Untrained & Sub-optimally Trained Nervous Systems: A Limiting Constraint to High Performance

Why Maximum Effort training is required and what it does

J.J. Watt performing a ME Back Squat

Untrained & Sub-optimally Trained Nervous Systems

It is inarguable that to stimulate biological change within the system, the athlete must possess a trained nervous system.

Using our ecological approach, at the Level of Adaption, an athlete with an untrained nervous system cannot push the biological structure to the appropriate intensity levels to acquire what may be necessary at this level for the system to continue to function at high levels.

At the Level of Competition, an untrained nervous system will be unable to repeatedly organize its biology at a rate that exceeds what the competition can do.

As such, an untrained or sub-optimally trained nervous system is a massive limiting constraint to the performance of any athlete.

When all parameters are aligned, training is the only mechanism that enables the athlete to exchange their time, energy, and effort to transform a limiting constraint into an enabling constraint.

It should be the sole aim of the strength practitioner to systematically organize and manage the training work in a manner that breaks the shackles of the athlete’s nervous system and totally unleashes them. This is the only way to ensure success at the level of competition.

Think of this from a purely Darwinian perspective; the athletes who possess a trained and unconstrained nervous system survive and thrive at the Level of Competition.

Training the Nervous System Occurs with the Maximal Effort Method

At Absolute, we have created the Roadmap, which allows us as practitioners to currently understand where the athlete is with respect to all necessary physical capacities, deemed Point A.

In addition, we have established that there are four fundamental physical capacities that all athletes should possess at varying levels depending on the external demands of their sport. This is what we have deemed to be Point B.

One of the fundamental capacities of Point B is Absolute Strength. In order for the athlete to be at a level of absolute strength commensurate with their Point B, there must be in place a systematic process of training the nervous system to compress itself to elicit its maximal momentary effort in the briefest amount of time. As we will discuss, this has massive effects on their performance. The reality is that the only way to accomplish this outcome is to use the Maximal Effort Method (ME), and it must be systematically trained throughout the entire lifespan of the athlete’s career.

Synergies & Coordinative Structures are Important Components of Maximal Effort Training

The late Louie Simmons of Westside Barbell states in Special Strength Development For All Sports that: “the maximal effort method is seldomly utilized.” Sadly, this statement is entirely accurate and anecdotally has been our experience when working with or consulting with athletes. It is often relayed to us that ME training is not included in programming for performance due to the “risky” nature of this type of training (most likely a consequence of the large loads needed that are assumed to be injury-causative). However, it is our view that not including ME training is far riskier to the performance of the athlete when considered through the ecological lens. Training directed at the Level of Adaptation is controlled, and all variables can be managed appropriately with minimal risk to the athlete. The Level of Competition is far riskier as fewer variables (almost none) can be controlled in the external environment.

The underutilization of maximum effort training for performance within sport is undoubtedly leading to inadequately trained nervous systems that have overarching effects aside from just the intended effect, which is the culminating ability of the nervous system to produce high amounts of force. One of those effects, and likely the most important, is the association of ME training and the development of future neurological synergies. It is our theory that the ability to produce large amounts of force is a prerequisite for the development of further strength capacities and skill capacities.

Within the field of motor control and learning, the writings of Nikolai Bernstein¹² are foundational. Bernstein was the first to describe the concept of synergy, which has subsequently been expanded upon within the field by a number of others.

Bernstein originally conceptualized that a synergy can be thought of as a grouping of muscular activation stemming from an output of the nervous system that leads to the achievement of a movement goal. In other words, when achieving a movement-related outcome such as sprinting, then decelerating to change direction and cut to the right, there would be a pattern of nervous system activity that would create a pattern of muscular activation such that the movement could be achieved with some level of proficiency.

Scott Kelso³, took this concept further when he articulated the idea of “coordinative structures,” which he framed as functional groupings of all structural elements that are temporarily constrained to act as a single coherent unit. The structural elements Kelso included were the articulations involved, the muscles involved, and the neurons of the central and peripheral nervous system that are involved in producing an output that satisfies the intended goal. We would add another important structural element: the body-wide interconnected net of connective tissue. As in the example above of a change in direction manuevre, a coordinative structure would occur to achieve this goal. In time, there are multiple feedbacks occurring from all of the structures (tissues) involved in the movement that allows for a structural grouping to occur that allows the movement to be accomplished.

Central to this concept is the CNS, in that it is the gatekeeper to any functional behaviour related to movement (sport) performance. So much so that if we were to consider performance at scale, it is the nervous system that allows for the scaling up (future potential) of intended movement behaviours through various synergies or coordinative structures.

