3 Best Ways to Improve Your Muscle Activation
Timo Haikarainen
Post first appeared on Fibion.com, July 19, 2015,
in Personal Training, Strength Training, Weight Management
Muscle activation blog –series 4/4
General tricks to improve the ability of the activation are fairly straightforward. Accurate methods for exercise movements and choice of other training and teaching methods of course vary greatly. Here are few examples:
- Do strength training that includes loads that are heavy enough. For a beginner already over 60% from 1RM (repetition maximum) load is sufficient. More advanced needs regularly over 80% 1RM loads. It is impossible to accurately what these loads are as repetitions as repetition range with those percentages is very movement specific. Anyway for a beginner 8-12 repetitions are good. More advanced should use 3-6 repetition range regularly. Remember to be progressive. Increased training weights are good practical indication of improved activation of muscles.
- Do something powerful and movements that demand fast single-activation. For example speed strength elements can be incorporated to training program periodically (although within the limits of goals of training)
- Think, what you do. So called connection between muscle and mind has been labelled to body building myth, but that is not true. Commanding and activation of the muscles needs to be at least partly conscious. In fast movements commanding is automatic, but path to efficient automatic control usually needs to be done through conscious improvement of muscle activation. Normally in the long term it is best to combine ”feel and efficient blasting” to get optimal results in the development.
With all these points in mind, consider the muscle activation in your case, whether you can command to work optimally for the task in hand? This was just a scratch on the surface as the muscle activation theme is very wide. I will be examining it also from several other perspectives, for example psychological factors that affect muscle activation.
