is ideal for
hypertrophy.
So 6 to 12 reps is ideal forhypertrophy.

(06:57):
This isn't true, by the way.
This is just kind of theirgeneralized logic.
From 1 to 6, they'll claim, isideal for maximal muscular
strength.
From repetition 12 to 20 isideal for maximal muscular
endurance.
And they break up those threedifferent types of adaptations

(07:19):
and they'll say that's the reprange for this.
Well, the real research and Ishouldn't even say newer, it's
been out a while pretty muchshows that there isn't that
perfect number of reps, notphysiologically.
There might be psychologicallyfor each individual, but there's
not that perfect number of repslike that.

(07:40):
So one study has shown anywherefrom five repetitions to 30
will create almost the identicalresponse, whether it be
strength, endurance andhypertrophy, which pretty much
all occur if you're strengthtraining.
They try to say that you canisolate maximal strength with

(08:01):
doing really heavy weight forlow reps versus hypertrophy is
ludicrous.
So really the key is gettingclose to muscular failure,
whether it be 25 reps or five.
Now where it does matter ispsychologically and of course,
the load that you use.
Like if you're not overlyconfident with your technique,

(08:24):
with your form, then it doesn'tmake sense to go really heavy
weights and do very low reps,like five or six reps or
something like that, because youmight hurt yourself, because
you're not doing it right.
It's not because the load istoo heavy.
It might be just too heavy forthe technique that you feel
confident doing and I wouldargue you know why you don't

(08:47):
have to do that.
You know it'd be much more.
It would make much more senseto grab a moderate load and go
to failure that you're confidentbeing able to use good
technique with, all right.
Now the downside to doing toomany repetitions is.
Sometimes that just becomesmentally grueling, like it's
very hard to continue to holdreally good form, for most

(09:11):
people say longer than a minute,which it's going to take longer
than a minute If you're doingreally high reps.
It becomes very mentallychallenging, it becomes boring
for some people.
So you really just got to findthe sweet spot of repetitions
and then understand it's aboutgetting close.
I got to say close because youmay not have to hit that

(09:34):
concentric failure and I'llexplain that term in a second,
but you got to get close.
And if you're advanced andelite you know I hate to say
elite, that's like a judgmentthing If you're more advanced
and you kind of plateaued, thenyeah, you're going to have to
hit it to get further benefits.
Just doing the same old, sameold all the time isn't going to

(09:55):
make you better.
It's going to maintain it,which is great, and we will
reach a point where we peak inour muscularity, where we peak
in our strength.
That's okay.
When people sometimes fear thator they're not happy about that
, I have to remind them.
It's like that's not such a badthing.
Now we just maintain it, likewe're going to all reach a point

(10:17):
where we're not going to getany stronger and that's okay.
We maintain it to keepourselves mentally fresh.
Maybe we move the exercisesaround so we can peak on a new
exercise.
You know that's all great,that's all well and good, but
just understanding we're goingto reach a peak is going to
happen.
But to get further benefitswhen we're still on that way up

(10:40):
on new exercises or in general,we're going to have to hit
failure.
All right, so it's close tofailure or failure.
Now, concentric means shorteningof the muscle fiber, as I
talked about in the last podcast.
So your actin and myosinfilaments, your protein
filaments within the muscle,cross, bridge each other, and

(11:02):
when they cross and come closerto each other, we call that a
concentric contraction.
That's when the muscle fiber isshortening, that's when it is
contracting concentrically.
We're not going to necessarilyhit eccentric failure, which is
lengthening when the actin andthe myosin are separated further
apart.
We're not going to hiteccentric failure with that.

