drop sets

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  • toots99
    toots99 Posts: 3,794 Member
    I appreciated the advice!

    And I'm glad you put it in regular people terms, instead of saying something like "with regards to fiber recruitment... we have full recruitment at about intensities equivalent to 85% MVIC." I have no idea what that means. :indifferent:

    Ya, sorry about that! If you read my blog here on MFP, you'll have a different opinion on how I disperse information. I assure you I typically give it my all to put the facts in "mentally digestible" terms that everyone can understand.

    MVIC stands for Maximal Voluntary Isometric Contraction which is simply a fancy way of saying the heaviest weight you can hold in a particular movement. So if your max strength in the squat allows you to lift 135 lbs, I'm saying 85% of that weight will typically recruit the majority of your muscle fibers.

    By recruit, I'm referring to your nervous system's ability to send electrical impulses to your muscles which, through multiple steps, "activates" the cells that make up your muscle. This activation causes your muscles to contract or shorten, which is how we exert force and move objects.

    Many folks mistakenly believe they need to "feel the burn" and go to muscular failure (which is the point where they're unable to lift the weight anymore) in order to recruit all of our muscle fibers or cells. In actuality, we get near full activation (or recruitment - however you want to put it) when we lift weights that our around 85% of our maximum ability.

    In other words, there's A LOT more that goes into hypertrophy (muscle growth) and strength improvements than going to muscular failure.

    Sorry again, for not explaining things originally. Hopefully that helps you understand what I originally meant. :)

    Much clearer, indeed! :smile:
  • stroutman81
    stroutman81 Posts: 2,474 Member
    I understand what works for you, however I also understand a world renowned strength coach(Charles Poliquin) who trains olympic athletes and beyond, is saying when he warns aganst the use of a Smith Machine for squats and the dangers of the effects it has on your knees. We tend to stick with what makes things easier for us to do and ignore the long term effects. I apologize for trying to save some peoples knees here by offering scientifically proven advice from Mr. Poliquin, he doesnt want elite atheletes doing it so I am sure that translates to the average joe also.

    As an aside... I've been to a few Poliquin seminars. It's too bad he's gone off the deep end with much of his information he puts out. His old stuff was brilliant.
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