The elemental unit of the nervous system that allows for this is the motor neuron, as it is the linkage between input and output within the system. The motor neuron is an intricate part of the motor unit which has an activation profile based on the physiological size principle. Those motor units that are the largest and most potent for muscle activation (due to being the fastest and strongest) are most effectively trained using the ME method.

From prior essays, the reader of Absolute understands that the nervous system will only output its maximal momentary effort in training when it is working to overcome a maximal load, therefore recruiting the fastest and strongest motor units.

A maximal load is the primary determinant that enables the nervous system the opportunity to: (1) search for, (2) find, (3) recruit, and (4) stimulate the motor units, which innervate the muscle fibers from which force is generated to perform work.

It seems redundant, however necessary, to mention that anything less than maximal is submaximal, which will only elicit a submaximal effort on behalf of the nervous system, which will not maximize the recruitment profile of the motor units, nor will it achieve as many downstream effects on how the nervous system uses the recruitment of motor neurons to create coordinative structures for performance.

Maximal Effort Training is Regulated by Neural Networks

From the field of motor control theory, we can link ME training to the development of coordinative structures or synergies for performance. Ultimately, as strength practitioners, we strive to push for a level of absolute strength, which can be thought of as progressive neurological growth for an athlete that is then translated into a higher level of performance in their chosen sport.

To make this link, we must consider the framework of neural networks. A neural network is a connected system of neurons that share the same physiological makeup and the same functional outcome when stimulated either in isolation or as a group. In this case, the network is comprised of motor neurons and the muscle fibres they innervate (motor unit).

We currently understand that when training using the ME method, what occurs at an internal neurological level is the activation of motor neurons that will progressively stimulate larger and larger motor units in a linear fashion, thus progressively activating the stronger and faster units (see image below).

In reality, it is more complex than this. The progressive stimulation of larger motor units is non-linear as it permeates through all available motor neurons and subsequent motor units within the network forming linkages amongst those units that are active. This means that as the lift begins, connections are made between motor units in the network that are of varying sizes linking them together. As the lift progresses and the athlete continues to strain at higher intensities ending with a maximal momentary effort, further connections are made as the varying sizes of smaller and medium-sized motor units that are still engaged will then connect to the large and larger-sized motor units creating a more deeply interrelated neural network.

What this means is that at a current load (or weight lifted), there will be a particular activation of the network that will engage a certain amount of motor neurons and motor units that will create an emergent pattern of connection of all neurons of the network corresponding to that signal. It is also safe to say that at this level, with this signal (which comes from the load creating a maximal momentary effort), there will be neurons and motor units within that network that will not be engaged and therefore are not active and part of the pattern of activation. A new signal will be required to involve these unactivated units into a new emergent strength behaviour.

This is the reason why absolute strength is a fundamental quantity that needs to be trained systematically over time. As absolute strength increases using ME training, it requires the athlete to put forth a higher maximal effort that will activate not only the network pattern from previous but it will require the recruitment of more motor neurons and motor units, forming a further elaboration of the network, thus creating new interconnections that will emerge a new behaviour within the central nervous system.

Using the Maximal Effort Trained Neural Network to Generate Coordinative Structures (Synergies)

Practically at Absolute, we do not subscribe to a lift having to be utilized for ME training. In fact, when consulting, we allow the athlete to choose their lift with the only stipulation that it must be multi-joint, therefore, have the maximal number of structures involved, and it is necessary to involve the same joints as are used during the dominant foundational movement skills within their sport. This means that the lift chosen must replicate, to as great an extent as possible, the neural pathways that dominate activation patterns and recruitment so that the athlete can further train for other fundamental physical capacities and movement or sport skill-based training.

It is through training using the ME method that the most comprehensive and detailed neural network is formed as a result of the central nervous system synthesizing and connecting motor neurons to the largest motor units and the fastest muscle fibers in an emergent behaviour that generates large impulses of force. This is a major prerequisite for high performance.

Herein lies the prime advantage of ME training; it routinely primes the neural network that is subsequently involved in performance in a Hebbian manner (cells that wire together, fire together). Using this repeated stimulation, the athlete trains to acquire further physical capacities, such as speed strength (using the DE method), whereby the athlete learns how to generate large impulses of force at the highest attainable speed or training to use these capacities in future skill development. In this way, the primed neural network through ME training is now attuned to make more detailed interconnections within the network that allow for more and varied patterns of emergent behaviour. This is the development and repeated fine-tuning of movement-related synergies that allows the athlete to accomplish performance-related outcomes with the utmost precision. This will, without doubt, unleash the athlete at the Level of Competition and mitigate risk for the athlete in this environment.

Related Articles from Absolute

Accommodation: A New Perspective

Stagnation in Sport Performance

1. Dexterity and its Development.

2. Bernstein’s Construction of Movements.

3. Dynamic patterns: the self-organization of brain and behavior