The world of strength training revolves around trends, a very popular one when it comes to getting stronger is the use of very high frequency of heavy lifting or neuro-dominant training.
The best example being the Bulgarian-influenced programs. In Olympic lifting, several countries use a methodology influenced by the traditional Bulgarian approach of lifting very heavy (90%+) pretty much every day of the week. Iran, Egypt, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Turkey, and Armenia, to name a few, are Olympic lifting powerhouses that lift very heavy almost every day, sometimes more than once a day.
In the US, John Broz who gained fame by training Pat Mendez and quite a few other solid lifters applied his own version of the system which also included daily maxes on snatches, clean & jerks, and squats.
Recently Chris Duffin squatted 800lbs every day for 30 days to raise funds for some Special Olympic athletes. While there was a decrease in performance (as measured by bar velocity and squat depth) at the end of the 30 days, for most of the cycle (up to day 21 roughly) performance stayed high.
You also have programs like the conjugate method by Louie Simmons that fits the bill. Even though they “only” max out twice a week (once on lower body once on upper body) they have two other neurologically demanding sessions: The dynamic effort workouts in which you are exploding as violently as possible have a similar impact to heavy lifting on the CNS working hard.
Yes, these approaches have led to amazing strength gains in many, but just as many crash and burn when they try to do it. I know that personally, I feel like crap within a few days when I apply a true Bulgarian approach to my own training. Even with the typical conjugate system, I start to feel bad near the end of the week.
A lot of people engage in these systems expecting great results, but they get sub-par improvements and start to feel mentally run down. They can’t understand why they can’t handle the system while others are getting spectacular results.
One hint it’s NOT drugs.
It’s not mental weakness either. (Although that is closer to the truth. Because it is in your brain.)
Here’s why some people can handle a high frequency of heavy lifting and others can’t. And how to know which one you are.
CNS ACTIVATION AND SYMPATHETIC MODE
I’ve been talking about “activating” the central nervous system (CNS) for years. I explained how activating or, more precisely, exciting the CNS at the beginning of a workout can increase performance for that session.
What activation/excitation means is that you are increasing neural arousal; you are making your neurons fire faster. When this happens you think and react faster, you are more motivated and competitive, and your capacity to plan movement and contract your muscles is enhanced. This is true as long as you stay in the “ideal” peak performance zone.
If your CNS gets overexcited (too much on the right of the curve):
- Performance decreases
- Thinking faster becomes overthinking/paralysis by analysis
- Reacting faster becomes reacting too soon or overreacting
- Contracting the muscles harder becomes a high muscle tension that messes up technique, etc.
Basically, over-excitation of the CNS is what leads to choking under pressure: you can’t stay in the optimal zone.
But I digress.
For now understand that when you are lifting a weight, two things happen:
- You excite the CNS (which will increase performance potential. The more force you need to produce, the more you excite the CNS.)
- You create fatigue (which decreases performance potential.)
CNS excitation is accomplished mostly by dopamine or adrenaline, which are released when you are asked to produce a high degree of force. Remember that force = mass x acceleration, which is why explosive lifting has the same impact on excitation as heavy lifting does.
Right now what you need to remember is that during and immediately after a heavy (or explosive) workout your CNS is excited and your neurons are firing on all cylinders.
This CNS state is called “sympathetic state” or the “fight or flight” state. A neurological and physiological state in which your body is primed for action and reaction; a state that also comes with a higher level of cortisol.
INHIBITION AND THE PARA-SYMPATHETIC STATE
The other thing you can do neurologically is the opposite of activation/excitation: inhibition/relaxation. This means calming the CNS down by reducing the neurons’ firing rate.
This will decrease anxiety or the perception of stress, make you more relaxed, mellow, and cool. It relieves the feeling of pressure. It also decreases force production potential, reduces thinking and reflexes. Basically, you become: “chill, dude.”
Being able to reach a relaxed, para-sympathetic state after a heavy lifting workout is extremely important to a program’s success.
This switches you more toward the left side of the curve presented above. It switches you more to a para-sympathetic, rest and recover, state.
