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t should come as no surprise that the nervous system can fatigue. That fatigue is paramount from a training standpoint. With neural fatigue, you can drain both the central nervous system, (the ‘brain’ – the cerebral cortex, cerebellum etc.), or the local nerves (neuromuscular junctions), that join the nervous system and the muscle together. Central fatigue appears to mainly be mediated by the effect of various stressors (including training) on neurotransmitters and hormones like dopamine, serotonin, epinephrine, and cortisol in the brain. Really, any type of stress can affect central nervous system recovery including undersleeping, partying and stimulant usage AAS.When the central nervous system is fatigued, the strength and functionality of all major muscle groups will be negatively affected, due to the fact that the battery that fires the muscles is drained. However while on gear this is not noticed. Not only will you have a tendency to feel a bit run down, but the control, function and strength of all your muscles becomes compromised ( what happens when coming off gear) . With excessive central fatigue, strength gains are hard to come by, which is one reason why powerlifters tend to train with less volume than bodybuilders, yet tend to gain more strength. Get too much central nervous system fatigue and you become over-reached and/or over-trained. So looks like staying on at low dose is key right? NO! Think of the central nervous system as the central powerplant to a city. It’s a limited pool of energy. If the city gets too big and puts too much strain on a particular powerplant, the power goes out (people start adding more AAS or up there dose at this point) . Fatigue in the central nervous system explains the old, “throw a rock in the pool” effect of whole body movements. This is why you can do a hardcore leg workout today, come in the gym tomorrow, and find that the strength on your bench press is negatively affected. The fatigue in your bench press doesn’t come from muscular fatigue, but through neural fatigue.
