The Horse’s Mouth

Neurology Vs Muscularity (Part 1)

Think your muscles are getting you

in the air? You’d better learn the

importance of Neurology over Muscularity...

Neurology Vs Muscularity (Part 1)

Think your muscles are getting you in the air? You’d better learn the importance of Neurology over Muscularity...

By Luke Lowrey

The body is governed by physical laws that relate to the surroundings and movement of life. By strict scientific study and research, we can observe that the earth is held within a great magnetic force that keeps it rotating around the sun. We also know that every function of life in this planet can be broken down into fine mathematical and scientifically-based numbers.

I say all of this not to try to give you some lesson you missed in high school, but more to illustrate a vital link in your understanding, that must never be ignored: you, and each aspect of your physical state, are all part of one massive and interwoven system of life. One part of life is not independent of another. All is related.

As I’ve pointed out in instalments of “Dirty Rotten Lies” the nature of maths and science being the governing force of your vertical leap improvements is undeniable. It simply cannot be argued with.

But another topic that I haven’t really covered with so much attention to detail is yet another set of physical principles that also impact the way in which you go about training to increase your vertical.

Those two segments are neurology and muscularity.

Now, to start, let me clear up a couple of things. Consider your muscles to be cables and consider your bones to be levers. Your muscles (cables) contract and relax to move your bones (levers). This is simple mechanics. Now, follow with me here:

These cables that move the levers

are only ever as strong or as powerful

as the electricity provided to them allows for,

regardless of their size.

You following?

Good.

Now, get this: Your neurological system is that electrical charge to your cables which dictates entirely how powerful or fast your movements are and, therefore, how high you can jump.

Simple stuff!

The logical progression from this is quite simple also:

It matters more how you train your body,

than what you actually do to train it.

From a broader perspective and to make it even simpler to understand:

When you train to increase your vertical,

you are training your neurological system,

not your muscular system!

The strangest thing is, I can ask even the youngest, dumbest, most inexperienced and most knowledge lacking athlete what he’s training when he does a set of stiff-leg deadlifts or a set of legs curls and he’ll give some stupid cocky smile (like, duh!) and spit out, “Hamstrings!”

But little does cocky dumb-ass realise he’s committed fundamental error number 1, and our favorite superhero wins again!

Already, he’s conditioned into thinking that each muscle group is separate from the other (as if he only ever used his hamstrings to jump)... but worse still... he thinks of his vertical training in terms of his muscular system and not in terms of his neurological system!

This is residual of the bodybuilder mentality that clearly dominates athletic training of today and has even brainwashed many pseudo-trainers to push their “half-truths” onto innocent athletes. In 25 years, when everyone’s looking back and thinking, “damn, they were so far behind!” do me a favour and just remember, you heard the real deal from me.

Enough of the joking, I think this brings me to the point of this article:

Training the neurological system

is vastly different from training the muscular system.

Instead of segmenting your body, training efforts and exercises

into muscle components,

you want to segment your body, training efforts and exercises

into neurological components!

Today I want to focus on one of these such neurological systemic components, which is commonly know as the posterior chain.

You may know of the posterior chain - it is commonly referred to as the most influential neuro-muscular group over the height of your vertical jump. Some claim the posterior chain is responsible for up to 85% of the force generated during a maximal vertical jump so, obviously, attention to this area is important, too.

However, my emphasis here is that the entire posterior chain is supplied electrical charge by the single neurological supplier and that piece of knowledge, in itself, is very significant when you discuss ways that this important chain should be trained to maximally improve vertical gains.

This really provides a key to how you should go about setting up your training regime; because understanding how the various neurological components work and then interact with each other will allow for a smoother delivery of performance and faster results from your training efforts. The best way to do this is by telling you one of my favourite object lesson stories...

Over 200 years ago, Australia was colonized by the British and spilt into separate colonies. Australia wasn’t one big country as it is now – each state was its’ own country with its’ own government and own laws. In many ways similar to the USA in the beginning.

Obviously, this meant each colony made up the game as it went along and no colony was answerable to another. To cut a long story short, this meant that when it came to laying train tracks for a rail system, each colony set tracks of differing widths, not wanting to “copy” the other colonies. 100 years down the line, when the governing bodies of the colonies decided it was best to join together under one nationhood and constitution – Australia – they hit a snag when it came to transporting goods, services and people between the states because all the train tracks were different!

This stalled the economic growth of the country and the development of the various towns and cities within the states because there wasn’t a free passage between the nation. It was inefficient because two trains had to complete the same task that one could and eventually because a whole system had to be set up where trains could adapt their railing width to the track width of the given states they were travelling between. Such a problem could not be seen before it had occurred and has since been, and still continues to be, a total absurdity of Australian political culture.

But can you see the point I’m making out of this?

That’s right. The same goes for your training to increase vertical jump!

In many ways, our neurological system is not unlike that of a rail system and, for the purposes of the example, our various levers and limbs or not unlike the states.

In relation to the posterior chain, performing a separate movement for the hamstrings and then giving a different type of training calves, glutes or lower back, means that as the energy is transferred through the entire movement, it needs to change to accommodate the differing power capacity and neurological make-up of each muscle group.

Think hard about that for a moment... The flow of energy from your vertical leap commences in the downward portion as you lower yourself to leap upwards. In terms of the major muscles of your posterior chain, your kinetic energy flows from your:

Lower back --> Glutes --> Hamstrings --> Calves

It is then transferred to the ground and the ground then sends the kinetic energy back through the same major muscle groups, as the athletes leaps into the air, in the reverse order:

Calves --> Hamstrings --> Glutes --> Lower Back

As you can see, the electrical current and kinetic energy that produces the powerful movement of the vertical leap, passes through the “railroad” not once, but twice. This means that the direct result of individually training each of the muscles groups, is that the energy must be “re-railed” on a new neurological “railroad” as it flows through the muscles, again, not once but twice.

You might be seeing where I’m heading here – every single time this “re-railing” of the neurological process occurs, time is lost (the movement is slower), but perhaps more importantly, energy is lost. Remember that this is the exact explosive energy that will propel you into the air and it’s getting lost twice – all because the individual muscles have been trained! To the naked eye, the speed of the movement will not change, but the height of the vertical jump (the result of the movement) will be lowered.

This is why training the neurological system through the entire movement

is the only way to improve performance...

When you train the muscular components separately,

you are short-circuiting the explosive electrical and kinetic charge

that’s getting you in the air!

Amazing differences can be seen in athletic performance when people simply change up a few things in their training program and start segmenting their training into neurological components, instead of muscular components.

After a period of re-programming, I’ve had trainers report that athletes have increased their leaps by up to a staggering 4 inches, just by making these changes! It is a really simple thing, but believe me, it makes a big difference to the most important thing: results.

For the last time, think hard about what I’m saying.

Moves like leg curls, calf raises and leg extensions should never, ever be used in a program to increase vertical leap and if they are, they are destroying your efforts on moves like squats, single-leg deadlifts and even depth jumps, because they are short-circuiting the energy flow...

Not once, but twice – and every single time you jump!

Sure, the muscle might grow in size and you might look good, but the neurological component will suffer and so will the height of your jump, speed of your movement and ultimately, your entire performance.

And anyway, regardless of how good your muscles look or how big they are, no one looks that impressive when they are sitting on the sidelines!

To Be Continued...

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