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Motor learning or neural recruitment pattern gains are one of the easiest things to have first-hand experience with in the lifting world. You start doing a new lift, or a lift that you haven’t done in awhile, and every week you’re able to add reps or more weight to the bar. This is because the body is establishing new neural patterns for that particular lift. As a neural net for that particular lifts strengthens it is easy to add weight to the bar or reps every week. It’s a wonderful thing and is gets people excited about lifting, but as everybody finds out, the thrill is soon over. Why is that? Because after a certain time, usually between 3 and 6 weeks, the body quite responding. Not only is the body no longer establishing stronger neural patterns it begins to downgrade them.
We have all been there before. You start a new lift and get stronger every week at least for a few weeks than progress slows, and in a short time most people actually regress. Most people have figured out a solution in that we can simply change the lift or changing enough about the way you are doing the lift, and progress remains. This is a simple yet effective way to go around motor learning degradation.
There are a couple things to keep in mind to ensure that this is effective. You MUST use lifts that have good carryover from one to the next. If not changing lifts but only aspects of the lift, there must be enough change to force an adaptation. That means if your bench pressing, moving your grip in, or out one inch is not likely to have much of an impact. Moving it 4 inches in or out, will likely get moving again. Moving from a wide stance squat to a narrow stance squat will again likely allow you to continue progress, as will little going from using a regular squat bar to a safety squat bar or front squatting.
I use a conjugated periodized system (think Westside Barbell) for most of the routines I write even for the bodybuilders. Low rep work is changed every 1-3 weeks, and higher rep, or assistance work is changed up every 4 weeks or so. Always to lifts that USUALLY, for MOST trainees, have good carryover. This works extremely well for most lifters and keeps progress constant (accounting for deload weeks, time off and SOME small periods of slowdown for some lifts) for most lifters.
As an example I have had many lifters that deadlifted twice in 8 weeks hit 35-75+ pound PR’s on their deadlift by primarily doing box squatting, rack pulling, Good-Mornings, and other assistance lifts. Or 20-50 lbs on their bench without ever doing their strongest grip bench press. This means doing declines, inclines, close grips,dumbbells, flat and inclined, board presses, floor presses, etc.
From a size and strength standpoint it works extremely well, but there is one downside that affects approximately 20% of the guys that use it. When they go back to their core lifts (I USUALLY use squat, bench press, deadlift, row) some guys just don’t realize the strength gains they would expect from the increases they have made on their other lifts. Why? Their body simply forgets how to do the lift. It really sucks to see a guy hit PR’s week after week on ALL their assistance and ME lifts, and have them post a dismal increase in the core lifts when either going back to them, or testing on them. The solution? Include the main lifts on a MUCH more frequent basis, at an intensity level that does not conflict with the other lifts being done, and make SMALL changes to ensure motor recruitment degradation does not occur.
Some may ask why it is needed at all as long as the trainee is getting bigger and all the lifts in the rotation keep going up incrementally. The answer to that is simply that some criteria needs to be established to measure short term progress, and strength gains are the best barometer of success, but by no means the only one. If the trainee already has a solid strength foundation and is primarily concerned with size, that rule of thumb can be ignored at least some of the time, but who here is really strong enough?
Iron Addict
We have all been there before. You start a new lift and get stronger every week at least for a few weeks than progress slows, and in a short time most people actually regress. Most people have figured out a solution in that we can simply change the lift or changing enough about the way you are doing the lift, and progress remains. This is a simple yet effective way to go around motor learning degradation.
There are a couple things to keep in mind to ensure that this is effective. You MUST use lifts that have good carryover from one to the next. If not changing lifts but only aspects of the lift, there must be enough change to force an adaptation. That means if your bench pressing, moving your grip in, or out one inch is not likely to have much of an impact. Moving it 4 inches in or out, will likely get moving again. Moving from a wide stance squat to a narrow stance squat will again likely allow you to continue progress, as will little going from using a regular squat bar to a safety squat bar or front squatting.
I use a conjugated periodized system (think Westside Barbell) for most of the routines I write even for the bodybuilders. Low rep work is changed every 1-3 weeks, and higher rep, or assistance work is changed up every 4 weeks or so. Always to lifts that USUALLY, for MOST trainees, have good carryover. This works extremely well for most lifters and keeps progress constant (accounting for deload weeks, time off and SOME small periods of slowdown for some lifts) for most lifters.
As an example I have had many lifters that deadlifted twice in 8 weeks hit 35-75+ pound PR’s on their deadlift by primarily doing box squatting, rack pulling, Good-Mornings, and other assistance lifts. Or 20-50 lbs on their bench without ever doing their strongest grip bench press. This means doing declines, inclines, close grips,dumbbells, flat and inclined, board presses, floor presses, etc.
From a size and strength standpoint it works extremely well, but there is one downside that affects approximately 20% of the guys that use it. When they go back to their core lifts (I USUALLY use squat, bench press, deadlift, row) some guys just don’t realize the strength gains they would expect from the increases they have made on their other lifts. Why? Their body simply forgets how to do the lift. It really sucks to see a guy hit PR’s week after week on ALL their assistance and ME lifts, and have them post a dismal increase in the core lifts when either going back to them, or testing on them. The solution? Include the main lifts on a MUCH more frequent basis, at an intensity level that does not conflict with the other lifts being done, and make SMALL changes to ensure motor recruitment degradation does not occur.
Some may ask why it is needed at all as long as the trainee is getting bigger and all the lifts in the rotation keep going up incrementally. The answer to that is simply that some criteria needs to be established to measure short term progress, and strength gains are the best barometer of success, but by no means the only one. If the trainee already has a solid strength foundation and is primarily concerned with size, that rule of thumb can be ignored at least some of the time, but who here is really strong enough?
Iron Addict