WHY IS THIS HAPPENING?
This is an example of the intense shaking many of you may experience during certain exercises or sequences in your classes. This example is during a lunge but many of you experience this during planks, isometric holds and when the ring is placed in between your knees and ankles. It’s often frustrating because you feel physically able to continue but your body is essentially shutting you down. Therein is the cause; it is a defensive reaction of your muscle to the forces or stress your brain is asking your muscles to deal with. Simply, your muscle are attempting to refuse the movement instruction from your brain. Shaking along with other effects like lactic acid burn is your body’s way of encouraging you to stop what you are doing because it’s hard.
Obviously we do not want you stop.
By increasing your tolerances to these thresholds that your body attempts to place on you, you will get stronger, leaner and more conditioned.
Inside the tendons of your body that attach muscle to bone are receptors known as Golgi Tendon Organs (GTO). GTO’s are sensitive to changes in tension and rate of tension and because they are located in the musculotendinous junctions, they are responsible for sending information to the brain as soon as they sense an overload. This information basically says ‘please stop lunging’.
When this information gets sent, the GTO inhibits the contraction (autogenic inhibition). In other words, the muscle stops itself from contracting in an attempt to stop the exercise that is causing the body so much stress. Click the link above (IMG 1040) and a see real world example of the GTO in action. It is an automatic reflex, you can’t do anything about it. However, you can lessen it’s inhibitory effect by consistently exposing it to the same type of stress. So again, as always, train CONSISTENTLY and see positive changes not only in your aesthetic appearance but in your physiological and neurological capabilities as well. As the GTO shows, improving these often ignored and less-considered capabilities enhances training performance, which in turn will lead to even better aesthetic gains.
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