Originally posted by: Fight Magnet
Date: September 13, 2016 at 11:17 PM
Source: https://forum.mmajunkie.com/threads/excercise-hacks.69616/
cobra_punch said:
my forearms are naturally big, so i try to NOT get them involved whilst lifting. But for most people, this is sound advice.
just like some people are born with naturally huge calves, and don't need to isolate them often.
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That's nice.
It's not a forearm exercise. It's a method of enhancing neural drive and increasing the force production of all your muscles as a system.
Law of Irradiation -
which states that when a muscle is working, the muscles around it tend to turn on. The harder a muscle works, the greater the activation of surrounding muscles.
The Concept of Irradiation
When it comes to strength promoting tension in your muscles is the goal. Muscles in general when they tense (contract) generate force which in turn produces movement. So the harder you can tense your muscles the more force you will nurture and the stronger you will become.
In strength training this notion is amplified to an even higher degree so that weights, especially heavy weights, can be moved efficiently and safely. The concept of Irradiation takes advantage of this understanding by encouraging neighboring muscles to tense harder. Let me explain.
The strength technique of Irradiation is technically called the
Law of Irradiation
. The Law of Irradiation was discovered by
Sir Charles Scott Sherrington
and is part of a group of physiological laws named the
Sherringtion Laws
. Sherringtion defined Irradiation as the ability of one muscle when it tenses strongly to recruit the tension of nearby muscles.
If you squeeze your fist really hard you will feel tension in the hand and forearm. If you squeeze your fist harder you will now feel tension in your upper arm along with the tension in your hand and forearm. If you squeeze your fist even harder you will now feel tension in your chest, shoulder and lat along with the tension in your upper arm, hand and forearm.
This
cotension
from several muscles contracting strongly together will magnify your overall strength. Another way to put it is tense all your muscles and adjacent muscles really hard during a lift not just the primary muscle being used. This is Irradiation.
This strength technique works with free weight compound movements the best not isolated exercises (for the most part) and weight machines (never). Compound movements are full body exercises like the deadlift, squat and bench press.
It will take some time and practice to master this skill but believe me you will be amazed at how strong you will become and how dense (not big) your muscles will get. Remember tension=force and Irradiation is just one of many tension cues you can use to enhance your strength.
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Concurrent Activation Potentiation
-
you create higher tension in your body, such as when when you use a crushing grip, your performance can increase up to 32 percent.
Kinetic analysis of concurrent activation potentiation during back squats and jump squats.
Ebben WP
1,
Kaufmann CE
,
Fauth ML
,
Petushek EJ
.
Author information
Abstract
Concurrent activation potentiation
enhances muscular force during open kinetic chain isometric and isokinetic exercises via
remote voluntary contractions (RVCs)
.
The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of RVCs on the performance of closed kinetic chain ground-based exercises. Subjects included 13 men (21.4+/-1.5 years) who performed the back squat and jump squat in 2 test conditions. The
RVC
condition included performing the test exercises while clenching the jaw on a mouth guard, forcefully gripping and pulling the barbell down into the trapezius, and performing a Valsalva maneuver. The normal condition (NO-RVC) included performing the test exercises without RVCs. Exercises were assessed with a force platform. Peak ground reaction force (GRF), rate of force development (RFD) during the first 100 milliseconds (RFD-100), RFD to peak GRF (RFD-P), and jump squat height (JH) were calculated from the force-time records. Data were analyzed using an analysis of variance. Results reveal that GRF and RFD-100 were higher in the RVC compared with the NO-RVC condition for both the back squat and jump squat (p<or=0.05). The RFD-P was higher in the RVC compared with NO-RVC condition for the jump squat (p<or=0.05) but not for the back squat (p=0.82). The JH was higher in the RVC compared to the NO-RVC condition for the jump squat (p<or=0.05). This study demonstrates that RVCs enhance the performance of closed kinetic chain exercises for most of the outcome variables assessed, yielding a 2.9-32.3% greater performance. Practitioners should encourage athletes to use RVCs to improve the acute training effect of exercises such as those used in this study
.
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