Ford Perfect and Neurological Adaption

[CD Lee]

Ford,

I was interested in what you were going to say about neurological adaptive training regarding me working out with resistance training while maintaining a caloric deficit. Thought I would bring it up in case this one slipped by...

[Ford Prefect]

Hey bud,

I've been busy lately and unable to hit the forum. I'll try to answer this later. I'm sure others here could fill in the details about the benefits of having a neurological based program rather than a hypertrophy based one during a period of reduced caloric intake.

[Ford Prefect]

Heh. I guess not. Darn spring break...

It's basically a pretty simple concept. When you are in a reduced calorie diet and trying to lose weight, that means you are taking in less calories/day than your body needs to function. Hypertrophy (depending on what form) means an increase in muscle fiber size or muscle sarcoplasm. Both of these require an excess of calories to be successful; the latter more than the former. The two approaches conflict.

However, arranging your work-outs so that your goal is breaking through neurological barriers rather than the increase of muscle size will allow you to consistently make strength gains while losing weight. There are numerous approaches aimed at neurological adaption. Pavel's PTP is one that can be used over a long period of time. Poliquin's 1-6 approach is another that is geared to a smaller amount of time.

PTP is the only one that is really viable over the long term because it uses a simple step cycle in very small micro-cycles. The use of maximal weights is limitted to only a few workouts before reverting back to very sub-maximal weights. Other approaches generally use maximal weights throughout the entire program, so neurological fatigue must be factored in. For instance, you can really only make gains on Poliquin's 1-6 approach for about 6 weeks tops before your nervous system is fried.

[CD Lee]

Hey Ford, appreciate the information. I will do some more research on Pavel and the methods you described. I will also search some of the threads on here referencing the same information. Thanks for the references and names.

I checked Barnes & Noble this week, and they did not have one Pavel book. I guess I will order online.

[SevenStar]

I'm just seeing this too. Coincidentally, I read something about this the other day. In a study that consisted of athletes who:

only did strength training
only did endurance training
did upperbody resistance training and aerobic activity
combined the two
did only aerobic training, but mixed interval and continuous running training

three of those groups aren't really in the scope of the topic, but the athletes who combined strength and endurance training had smaller gains than the power training only group.

In a study with sprinters who added endurance training into their regimen, the athletes had decreased speed and jump power.

[SevenStar]

I just re read this - Dunno what I was smoking, but looking at it again, I see that the study didn't have much to do with the topic at all. Ah well, it was still interesting though. It went on to talk about how different groups had increases/decreases in certain types of muscle fibers.

[Ish]

It still sounds interesting 7* even if its a little o/t.
Dya have a link or something.

[SevenStar]

no link - it was in the ncsa strength and conditioning text. I'll type it up - either tomorrow or this weekend.

[SevenStar]

In a study by Kramer, et al. (125) examined the physiological adaptations to 3 months of simultaneous high intensity strength and aerobic endurance training in physically active men. five groups of subjects were used: a combination group (C) that performed both resistance training and aerobic endurance training . a group (UC) that pergormed upper body resistance training and aerobic endurance training, a resistance only group (S) an endurance training only group (E) that performed both interval and continuous run training, and a control group.

The groups that resistance trained increased 1RM strength in those lifts. the rate or strength development was arguablyquicker in the S group, in that the percentage increase in the leg press 1RM was greater thatn thtat of the C group. Ony the S group say increases in peak power outputs in both upper and lower body tests. None of the other groups observed any significant peak power changes.

[SevenStar]

A fascinating finding in the study by Kramer et al. (125) was the changes in the muscle fiber size of the thigh musculature. A transformation of type II muscles subtypes accurred in the training groups. the transformation of type IIb to Type IIa has been observed in many prior studies. The tansformation of tye IIa to type IIb fibers was almost complete in the S and C groups. The UC and E groups, which performed only run training (including interval training) with the lower body musculature, had about 9% of the type IIb fibers remaining after the 3 months of training. even when aerobic training includes interval training. In addition a small number of type IIa fibers converted to Type IIc fibers in the groups that performed aerobic endurance training. Type IIc fibers are the most oxidative fast twitch fibers.

Of interest regarding overtraining, the C group increased muscle fiber size only in the type IIa fibers while the S group demonstrated increases in fiber types I, IIC, and IIa. The E group saw exercise-induced decreases in muscle types.