(11:22):
Very often I mean you can, butthat's doing heavy negatives and
the negative or the eccentriccontraction is 50% stronger than
the concentric, so it's harderto hit and there's really no
evidence that suggests you haveto hit eccentric failure for the
muscle to grow.
I mean, does it help?
Yes, but again, it's going tobe hard to do those negatives,

(11:46):
to do that, but we do have toreach concentric failure or
close to get the benefits.
Okay, that's how we do it.
So just to kind of recap thatpart, because it's very
important, I have to restressthat, restate that the goal of
going to the gym for strengthtraining is number one, to get

(12:06):
there, number two, to do theexercises correctly.
And I'm not even going tostress, I'll say it again, so
you don't get hurt.
Yes, but that's we kind of allknow that, but I hope but it's
also to do it correctly.
So we're recruiting the rightmuscle fibers, okay.
So again, let's say you'redoing curls, you're doing

(12:28):
dumbbell curls, but you'reswinging them up.
Are you recruiting some of yourbiceps?
Yes, but you're also recruitingsome of your lower back muscles
.
So it's not just about gettinghurt.
You're taking the recruitmentaway from the muscles that
you're trying to get to failureand you're using momentum to try

(12:48):
to get more repetitions, whichtotally defeats the point.
That's totally an ego move todo that.
That's so you can look likeyou're using more weight than
you really can handle.
I mean, you know we can all dothat Like.
You can take anybody moderatelystrong and grab weights that
are 10 pounds heavier thanthey're used to and fling it up

(13:08):
there and have the average gymgo or go.
Oh wow, they're using a lot ofweight.
I mean, that's really not thathard to do and I will be blunt
here it is stupid.
There is no reason to do.
And I will be blunt here it isstupid.
There is no reason to do it.
We go to the gym to buildstrength, not to demonstrate our
strength to our peers.
It doesn't matter, and you knowwhat people nobody cares.

(13:30):
They really don't care aboutyou Like you think they do.
They're probably not looking atyou and if you are flinging
weights around, they are lookingat you, but they're also making
fun of you.
So there is no reason to do it.
Safety, of course, but alsoyou're not building more
strength in those areas byflinging weights.
So the idea of a good form is torecruit the appropriate muscle

(13:55):
fibers.
When you're doing standingdumbbell curls I'm just using
this example because this is oneI often see people cheat on
You're trying to recruit yourbicep brachii, your brachialis
and your brachioradialis.
Those are the three muscles ofthe anterior arm.
Those are the three that you'retrying to recruit.
You're not trying to recruityour deltoids by flinging the

(14:18):
weights up or pulling your elbowaway from the side, trying to
recruit your deltoids byflinging the weights up or
pulling your elbow away from theside.
You're not trying to recruityour rectus spinae or lower back
muscle by swinging or flippingat your waist.
You're not trying to build upyour quads or recruit your quads
by bending your knees andjamming the weight up.
You're not trying to do it andI know when I explain it that
way it sounds ludicrous, butpeople do it all the time.
Okay, so our goal is to getthere.

(14:39):
Our next goal is to do it right.
Our third goal is to get thefailure.
There will be a quiz on thisfor everybody.
You know who you are.
You're going to get that quiz.
I'm kidding, everybody's goingto get the quiz.
So now the next part of this isso then, how much is too much?
And that's what we don't know.

(15:00):
Okay, we know, as I explained inthe last podcast, that Hans
Selye gave us the stressadaptation syndrome.
He gave us the cycle, he gaveus the stages.
You know we're going toinitiate with the alarm stage.
I mean, we're going to do that,then we're going to get into
resistance, which is a goodthing.

(15:21):
We don't want to reachexhaustion.
So someone might say so if Inever went to failure, I'm
probably not going to get intothat exhaustion stage.
That could be true.
It's unlikely, because if youwent every day and did subpar
reps all the time, you probablywill still overtrain.
But let's just play devil'sadvocate and say that could be

(15:43):
true.
But you're also not going tosee full benefits either.
You can't.
Unless the muscles are close toexhaustion, you can't, you
can't see further benefits.
That's just not the way itworks.
You're trying to recruit everymuscle fiber within every motor
unit and every motor unit withineach muscle belly.
That's what we're trying to do,and you're not going to recruit

(16:04):
that with less than idealintensity.
It is not going to happen.
So we have to get to exhaustion.
If we do too much, we have toget to fatigue.
I should say we have to exhaustthe muscles, but we don't have
to get to exhaustion in theentire cycle.
So we do have to rest, allright.

