Central Nervous System Overloading

Central Nervous System Overloading
Written By Bryce Smith

Everyone knows THAT feeling when you take the bar out of the rack and you have one of two thoughts, “This feels light, I am going to crush this,” or “Holy moly, this feels heavy and is going to crush me.” The minute the latter thought crosses your mind, you have already failed the lift.

What if there was a trick you could do to help blast past these central nervous system plateaus?

In some cases, it is all in the set up and unrack that makes the difference. If you take a mini breath accompanied by a deep yawn, nonchalantly unrack the bar, and then step back and try to squat ninety percent or more of your one rep max squat, chances are you are going to fail. If you use mental imagery, seeing yourself be successful, stomp your feet a few times, add a grunt here and there, and then unrack the bar aggressively and with a purpose, you arouse the central nervous system and prepare your body for a fight rather than running from the weight, or a flight. The key is preparing the central nervous system (CNS) to fight.

Another great method is to use CNS overloading right before you go for a new one rep max. I learned this method by always building to a heavy single in the back squat before attacking a twenty rep max, or by building to a heavy single snatch before performing thirty reps at eighty percent. This helped me learn the importance of confidence and CNS arousal. When it comes to lifting heavy weight, the CNS has the power to make you or break you. You can have the strongest muscles with tons of hypertrophy and size, but if your nervous system is not prepared to handle the weight, that negative self-talk will arise and you will leave lots of unused pounds in the tank. However, there is a special trick to manipulate the nervous system into thinking certain loads are lighter than they actually are.

Because the squat is the king of all exercises, we will use the squat as the example. Progressively build up to a heavy single the way you normally would but before your attempt a new one rep max, try adding ten to twenty percent more weight than your standard one rep max. Once the weight is added, unrack the bar, brace yourself as if you were going to squat the weight, and then simply do not squat it. Remove the additional ten to twenty percent extra weight added to the bar, and then attempt the new one rep max. You body and mind will have adapted to the previous weight making the new weight seem significantly lighter.

Be sure to brace yourself tight for at least five to ten seconds and believe that one day you will squat that weight. If your mind is convinced that the weight will crush you then it most likely will.
You know what they say, “If your mind can conceive it, and your heart can believe it, then you can achieve it.”