How Does Muscle Amnesia Affect Your Muscle Growth

We are human beings. We have made it on this planet for some period of time between thousands and millions of years, depending upon if you subscribe to the creationist or evolutionist theory. This wasn't by luck. We adapted to our environment. We made changes to our behavior in order to overcome particular challenges presented in our lives. It wasn't easy, but it worked, as evidenced by the fact we're still around today, reading articles about muscle amnesia, right?

One of the main reasons that human survived is that they - like most animals - possess a very evident survival instinct. We are presented with a set of dangerous circumstances, and we either fight or flee - but we always react with the goal of self-preservation. It also leads us to shy away from work that overloads our system. It leads us to saving energy for later tasks. It leads us to adapting to constant workloads. This type of reaction is good in nature. But in the gym, these three fundamental behaviors for survival can stifle our weightlifting goals. Let's check out three tricks we can use to halt the survival instinct and allow for new muscle growth.

Muscle Amnesia
Stop saving a little bit of energy in the tank for your upcoming heaviest set. You probably know it's a mistake. You probably know that only by going "all out" on 3 or 4 work sets of each movement do you force the muscles to grow to adapt to the workload. It's a natural tendency to stop a few repetitions short of failure, as you know that energy will come in handy later. You must break this habit. Remember that the most effective repetitions of your workout - and really, the only ones that truly matter in terms of new muscle growth - are those which you complete last in each set. The tougher they are to complete, the more growth you will see.

Don't be shy
In nature, our natural tendency is to move back when presented with a set of tasks which are above our level of comfortably performing. This helped cavemen avoid breaking bones by pushing rocks that were too heavy, and naturally made us jump out of the way of boiling lava or freezing water which would lead to our demise. In the gym, however, it is only when we embrace the challenge of weights that are too heavy to comfortably lift that we are able to stimulate the muscles fibers of the body to grow. In order words, if the weight is light, you shouldn't bother lifting it, as you aren't going to grow.

Stop the Adaptation
Once a muscle adapts to the workload presented, it stops growing. A muscle that is never allowed to adapt will continue growing. We force our muscles to adapt by always throwing new things at our physiques. New exercises, set/rep schemes, and other factors keep our muscles guessing - and growing. Adaptation is your enemy. Avoid it!

The cavemen did us a wonderful favor by surviving all those years so that we could flourish today. Let's do the same favor for our descendents by leaving them the genes of some seriously well-muscled ancestors!