The neurotransmitters responsible for bringing you “down” are serotonin and GABA. While both reduce neuron firing speed, serotonin seems to be more of a balancing neurotransmitter: it brings you back down to the optimal level of excitation for what you need to do at the moment. GABA is a more powerful “downer” but is less precise.
Ok, why is that important for us who love to train heavy? Inhibiting the CNS is the opposite of what we need… right?
During the workout yes (at least for neurotypes 1A, 1B, 2A and maybe 2B) but the key here is what happens after the workout.
See after a neurologically intense (heavy/explosive work) the CNS is firing on all cylinders, which keeps you in sympathetic mode.
You want to bring it back down as soon as possible once the workout is over. If you keep your nervous system revved-up after the workout, you are making it a ton harder to recover. Here’s why:
- You risk depleting dopamine. What we call “CNS fatigue” is dopamine depletion. It makes you lethargic, unmotivated, less coordinated, have mood swings or a negative mindset, etc. Dopamine is used both directly and indirectly (to produce adrenaline) when you are keeping your nervous system highly excited.
FULL DISCLOSURE: Some anabolic steroids can help with alleviating or marking the symptoms of CNS fatigue by increasing dopaminergic activity (Dianabol, nandrolone for example) which might help someone not feel like shit when lifting heavy daily, but it’s not enough to make such an approach adequate for someone who doesn’t have the right brain chemistry to start with.
- Staying revved-up keeps you in sympathetic mode which means that your cortisol stays high(er). Of course, a higher cortisol level means less muscle protein synthesis (building muscle).
- It can slow down muscle repair by inhibiting the immune system (cortisol inhibits the immune system) which is the system that “oversees” muscle repair and growth.
- If you can calm your CNS down rapidly after a heavy/explosive workout, your recovery is much faster. Your risk of CNS fatigue/dopamine depletion is lower, and your cortisol doesn’t stay high for long.
- But if you cannot calm it down rapidly, you will greatly lengthen both the neurological and physiological recovery period.
Therefore, individuals with a higher level of serotonin and/or GABA will more easily recover from a heavy/explosive session because they can calm down their CNS as soon as the workout is over.
The Bulgarian lifters are known for taking naps immediately after their maxing out workouts. They wouldn’t be able to do that if they didn’t have the brain chemistry to shut their brain down rapidly. These guys have the proper brain chemistry to do very frequent heavy lifting.
On the other end of the spectrum, you have people who will train at 6pm and can’t fall asleep at night because they are still wired. These are the kind of people who can’t lift heavy at a high frequency.
Being very sensitive to dopamine or adrenalin (but mostly dopamine) makes you good at lifting heavy weights; having a high level of serotonin/GABA make you efficient at recovering from these workouts by minimizing how much stress they put on your body.
THE HIGH-FREQUENCY PERFORMANCE/CHOKING CONNECTION
I find that there is a strong connection with performing well under pressure and the ability to train heavy frequently. The reason is that both require a similar neurological “capacity.”
Let’s go back to our inverted “U” curve.
You can see that there is an optimal level of CNS excitation for peak performance. If your CNS is not excited enough (low neuron firing rate) then you will lack motivation and competitiveness, your brain is not functioning as fast, your muscles are not as efficient at producing maximum force.
On the other hand, if your neurons are firing too fast, you will overthink, even going up to the point of creating false scenarios in your mind or suffering from paralysis by analysis. You react too fast or even overreact. And instead of producing more force, your muscles become tight, which affect your technique. This is what leads to bad performance under pressure: what we call choking.
Those who perform the best in competition are those who can stay in their optimal performance zone.
When the stress of competition is high your body pumps out dopamine and adrenalin, speeding up your neurons. They can very easily start firing too fast, and you lose control (and choke). Those who have a lot of serotonin are good at bringing their CNS back down to the optimal performance zone when it gets overexcited. If you look at the graphic, dopamine, and adrenalin makes your CNS go from the left of the curve to the right. And serotonin/GABA brings you back to the left if you went too far to the right.
