RESET YOUR LIMITS
Contrary to popular belief, your physical limit is not set within your cardiovascular system or your muscle cells. It is inside your brain. Somewhere between the desire and the action there is a monitor that approves that action. The monitor is ever watchful for obstacles that might interfere with the desired activity. Renowned exercise scientist, Timothy Noakes, terms this monitor "The Central Governor Model" and what I call simply, Brain.
In essence, the Central Governor/Brain is in the business of protecting itself. In order to do a good job of satisfying a desire AND protecting bodily function, Brain has created very strict cellular limits with very sensitive triggers that signal the perception of ability or of fatigue to your consciousness. Brain is constantly receiving and assessing input from inside and outside your body and, Brain, above all else, wants to keep itself functioning.
Stop! Think about what you're doing right now! Become aware of the temperature of the air, listen and feel your inhalation and exhalation, smell the people and food around you, is it sunny, is it cold, listen..…what sounds do you hear? Open your eyes…….what color are the walls? How do you feel? Glad? Sad? Mad? Chances are, you can only concentrate on one of your senses at a time, but Brain is capturing all of this data in real time- 24/7; interpreting it, managing it and only bringing it to your consciousness as needed. VERY BIG JOB! So what does this have to do with fatigue and resetting your limits? Well, turns out Brain is much too strict! Managing all of this continual input takes time. A good manager allows for error, so Brain has set very tight limits for each body system to control for error.
Since each system is dependent upon a signal or trigger from Brain in order to function correctly, Brain defaults to the safe, preset super-strict limits until it has time to assess input as cellular changes occur. If Brain receives input that there are rapid changes within muscle cells, it responds quickly, to adjust to those changes until the changes exceed the preset safe limit. Muscle biopsies of elite athlete's reveal that after exercising to complete failure, a muscle cell has only used a maximum of 30% of it’s available resources. Complete failure at 30%? That means that there is plenty of glucose, 02 and ATP available and able to do work, but Brain forces an inhibition of muscle recruitment to protect itself.
In order for us to race and train closer to that elite 30% failure ceiling, we need to RESET OUR LIMITS. How do we reset our limits? Simple….give Brain enough time to interpret the safety of the activity desired. Give it all the time it needs. I hear you saying……but I'm racing in 6 weeks. How can I expand my limits by then?
Use 3 simple steps every workout and before every race and you will......RESET YOUR LIMITS!
Keep checking back to find out more on the 3 step program