Garrett Smith
03-05-2009, 04:51 PM
From his latest T-Nation article (http://www.t-nation.com/free_online_article/sports_body_training_performance/pimp_your_workouts_with_these_4_simple_tricks):
3. Ignite Your Nervous System
Your nervous system has direct control over your muscles. Problem is, many of us walk into the gym in a daze, either straight from work or right out of bed. Well, if you're half asleep, so is your nervous system. This severely impedes your ability to generate maximum force with each exercise. In other words, a lazy nervous system keeps you from recruiting more muscle fibers.
The good news is there's an easy fix to this problem. Here's what you should do to fire up your nervous system:
Jump rope for 1 minute
Rest for 15 seconds
*Run at top speed for 10 seconds
Rest 15 seconds
Hang from a pull-up bar for 15 seconds
*If there's no room to run, perform maximal bodyweight jump squats for 10 seconds.
These three simple exercises take only two minutes, but they do wonders for your workout performance. The rope jumping and sprint "wake up" your nervous system; the hang opens the intervertebral space in your spinal column to free up nerve transmissions to your muscles. (This is akin to taking the kinks out of a garden hose.)
Since I'm typically working out in less than an hour from waking up, I definitely want to give this a try. I had already been doing 250 single bounce jump ropes before my joint mobility, so that's easy...I'll likely do the jump squat variation...and hanging on the bar is always nice. If anyone else tries it, please leave some feedback here.
3. Ignite Your Nervous System
Your nervous system has direct control over your muscles. Problem is, many of us walk into the gym in a daze, either straight from work or right out of bed. Well, if you're half asleep, so is your nervous system. This severely impedes your ability to generate maximum force with each exercise. In other words, a lazy nervous system keeps you from recruiting more muscle fibers.
The good news is there's an easy fix to this problem. Here's what you should do to fire up your nervous system:
Jump rope for 1 minute
Rest for 15 seconds
*Run at top speed for 10 seconds
Rest 15 seconds
Hang from a pull-up bar for 15 seconds
*If there's no room to run, perform maximal bodyweight jump squats for 10 seconds.
These three simple exercises take only two minutes, but they do wonders for your workout performance. The rope jumping and sprint "wake up" your nervous system; the hang opens the intervertebral space in your spinal column to free up nerve transmissions to your muscles. (This is akin to taking the kinks out of a garden hose.)
Since I'm typically working out in less than an hour from waking up, I definitely want to give this a try. I had already been doing 250 single bounce jump ropes before my joint mobility, so that's easy...I'll likely do the jump squat variation...and hanging on the bar is always nice. If anyone else tries it, please leave some feedback here.