Remember that serotonin/GABA are what calm the brain down after a heavy/explosive workout, so those who have the neurological capacity to do very frequent heavy sessions are like that because they have plenty of serotonin/GABA. Having these neurotransmitter levels is also what is needed to stay in the optimal zone when competing. To me, if you can train heavy very often, it is a clear sign that you are a type of person who works well under pressure.
WHAT IS THE PROFILE OF SOMEONE WHO CAN LIFT HEAVY OFTEN
(and is less likely to choke under pressure)
The best at tolerating frequent heavy sessions are the neurotypes 1A and 1B. Note that while they tolerate neurological work very well, their tolerance for volume is lower than the other types, especially the 2As and 2Bs.
Their characteristics are:
Type 1A
- Extremely verbal, talks a lot, talks loud
- Always wants to be the leader, the center of attention
- Doesn’t deal well with authority
- Very high self-esteem and confidence
- Extreme competitiveness (trash talker, sore loser and winner)
- Needs to win in every situation
- Tends to burn the candle from both ends (very intense, but burns out easily)
- Hates rules
- Wants to do things his own way
- Loves to convince others that he is right
- Impatient
- Very “goal driven”
- Seeks conflict
- Doesn’t care what other people think of him
- Low empathy
- Acts on impulses and emotions
- Amazing under pressure
- Loves to take risks
Type 1B
- Explosive personality: very calm most of the time; when he explodes a few minutes later it’s as if nothing happened
- Seeks out intense activities (thrill seeker)
- Constantly needs to try new experiences
- High self-esteem/confidence
- Very competitive (but not to the extreme of 1A)
- Very easy motor learning, great natural athlete
- Fast, agile, explosive naturally
- Very good at multi-tasking
- Impatient
- Very “goal-driven.”
- Is not affected by what others think of him, but still has consideration for them
- Very good under pressure
- Loves to take risks
These are the guys who need to feel a challenge to perform at their best. They are often seen as “lazy” in training if they are not getting challenged (either by the workout itself or by a partner) but are animals in competition.
They can train heavy very often as long as volume is low.
WHAT IS THE PROFILE OF SOMEONE WHO CANNOT LIFT HEAVY OFTEN
(and is more prone to choking under pressure)
Those who have a harder time training heavy often (or recovering from a heavy session) are those with a higher level of stress/anxiety, and thus those with a lower level of serotonin/GABA. The two neurotypes that fit the description are types 2Bs and 3s:
Type 2B
- Lower self-esteem
- Great at reading people
- More introverted/low profile but still need to have the approval and respect of others
- Can be fun to be around and extroverted if they are very comfortable
- Much better 1-on-1 than in a group; outstanding in that situation
- Very emotional
- Lots of empathy
- Gives everything to each relationship, friendship, marriage, couple, family
- People pleaser
- Wants to avoid disappointing others at all cost
- His greatest motivation is being loved, liked, desired, admired
- Prefers to stick to activities he knows and love
- He is the best at listening to others and helping them
- Doesn’t want to be the leader
- Will work harder than everybody else if he thinks it’s going to get him respected
- Will sacrifice himself or his well-being for the good of others
- The most prone to choking under pressure
Type 3
- Introverted
- Highest level of anxiety
- A lot of attention to details
- Functions better when following a routine
- Needs to follow a plan, a structure
- Doesn’t deal well with unexpected change of plans
- Pragmatic
- Hates taking risks and plays it safe
- Prefers repetitiveness over novelty and variation
- Great observer and information gatherer
- Intellectualizes his decision making
- Doesn’t talk much
- Is secretive about himself
- Doesn’t like thrills
- Less inclined to create social connections
- Extreme focus and concentration
- Very patient
For these guys, a heavy workout can leave them in a fatigued or even lethargic state for 2-3 days, sometimes more. While they can still do it, it has to be infrequent and ideally before a day of rest. They certainly should not lift very heavy (90%+) for more than 2-3 weeks and at the most twice per week, ideally once. And when they do include heavy work, the overall volume of the session needs to be severely reduced.
THE IN-BETWEEN
There is one neurotype left, the 2A. 2As are middle of the road. They can train heavy fairly often, two sessions a week, maybe up to three. Or train very heavy at a high frequency (4-6 days a week) for a brief period of time (3-4 weeks) if it is followed by an equal period of lower load training.
