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Cross education of muscles
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- Duration: 1:23
Muscle strength can be increased by educating the muscle to work more effectively. The nervous system is involved, and ‘re-education’ of the arm not directly involved in weight training demonstrates this neurological training. Gus Roxburgh demonstrates that muscle strength can be increased without a corresponding increase in muscle size as well as cross education.
Acknowledgement: “The Human Potential” produced by Sports Inc.
Transcript
The amazing role our nervous system plays in making us strong also means, we can build strength in a set of muscles, without actually working it. You can see how with a simple experiment. That ability to simply learn to lift more is something most people encounter when they begin weight training. Your performance can really increase, long before you notice any growth in the muscle. So lets give it a go. First I measure my bicep. It’s 37cms. Then I do as many reps as I can. Phew – 30. For a week I did the same exercise everyday, each time working to the point of failure. By the seventh day I had increased the number of reps I was able to do by an incredible 33 percent. But have I built any muscle? Well I haven’t increased the size of my muscle, but I have improved my performance from 30 to 40 reps. That gain has been made not by building the muscles I have, but by teaching them to work more effectively. The really amazing thing is that because the changes occurred more in here (pointing to head) than in here (flexing muscle), I’ve also gained strength in the opposite arm without having worked it. That’s called cross education. One set of muscles, learning from another. It’s pretty amazing.
