This Is Driving Me Crazy

[lou_smeets]

Coach T,

I don’t know if you or someone you know can relate but I’m having persistent issues with mind muscle connection up to the point where I’m starting to believe that it is either a neurological excitation issue or a severe muscle fatigue issue.

I’ve been trying to figure out why I just can’t maintain the connection but the answers won’t come to me. I’ve delt with this issue for years now, ever since I got my first burnout. It is so frustrating because I can feel that I haven’t stimulated my target muscles enough, even though I am trying my hardest to put in the effort.

I’m 100% certain that technique or too much load is NOT the issue.

It feels more like I want to contract hard with my mind but my muscles won’t let me. It’s like they are resisting the signal from the nervous system to put in the work and contract to the point of that cramping sensation where you know you’re locked in.

I can connect with some muscles for 1 or 2 worksets. After that, the connection is gone. Other muscles I can connect with in my warmup sets but when the time comes to do work, all of a sudden the hard contraction is completely gone. It’s the worst with lats and hamstrings.

I’m really not trying to sound like a bitch. It’s an honest call for help from someone who is genuinely trying to do things the right way and enjoy training but it feels like my body is resisting me.

Sleep, nutrition and stress management/recovery is solid. I learned to recognize my limits and I have enough knowledge/experience to manage these lifestyle factors.

It must be something else but I don’t know what to do about it.

It sounds like a common topic because MMC is a common issue amongst lifters but this is often corrected with proper technique. I’m not talking about that. It’s also not bitching out because you don’t want to do work. It’s really a feeling of resistance within the target muscle to contract properly.

If you or Tom or anyone else in your coaching circle has insights on how to tackle this issue, I would be incredibly thankful for that. It’s come to the point now where I’m not enjoying the process of lifting anymore.

[Christian_Thibaudeau]

Honestly it is a very complex issue which could have many causes. One of the less obvious possibility could be a low level of the protein dystropin in some muscles.

I’m reading a study on muscles that lack dystropin and those muscles are hypersensitive to contraction-induced (so it would show up following several reps or a few sets of an exercise despite being okay at first) strength/tension loss.

The actual cause seems to be “an impairment in the electrophysiological function of the plasmalemma specifically impaired action potential development”. This essentially means that the membrane of the muscle cell doesn’t respond properly to the neurological “contraction” signal by having an inhibition or reduction in the action potential which leads to muscle firing.

While this is mostly studies in cases of Duchenne muscular dystrophy, it could affect healthy individuals but to a less extent.

https://physoc.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1113/jphysiol.2013.254656

Other possibilities could be nerve damage, synaptic issues, ATP depletion or calcium channel problems. But the less obvious answer mentioned above seems to fit you description the best.

I have something similar in might right biceps and, to some extent, right lat. I find that FOR ME, partials reps in the contracted position, eccentric overloads (I like the 2/1 technique) and overcoming isometrics help.

[lou_smeets]

Thank you for the suggestions, I’ll give those a try and will dig a little deeper to see if I can find anything for dealing with synaptic issues or dystrophin/calcium channel dysfunction.

I realize that this issue has many possible causes with little scientific research/support behind it (for now at least).

It’s thus not easy to give recommendations on how to recover from something like this. I appreciate your efforts and will incorpate more partial work and overcoming isometrics to see if that ameliorates my current situation.