Here are the characteristics of a 2A
Type 2A
- Lower self-esteem when at rest
- Potentiated by high adrenaline situations but can easily choke when there is too much
- Wants to get along with everybody
- Excellent at creating personas, changing his personality depending on the situation
- Needs to create reciprocity with the person he is talking to
- What others think of him is super important
- Losing face is destructive for that person
- Tends to mimic the most influential person for him
- Easily adapts his behavior to the person he is talking to or the situation
- Great at reading people
- Doesn’t like to make decisions
- Fun to be around likes to have fun
- Needs variation and change
- His driving force is the need to earn the respect, admiration, acceptation of others
- Hates to feel left out, even in an activity he didn’t want to do in the first place
- Procrastinates and does better work when it is the last minute
CAN YOU IMPROVE YOUR CAPACITY TO LIFT HEAVY OFTEN?
While being able to lift heavy (90%+) often is mostly genetic and depends on your level of some neurotransmitters (serotonin/GABA) and your sensitivity to another one (dopamine) there are still things you can do to improve recovery from neurologically demanding workouts.
The one thing I find to be the most effective is the use of glycine post-workout. Glycine is an amino acid that has neural inhibiting properties. In other words, it does on the neurons what serotonin/GABA does: it slows down your neurons firing rate. If you are of a neurotype that has a low level of serotonin or GABA using glycine post workout can really help you out by switching your CNS on “off” right after the session.
Glycine has the added benefit of being (with leucine) one of the amino acids that has the greatest impact on mTor (mTOR being the switch that activates protein synthesis/muscle building). Using glycine post-workout will help recovery by:
- Relaxing the CNS
- Decreasing cortisol levels
- Stimulating protein synthesis
I recommend 5-10g
I also recommend adding 500mg of magnesium glycinate to further improve recovery. If the workout was in the AM, I recommend a second dose of glycine and magnesium 45 minutes before bed in people who have a hard time shutting down their brain at night.
A longer-term approach would be to supplement 5-HTP and vitamin B6 to increase serotonin levels, but I’d still use the glycine to preserve your serotonin while you are working on increasing it.
Editor’s Note: If you are interested in Christian Thibaudeau’s Neuro-Typing Certification, Check out my Review of the Extensive Online Course.
CONCLUSION
I am a fan of frequent heavy lifting… if your body is designed to handle it. If it can, it will rapidly boost strength and size. However, if your nervous system is not designed to recover efficiently from frequent heavy (90%+) session, adhering to a program based on several heavy sessions a week might make you regress and feel like crap. Before you get seduced into trying out a program, make sure to analyse if it is something that your body and, more importantly, CNS is designed to do.
ABOUT CHRISTIAN THIBAUDEAU
His specialty: being a generalist. He assists his athletes to develop the necessary qualities to increase their performances (e.g.: muscle mass, power, explosiveness, coordination). His work method enabled him to lead several successful athletes in a multitude of different disciplines.
Christian is a prolific writer with three books published, each of which translated into three languages (The Black Book of Training Secrets, Theory and Application of Modern Strength and Power Methods, High Threshold Muscle Building). In addition, Christian is co-author with Paul Carter in a new book, which will soon be released. He is also the author of two DVDs (Cluster Training, Mechanical Drop Sets).
Christian is also a senior author and head writer for the E-Magazine T-Nation his articles are read by over 200,000 people every week.
He competed in weightlifting at the national level as well as bodybuilding, He was also a football coach for 8 years.
As a lecturer he has given conferences and seminars in both the United States and Europe, to audiences ranging from amateur athletes to health professionals and coaches of all types.
Christian Thibaudeau popularized the Neurotyping system. Neural optimization supersedes hormonal optimization because the neural response affects the hormonal response. This is essentially the founding principle and inspiration behind Christian Thibaudeau’s Neurotyping System. The bottom line is simple: you are more likely to train hard, be focused and stay motivated if you like the type of training you are doing, and a training that goes against your nature causes a greater stress response that hinders optimal progression.
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