As bodybuilders and chemical daredevils, we augment this and we augmentthat. We take steroids. We take prohormones. And we worry about GH levels. We dote on our endocrine system like the parents of a newborn baby. Trouble is, almost all of us forget that there's another child living in the house. He ain't as pretty, he ain't as glamorous, and if it weren't for his occasional temper tantrum, he'd be ignored.
This dark child is the neurocrine system, and "he's" just as important to your overall muscular growth and development as the endocrine system. Hell, I'll go even further out on my presumptive ledge: I think that if you paid careful attention to both the endocrine and the neurocrine systems equally, you'd make faster muscular gains as a young person, and even maintain that level of strength and performance well into your fifties.
Furthermore, I think there are things you can do to maintain or beef up your nervous system from a training aspect, a nutritional aspect, and a third aspect that I won't even address until I've presented more of my case.
The Nervous System
Whenever we talk about the nervous system, we make analogies about how it's like an electrical system. The truth is, it's not like an electrical system at all. There are no "wires" and electrons don't really jump across synapses like fleas from one dawg to another. If a fat person jumps up and down on the electrical cord to grandma's dialysis machine, you can bet that machine will keep on pumping away. The same can't be said of nerves. If you were to "jump" on grandma's motor nerve axons?if you kept them from oxygen for more than four or five seconds?she'd not only experience complete nerve failure, she'd also have you taken out of her will.
No, nerves are more like glands themselves, much as the endocrine system is made up of glands. Nerves give signals to each other and their target organs?whether they are muscle cells or endocrine glands?by exchanging fluid. Pretty sexy, isn't it? This fluid, a type of chemical agent, contains sodium ions that surge back and forth through membranes. And, despite all the analogies to the contrary, neural activity has more to do with the laws of hydraulics than the laws of electricity.
So what do these nerves do? Yeah, yeah, they make your arm pull away when you reach into the fire to grab the hot dog that fell off your stick, and if Mr. Spock applies pressure on the right spot, you'll fall over like a sack of potatoes. Sure, the nervous system plays a part in all that, but it's also very, very, closely linked to the endocrine system. This interplay between the nervous system and the endocrine system is referred to as the neurocrine system. Nerve cells produce chemicals that are delivered to portal blood vessels and transported to the pituitary where they regulate the release of other hormones. Furthermore, most, if not all, endocrine glands, including the adrenals, thyroid, and holy gonads have nerves that control secretory activity and blood flow. Nerves even "feed" organs.
If your nervous system isn't functioning correctly, for any one of a variety of reasons that I'll get into later, the endocrine system won't function properly. It'll just sputter along, kicking out hormones sporadically like a bad water pump.
The nervous system is also responsible for the care and feeding of your muscles. A motor nerve axon attaches to a muscle cell by a motor end plate, and this creates a neuromuscular synapse. Every muscle cell has one end plate. Each motor axon, though, has a number of branches and each branch connects to a muscle cell. In other words, a motor nerve sends commands to many muscle cells, but each muscle cell receives messages from only one nerve cell.
A single one of these motor neurons with its group of attached muscle cells is called a motor unit. Like the guy who heads the army draft board, the nervous system recruits more motor units to handle higher force contractions by varying the stimulation frequency. (Now you know what Chuck Poliquin is talking about when he talks about motor unit recruitment.)
These muscle cells are extremely dependent on their "mama" nerve. The motor nerve is obviously responsible for initiating muscle cell contractions and lengthenings, but it also nourishes the cell. The two exchange information constantly, even when you're not using your muscle. If this connection is severed, the cell breaks down altogether?dissipates, in fact? and eventually gets replaced by fat or connective tissue. Nothing can bring it back.
If you apply pressure to these neural "glands," as little as five pounds for five minutes, you can reduce its rate of transmission by as much as forty percent. And, if this connection is further comprised, you can be in a whole lot of trouble, boy. Not only can you experience clouded thoughts, increased or decreased sensitivity, and imprecise muscular movements; you can experience a wide range of organ dysfunctions, including glandular malfunction. And, since no "disease" would be detectable, you can't be treated. If the problem isn't corrected, it can lead to seriously compromised health, and if the problem effects muscle tissue, you eventually end up with less muscle tissue or seriously impaired muscle tissue.
The neural "glands" I spoke about secrete various neurotransmitter chemicals that are known as epinephrine and norepinephrine, acetylcholine, serotonin, and dopamine. That's largely how they communicate. If you can control the levels of these neurotransmitters, you can elevate mood, alertness, concentration, and even motor unit recruitment. In other words, these neurotransmitters are to the nervous system what testosterone, GH, insulin, and others are to the endocrine system.
Furthermore, the healthy functioning of these nerves and the optimum production of these neurotrasnmitter chemicals also influences the hormonal system. They go hand in hand. If the nervous system isn't functioning at youthful levels, neither will the endocrine system, no matter how many prohormones you take.
It doesn't just end there, either. If the nervous system isn't working properly, neither will your muscles. If your levels of neurotransmitter chemicals are low, you might not function as well as you're genetically capable. Sometimes, though, the nervous system works a little too well, and that too can be detrimental in building muscle.
Muscle and Nerve
I'd like you to try a little trick the next time you go into the gym. Set up a pulley machine so you can do one-arm tricep pushdowns. Stand in front of the machine with your feet about ten inches apart and rep out with either arm (use a weight that allows you to do between 5 and 7 reps). Rest a minute or two. Now, using the same weight, and the same arm, do another set, only this time, I want you to stand with the opposite foot in front of the other one. In other words, if you did the pushdowns with your right arm, do another set with your right arm. Keep your feet about ten inches apart, but move your left foot in front of the other one, as if you were in the middle of taking a step (keep both feet flat on the floor, though).
