Part 1: The Misconception:
Have you ever grabbed a gallon of water, milk, or other liquid filled object that you think is full but only to find out – by surprise as you jerk it - that it is empty? (Therefore lighter than you originally thought). If you have experienced this phenomenon then you have used your power of belief to fool your muscles to exert a force much larger than was necessary to lift the object. This happens because you think it is full and heavy and thus the brain/nervous system activates (recruits) a far greater percentage of a muscle than you would have, in comparison to if you had originally thought the object was relatively lighter.
It does not matter if the object is actually light or heavy for this to happen. What matters is that if you think it is heavy, then your brain commands more muscle fiber cells within a muscle to ‘fire away’. This phenomenon is named ‘neural recruitment’,
This neurological phenomenon is akin to a setup where you have 10 electrical light switches on a wall for turning on 10 different lights on the ceiling. If you flip on more switches then you turn on more lights! Your nervous system works the same way, that is to say: 1) If you either think you are going to lift ‘heavier” weight, or, 2) You actually are lifting a “heavier” weight – then your nervous system automatically 'flips more switches'.
In other words you activate more muscle cells within a single muscle so that specific muscle will contract with more force and tension to move or hold the weight.
Conversely, It holds true that if you think something is ‘lighter’ than it actually is, then you will initially struggle to lift/move it due to the incorrect perception of the actual weight! In this case you create a weaker activation of your nervous system and so less muscle ‘lights up’ than is necessary to more easily move the weight. This situation is like trying to brightly light up a large room with only 2 dim light bulbs.
All this reveals the deeper lessons of this article:
1) Strength training is more about training your nervous system - NOT the muscles!
2) Lifting relatively ‘heavier weight’ does not build larger muscles.
Next newsletter I shall explain how the common misconception, i.e. lifting ‘heavy weight’ is for making bigger muscles, is not only a root of fear and source of misguidance, but why lifting relatively ‘lighter weight’ and doing ‘more reps’ is the wrong advice for women who say they prefer to ‘tone’ rather than ‘build’, as well as the wrong training strategy for athletes who desire to maintain speed and build strength yet avoid adding body weight. All this and more in Part II, The Paradox: Why ‘Heavy Weights’ do not Make Your Muscles Grow!