Train Your Brain, Not Your Muscles

The most common questions a client or friend asks me are "what muscles does (fill in the exercise name here) train?" or, "what exercises can I do to lose fat in my (fill in muscle group name here)?" My answer will always be, "no muscle works in isolation."

The answer is all of them.

You are one single entity. Everything in your body, all of its muscles, organs and soft tissues work in unison.

Unfortunately, our modern understanding of anatomy has influenced people to divide the body up into smaller and smaller parts. You have the digestive system, the musculoskeletal system, the vestibular system, and so on and so forth. There are over 200 bones in your body and well over 600 muscles. The unfortunate part is that, for the purpose of classification or in order to break up something so vast and complex into more memorable, tangible parts, text books and health professionals have made increasingly specific distinctions for each part of the body. We have a never-ending list of different "specialists" for certain areas of the anatomy: cardiologists, podiatrists, orthopedists, endocrinologists, and many, many more. Sometimes it's confusing to know where the territory of one specialist ends and that of another begins.

In this intricate web that is the human body, everything is intertwined and interconnected. Your brain does not isolate certain parts at a time, but rather, they all work in concert to produce normal bodily functions and extraordinary feats. Your brain remembers movement patterns, not muscles. Your brain does not think "okay, I'm going to contract the biceps femoris now." Rather, it functions by using a sequence of impulses to fire several muscles at the same time, while relaxing the antagonist muscles. This happens thousands of times per day.

Now, the reason why this is so important is because one part of a muscle may fire, while the other part may not. I know this sounds confusing, but let me explain. Yes, this muscle has been classified as one comprehensive "unit," for the purpose of anatomy textbooks, but that does not mean that it always functions that way. Many muscles can perform several different actions. In order to really understand how the body uses movement, we have to think about the actions these muscles perform.

I hear plenty of people say something to the effect of “she has a big booty, so she must not have weak glutes!” That is not necessarily true. Just because you have large gluteus maximii, you do not necessarily have equally strong gluteus medii and minimi. One or two of those muscles may still be dysfunctional.

The gluteus maximus is, primarily, hip extensor. Deep squats, lunges, deadlifts, and back extensions will all activate the gluteus maximus. The gluteus medius is activated during hip abduction (when your legs move laterally away from the body). At the same time, the gluteus medius prevents hip adduction. If one has proper activation in the gluteus medius, all of the aforementioned movements should activate this muscle. If not, the muscles like the hip adductors will take the reigns. Usually the result of this is knee, hip or ankle pain. These people will be quad-dominant.

Stability exercises can change the way the muscles in the hip function. Another way is to try to improve your somatic intelligence (also known as mind and body connection). Essentially, this means that you need to actively think about recruiting the muscles you want to fire. Using a lacrosse ball or a foam roller on those areas is an easy way to remind your neuromuscular system to function properly. Check out my article on why you need to have a big butt for some ideas for exercises.

The trapezius muscle is another great example of this. Many people have humongous upper traps, while the middle and lower traps are underdeveloped. Although the muscle has been lumped together under one name, it has many different functions. Therefore, each action of the muscle is accompanied by a group of synergistic muscles.

Do you have chronically tight upper traps? Well, I can tell you with almost 100% certainty that you’re probably a neck breather (rather than a diaphragmatic breather). Your latissimus dorsi (the antagonist of the upper trapezii) and serratus anterior probably don’t function properly. Your lower and middle trapezii are likely not firing as they should. Again, the lower and middle trapezius are all the same muscle, but they perform different functions. Your body views them as separate entities. The upper trapezius (elevates) shrugs the scapula while the middle trapezius upwardly rotates and adducts the scapula. The lower trapezius also adducts and depresses the scapula. Notice one important distinction here: the upper/middle fibers of the muscle elevate the shoulders while the lower fibers depress the shoulders. These actions are functional opposites, and therefore, it is important for us not to lump the entire trapezius as one entity.

Don’t just assume because one part of your muscle appears to be large that it is functional in every action. Basically, you want to train the muscles as you’d like to activate them. Even during an "isolation" exercise like a "biceps" curl, you are using other muscles like the brachialis to move the weight.

Muscles are just broad general terms that don’t really explain how our brains process movement. The ultimate way to prevent injury and get stronger is to learn how to use your body and your brain together. Just because a muscle is strong through one range of motion, does not necessarily mean that it will function optimally during its other actions. If you find that a muscle is weaker or smaller than you'd like, think about other the other synergistic muscles and their tasks, then pick and exercise that will target them accordingly.  Finally, vary the exercises you use to train one muscle group, so that you can train different movement patterns.


Works Cited:

1. Baechle, Thomas R., and Roger W. Earle. Essentials of Strength Training and Conditioning. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics, 2008. Print.
2. "FMS." Functional Movement Systems. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 June 2015.
3. Holler, Tony. "3 Reasons Why Activation Is a Game-Changer - Freelap USA." Freelap USA. N.p., 25 Nov. 2014. Web. 11 June 2015.
4. Myers, Thomas W. Anatomy Trains: Myofascial Meridians for Manual and Movement Therapists. Edinburgh: Churchill Livingstone, 2001. Print.
5. "Reactive Muscles and the Kinetic Chain." Neurokinetic Therapy. David Weinstock, 21 May 2011. Web. 11 June 2015.
6. "Squat Exercise - Anatomy Analysis." Muscle & Motion. YouTube, 01 Mar. 2012. Web. 11 June 2015.

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