Are you wired for Fitness?

What makes your body move?   Muscles.  

What makes your muscles move?   Your nervous system.  

Your nerves are the "wiring" that deliver signals to the muscle fibers to contract or relax.   This signal travels from your brain, through the spinal cord and ultimately on to the fibers that are required to create movement.

Try this:  Stand on one foot.  Try to remain perfectly still.  Now be aware of your foot and ankle.  Feel how there is a constant adjusting?  Your body is sending signals back and forth between your foot and your brain, telling it what needs to be done to remain upright.   If the signal doesn't come through fast enough, or if the muscles don't have the energy to perform, you lose balance.   With proper training, you can teach the nervous system to respond faster.  

How does this apply to you?  Well, have you ever stood in a bus or train as it started to move?  Did you land on a stranger's lap or were you able to remain upright?  Your nervous system is constantly reassessing your position and making subtle changes to keep you balanced.  

My personal training clients see this work all the time.  Using tools such as the stability ball, wobble boards, foam rollers and more, they are forcing their bodies to recruit more muscle fibers to stabilize themselves, therefore achieving a more efficient and effective workout.  

Just as your muscles fatigue during exercise, so will your nervous system.  If you get to the point where your loss of balance control increases the risk of injury during an exercise, you can rest or do the same exercise in a more stable position (on a bench or machine).

Don't limit your workouts to traditional free weight/machine exercises.  Life outside the gym isn't always balanced & predictable.  Try training with progressive instability and take your fitness to a new level.  If you are going to be a bundle of nerves, make sure they are working for you.

Written by Joe Stankowski - Originally Appeared in AbsoluteFitNews Feb. 2002