NWlifter
Active Member
Thought I'd just pop this up, just for reference, and typing this out helps me organize my thoughts.
For a long time, I had a foggy understanding of tension (whole muscle, individual fiber), with respect to rate coding and tetany etc. Just in case someone else hasn't seen it clear, I'm just going to post some info. about it.
Some physiology information states something that can be mistaken in context, it's that when a fiber is in tetany, it's producing it's maximum force. Which yes is true, but it's maximum 'momentary' force. Ie. the most force it can produce in it's current state. If fresh, it's truly it's maximum force, if fatigued, it's the maximum it can produce in that state of fatigue. Total crossbridge number does equal total force, but in fatigued state, crossbridging is hampered, therefore a maximum neural drive can still produce tetany yet that tetanic force is less than if the fiber was un-fatigued.
Recruitment is said to operate on the rule of 5's. A neural drive is received at the soma, as this 'builds' (to put it simply), eventually it summates enough to produce an 'action potential'. Almost like a balloon blowing up till it pops, but without damaging the balloon. Then it rebuilds again, etc. If the first motor unit is running at 5HZ (5 pops a second, so five action potentials a second) that MU is twitching with minimal force, if the neural drive increases to where that MU reaches 10Hz, the larger soma of the next larger motor unit is building now at the rate of 5Hz. If the neural drive increases more to where the first is building more rapidly at 15HZ, the 2nd MU is now building at the rate of 10HZ and the drive is now enough to get the 3RD motor unit running at 5HZ., etc.
This can continue until all motor units are active. Many are of the first recruited at this point are in 'tetany' they are solid on, producing their maximum force, but many later units are not yet in tetany so are twitching with less than maximum force. If the set continues until very close to 'failure', then activation is maximum, and all possible MUs are in tetany.
Now, the key thing, if one uses a lighter load, yes at this point all fibers are basically in tetany, but from the earlier reps causing fatigue before this point, they are not producing actual maximum fresh tension, they are producing maximum tension in that state of fatigue. So if a large motor unit when fresh and in tetany could produce say 5 lbs of tension, now when fatigued and in tetany, it might produce say 3lbs of tension. All the lower frequency twitching before reaching tetany, did produce fatigue and lower it's force. We know this as it's the reason recruitment and activation increases during a set with an unchanging load. Fatigue is lowering force of the first recruited, which requires an increase in the drive to 'maintain' that same level of actual force. (technically also as MU's fatigue, their threshold for recruitment lowers too, so even the same level of drive is relatively 'more drive' as they are more sensitive to that drive).
So the take away, is that a 5RM does actually increase the tension per fiber over say a 10RM. Somehow though, 'time' (mechanical fatigue?) does also factor in, making it some type of 'equation' (something like tension x time = stimulation) (see TTI studies). Which is why if we factor out tissue condition, various loads can cause equal hypertrophy. Perhaps as long as tissue condition is exceeded, anything above that level is 'enough' to trigger hypertrophy, but that line changes once adaption has occurred. This means one or both of the variables must be increased in the future.
For a long time, I had a foggy understanding of tension (whole muscle, individual fiber), with respect to rate coding and tetany etc. Just in case someone else hasn't seen it clear, I'm just going to post some info. about it.
Some physiology information states something that can be mistaken in context, it's that when a fiber is in tetany, it's producing it's maximum force. Which yes is true, but it's maximum 'momentary' force. Ie. the most force it can produce in it's current state. If fresh, it's truly it's maximum force, if fatigued, it's the maximum it can produce in that state of fatigue. Total crossbridge number does equal total force, but in fatigued state, crossbridging is hampered, therefore a maximum neural drive can still produce tetany yet that tetanic force is less than if the fiber was un-fatigued.
Recruitment is said to operate on the rule of 5's. A neural drive is received at the soma, as this 'builds' (to put it simply), eventually it summates enough to produce an 'action potential'. Almost like a balloon blowing up till it pops, but without damaging the balloon. Then it rebuilds again, etc. If the first motor unit is running at 5HZ (5 pops a second, so five action potentials a second) that MU is twitching with minimal force, if the neural drive increases to where that MU reaches 10Hz, the larger soma of the next larger motor unit is building now at the rate of 5Hz. If the neural drive increases more to where the first is building more rapidly at 15HZ, the 2nd MU is now building at the rate of 10HZ and the drive is now enough to get the 3RD motor unit running at 5HZ., etc.
This can continue until all motor units are active. Many are of the first recruited at this point are in 'tetany' they are solid on, producing their maximum force, but many later units are not yet in tetany so are twitching with less than maximum force. If the set continues until very close to 'failure', then activation is maximum, and all possible MUs are in tetany.
Now, the key thing, if one uses a lighter load, yes at this point all fibers are basically in tetany, but from the earlier reps causing fatigue before this point, they are not producing actual maximum fresh tension, they are producing maximum tension in that state of fatigue. So if a large motor unit when fresh and in tetany could produce say 5 lbs of tension, now when fatigued and in tetany, it might produce say 3lbs of tension. All the lower frequency twitching before reaching tetany, did produce fatigue and lower it's force. We know this as it's the reason recruitment and activation increases during a set with an unchanging load. Fatigue is lowering force of the first recruited, which requires an increase in the drive to 'maintain' that same level of actual force. (technically also as MU's fatigue, their threshold for recruitment lowers too, so even the same level of drive is relatively 'more drive' as they are more sensitive to that drive).
So the take away, is that a 5RM does actually increase the tension per fiber over say a 10RM. Somehow though, 'time' (mechanical fatigue?) does also factor in, making it some type of 'equation' (something like tension x time = stimulation) (see TTI studies). Which is why if we factor out tissue condition, various loads can cause equal hypertrophy. Perhaps as long as tissue condition is exceeded, anything above that level is 'enough' to trigger hypertrophy, but that line changes once adaption has occurred. This means one or both of the variables must be increased in the future.