(16:26):
What I mean is that once we hita certain point, we shouldn't
go beyond it.
The problem is nobody knowswhat that point is and I don't
mean the point in a set.
We know that you have to hitfailure or close.
I mean, do we turn around anddo a second set at that?
Do we do a third set at that?
That depends on theindividual's recovery.

(16:46):
And we don't know.
We're not fortune tellers.
We can't tell you know, and no,ai can't tell you either.
We don't know.
But we do know that too manysets is just going to be
completely counterproductive.
Too many sets is going to becounterproductive.
It is not going to work if wedo too many sets or too many

(17:10):
exercises.
What we have to understand isthat we grow from intensity and
when we rest, when we recuperate, we come back stronger.
If we keep going and going andgoing, we're not going to, we're
going to go backwards.
So what should we look for?
Well, the first thing we shouldlook for is are you continuing

(17:33):
to show improvements?
I mean again your first year oftraining, your first six months
especially.
You should continue to seeupward mobility in the weights,
in the loads lifted, in the repranges that you picked, the best
range for you.
Oftentimes we'll go from, say,eight to 20 reps at the gym,
because it's just a good evennumber.

(17:53):
To get people to.
It doesn't take too long.
Typically it's not too heavywhen we're around eight.
There are some people that willgo a little heavier and there
are some people that theirmovements are so fast we end up
doing higher reps with too,because we're trying to get them
to fatigue in good form.
But that's usually our range,so we should be able to show an

(18:15):
increase in that.
Another thing to look for is doyou still have a desire to train
and exercise?
If you're starting to feel likeyou're burned out, you don't
want to go to the gym.
You might be overtrained, youmight be doing too much volume,
you might be doing too many sets.
I mean, there's the research onsets that we've been fighting

(18:36):
for probably over 50 years.
I know I've seen it for 40.
And that is where and I'm olderthan that, but I'm just saying
I was a nose in the industry butpeople are like well, you know,
three sets is perfect, foursets is perfect.
You know, two sets is good, oneset not enough.
All this is flat out not true.
Nobody knows for sure.

(18:58):
Depends on a person's age,depends on their fitness level,
depends on how much they'resleeping and other outside
stresses they have and, as Isaid, unfortunately in the last
podcast, it depends on how muchdrugs they're using.
If people are using anabolicsteroids and aids, they're going
to be able to recover quickerand they're going to be able to
do more.
That's going to come with aprice.

(19:19):
That is a, in my opinion, apretty you know.
If it's for recreationalpurposes, a pretty dumb health
decision, but people will makethat, but they're going to be
able to train more.
If you're a normal person andyou're not doing that, you're
not going to be able to do asmany sets.
You have to figure it out.

(19:39):
I can tell you from my ownpersonal experience with myself
and with clients less is more.
When I start doing too much forme personally, I start losing
intensity.
When I lose intensity, I don'tsee the results.
I mean, it's just common sense.
If you know you're going to doa couple sets per muscle group
and you're going to go tofailure, your mind can go.

(20:00):
I can do that.
If you're going to do like 10sets per muscle group and you
are going to ask yourself youknow, do I have to go maximal
effort?
Right, you're going toautomatically ask that question
and you're not going to want todo it, it's just human nature.
Okay, so how much?
We don't know.
We keep charts.
I keep charts on people and Iget a pretty good idea as to

(20:24):
what kind of volume the personcan handle.
I want you to pay attention toyour progress moving upward.
I want you to pay attention toyour sleep levels.
If you're sleeping good, you'reprobably not getting
overtrained.
I want you to pay attention tohow much your desire is to go to
the gym, because if you're avery motivated person but you
find yourself losing desire, youmight be overdoing it, and you

(20:48):
know.
I want you to just really payattention to how do you feel
about it when you're doing it,because your body will tell you.
But the most important thing isunderstand how we get there
muscular failure, and that'swhat's going to work.
How do we get there, how do wedo it in good form?
And then we just have to payattention to how much is enough.

(21:20):
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(21:41):
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