If you’re going for a PR on a lift, or just moving that new refrigerator into your house, don’t forget to use concurrent activation potentiation.
In other words, grit your teeth.
Scientists at Marquette University studied the concept that muscle contractions become stronger in one muscle when you contract a separate unrelated muscle at the same time. Researchers took a group of trained men and measured the load and level of contraction during a standard leg extension. When the subjects gritted their teeth, they were able to lift 10 percent more weight. What’s more, when they also clenched their fists and contracted their stomach muscles, they became 15 percent stronger. (This is one of the reasons why powerlifters aggressively contract their core muscles before any big lift—and why you should, too.) While the strength boost doesn’t seem novel to gritting your teeth—feel free to clench other bodyparts—the jaw is one of the easiest muscles to activate when under a load. Just be careful of those chompers; the subjects in this experiment bit down on a mouthpiece.
Run Anxiety Away
The gym life can be so addictive it’s hard to remember that nature provides a wealth of unique health benefits. Recently, researchers form Stanford University examined the positive physiological aspects of exercising in a natural setting. They took two groups of people and had half of them walk in a lush, green setting and the other half walk in an urban environment. The walkers who were closer to nature reported greater decreases in worry, anxiety, and negative thought than the ones who traversed the concrete jungle. In fact, brain scans of the subjects showed the nature walkers experienced less neural activity in the area most associated with mental illness. Yes, the trees seemed to actually affect their brains. Next time you feel the stress of life getting to you, skip the treadmill and hit the trail.
Strength Beats Pain
Most of us work out to look better and feel stronger, but a habit of hitting the iron can actually help stave off the repetitive motion–induced chronic pain that has become so common in our modern culture. Researchers at the National Research Centre for the Working Environment in Denmark found that four percent of workers who use a computer and eight percent of factory workers suffer from lower-arm pain. They placed 282 suffering workers on a basic weightlifting regimen that included lateral raises, front raises, shrugs, and reverse flyes. After 20 weeks, the strength training showed significant impact on recovery.