If you're like 99.9% of the rest of humanity, you'll now be able to do two, three, or even four more reps.
This dark child is the neurocrine system, and "he's" just as important to your overall muscular growth and development as the endocrine system. Hell, I'll go even further out on my presumptive ledge: I think that if you paid careful attention to both the endocrine and the neurocrine systems equally, you'd make faster muscular gains as a young person, and even maintain that level of strength and performance well into your fifties.
Furthermore, I think there are things you can do to maintain or beef up your nervous system from a training aspect, a nutritional aspect, and a third aspect that I won't even address until I've presented more of my case.
The Nervous System
Whenever we talk about the nervous system, we make analogies about how it's like an electrical system. The truth is, it's not like an electrical system at all. There are no "wires" and electrons don't really jump across synapses like fleas from one dawg to another. If a fat person jumps up and down on the electrical cord to grandma's dialysis machine, you can bet that machine will keep on pumping away. The same can't be said of nerves. If you were to "jump" on grandma's motor nerve axons?if you kept them from oxygen for more than four or five seconds?she'd not only experience complete nerve failure, she'd also have you taken out of her will.
No, nerves are more like glands themselves, much as the endocrine system is made up of glands. Nerves give signals to each other and their target organs?whether they are muscle cells or endocrine glands?by exchanging fluid. Pretty sexy, isn't it? This fluid, a type of chemical agent, contains sodium ions that surge back and forth through membranes. And, despite all the analogies to the contrary, neural activity has more to do with the laws of hydraulics than the laws of electricity.
So what do these nerves do? Yeah, yeah, they make your arm pull away when you reach into the fire to grab the hot dog that fell off your stick, and if Mr. Spock applies pressure on the right spot, you'll fall over like a sack of potatoes. Sure, the nervous system plays a part in all that, but it's also very, very, closely linked to the endocrine system. This interplay between the nervous system and the endocrine system is referred to as the neurocrine system. Nerve cells produce chemicals that are delivered to portal blood vessels and transported to the pituitary where they regulate the release of other hormones. Furthermore, most, if not all, endocrine glands, including the adrenals, thyroid, and holy gonads have nerves that control secretory activity and blood flow. Nerves even "feed" organs.
If your nervous system isn't functioning correctly, for any one of a variety of reasons that I'll get into later, the endocrine system won't function properly. It'll just sputter along, kicking out hormones sporadically like a bad water pump.
The nervous system is also responsible for the care and feeding of your muscles. A motor nerve axon attaches to a muscle cell by a motor end plate, and this creates a neuromuscular synapse. Every muscle cell has one end plate. Each motor axon, though, has a number of branches and each branch connects to a muscle cell. In other words, a motor nerve sends commands to many muscle cells, but each muscle cell receives messages from only one nerve cell.
A single one of these motor neurons with its group of attached muscle cells is called a motor unit. Like the guy who heads the army draft board, the nervous system recruits more motor units to handle higher force contractions by varying the stimulation frequency. (Now you know what Chuck Poliquin is talking about when he talks about motor unit recruitment.)
These muscle cells are extremely dependent on their "mama" nerve. The motor nerve is obviously responsible for initiating muscle cell contractions and lengthenings, but it also nourishes the cell. The two exchange information constantly, even when you're not using your muscle. If this connection is severed, the cell breaks down altogether?dissipates, in fact? and eventually gets replaced by fat or connective tissue. Nothing can bring it back.
If you apply pressure to these neural "glands," as little as five pounds for five minutes, you can reduce its rate of transmission by as much as forty percent. And, if this connection is further comprised, you can be in a whole lot of trouble, boy. Not only can you experience clouded thoughts, increased or decreased sensitivity, and imprecise muscular movements; you can experience a wide range of organ dysfunctions, including glandular malfunction. And, since no "disease" would be detectable, you can't be treated. If the problem isn't corrected, it can lead to seriously compromised health, and if the problem effects muscle tissue, you eventually end up with less muscle tissue or seriously impaired muscle tissue.
The neural "glands" I spoke about secrete various neurotransmitter chemicals that are known as epinephrine and norepinephrine, acetylcholine, serotonin, and dopamine. That's largely how they communicate. If you can control the levels of these neurotransmitters, you can elevate mood, alertness, concentration, and even motor unit recruitment. In other words, these neurotransmitters are to the nervous system what testosterone, GH, insulin, and others are to the endocrine system.
Furthermore, the healthy functioning of these nerves and the optimum production of these neurotrasnmitter chemicals also influences the hormonal system. They go hand in hand. If the nervous system isn't functioning at youthful levels, neither will the endocrine system, no matter how many prohormones you take.
It doesn't just end there, either. If the nervous system isn't working properly, neither will your muscles. If your levels of neurotransmitter chemicals are low, you might not function as well as you're genetically capable. Sometimes, though, the nervous system works a little too well, and that too can be detrimental in building muscle.
Muscle and Nerve
I'd like you to try a little trick the next time you go into the gym. Set up a pulley machine so you can do one-arm tricep pushdowns. Stand in front of the machine with your feet about ten inches apart and rep out with either arm (use a weight that allows you to do between 5 and 7 reps). Rest a minute or two. Now, using the same weight, and the same arm, do another set, only this time, I want you to stand with the opposite foot in front of the other one. In other words, if you did the pushdowns with your right arm, do another set with your right arm. Keep your feet about ten inches apart, but move your left foot in front of the other one, as if you were in the middle of taking a step (keep both feet flat on the floor, though).
If you're like 99.9% of the rest of humanity, you'll now be able to do two, three, or even four more reps.
