Fadi
...
Okay, so if this is not about nutrition then it certainly does not sound like it’s about training either; ah, it must be about politics then!
Well…yes but, it’s brain politics you see.
Who here does not understand the mind/muscle connection? I’m sure we’re all in agreement when it comes to applying our mind power in helping us build some serious muscles. So let us establish some facts first.
Is our brain a muscle? The answer is no it’s not. It’s an organ that is made up of many cells that are called neuron cells. These cells have the ultimate responsibility of sending lightning fast messages throughout our body. Great, how about our heart, is that a muscle? Yes, and it’s the most important muscle of them all with the responsibility of pumping nutrient rich blood throughout our body as well.
Now let us (just for now), imagine that our brain is also a muscle that needs to be trained just as we bodybuilders train our skeletal muscles in order to get massive. How would we train our brain? After all, we’ve all heard about the neuromuscular connection and how this aspect is extremely crucial if we are to improve our coordination, strength, and muscular development. What we need to know here is that this neuromuscular connection is initiated by the firing of messages from the headquarters, from our central computer if you will: our brain.
Ask any bodybuilder worth the name about the best method to build muscles and listen very carefully to his answer. If the answer is one of restriction to one particular method above all other methods for building muscles, then you know you’re talking to an ignorant bodybuilder.
After 30 years of experience in this sport, I have to say that there is only one (oops, that sounds a bit ironic) method that would guarantee you ultimate success in building muscles and that method is called the variety method. That is my method yes, and an inclusive type of a method that is not built upon rigidity but has flexibility as a foundation. In simple and plain English what I’m saying here is that everything goes without exception. Though everything goes, nothing ever goes forever and sooner or later a change in method (no matter how small) would have to be introduced into one’s training regime to insure continuous progress and to put a stop to muscle adaptation and muscle/mental stagnation.
Okay then, let us now go back to the brain and see if we can somehow apply my favourite bodybuilding principle that is the variety principle. Without turning this small article into something scientific and sounding really smart, I’d say it’s about time you gave your brain a bit of a nudge.
How?
Well, if you have been a right winger (using your left brain hemisphere) to control the right side of your body, may be it’s about time you began to use your left hand instead of your right (and waking the right side of your brain) and nudging it to do some exercise.
You can begin by performing some very simple tasks such as (say) brushing your teeth with the hand that you don’t normally use for that simple task. From there you can progress to working your computer mouse with the opposite hand, until you can finally write with your opposite hand. Yes, it’s a slow process but then again what would you expect since we’re starting from scratch!
Now I believe if we can exercise our brain to do what it has not been used to do all these years, then we would be in a better position from a health stand point of view as we get older and from the point of view of building some serious muscles.
Don't Just Use the Left or Right Brain - Use it All
Fadi.
Well…yes but, it’s brain politics you see.
Who here does not understand the mind/muscle connection? I’m sure we’re all in agreement when it comes to applying our mind power in helping us build some serious muscles. So let us establish some facts first.
Is our brain a muscle? The answer is no it’s not. It’s an organ that is made up of many cells that are called neuron cells. These cells have the ultimate responsibility of sending lightning fast messages throughout our body. Great, how about our heart, is that a muscle? Yes, and it’s the most important muscle of them all with the responsibility of pumping nutrient rich blood throughout our body as well.
Now let us (just for now), imagine that our brain is also a muscle that needs to be trained just as we bodybuilders train our skeletal muscles in order to get massive. How would we train our brain? After all, we’ve all heard about the neuromuscular connection and how this aspect is extremely crucial if we are to improve our coordination, strength, and muscular development. What we need to know here is that this neuromuscular connection is initiated by the firing of messages from the headquarters, from our central computer if you will: our brain.
Ask any bodybuilder worth the name about the best method to build muscles and listen very carefully to his answer. If the answer is one of restriction to one particular method above all other methods for building muscles, then you know you’re talking to an ignorant bodybuilder.
After 30 years of experience in this sport, I have to say that there is only one (oops, that sounds a bit ironic) method that would guarantee you ultimate success in building muscles and that method is called the variety method. That is my method yes, and an inclusive type of a method that is not built upon rigidity but has flexibility as a foundation. In simple and plain English what I’m saying here is that everything goes without exception. Though everything goes, nothing ever goes forever and sooner or later a change in method (no matter how small) would have to be introduced into one’s training regime to insure continuous progress and to put a stop to muscle adaptation and muscle/mental stagnation.
Okay then, let us now go back to the brain and see if we can somehow apply my favourite bodybuilding principle that is the variety principle. Without turning this small article into something scientific and sounding really smart, I’d say it’s about time you gave your brain a bit of a nudge.
How?
Well, if you have been a right winger (using your left brain hemisphere) to control the right side of your body, may be it’s about time you began to use your left hand instead of your right (and waking the right side of your brain) and nudging it to do some exercise.
You can begin by performing some very simple tasks such as (say) brushing your teeth with the hand that you don’t normally use for that simple task. From there you can progress to working your computer mouse with the opposite hand, until you can finally write with your opposite hand. Yes, it’s a slow process but then again what would you expect since we’re starting from scratch!
Now I believe if we can exercise our brain to do what it has not been used to do all these years, then we would be in a better position from a health stand point of view as we get older and from the point of view of building some serious muscles.
Don't Just Use the Left or Right Brain - Use it All
Fadi.