We always talk about getting the protein and carbs to heal the muscle, but what about the CNS? I heard heavy lifting or high intensity training will tax the CNS. What should I eat to aid the recovery of the CNS? I thought about putting this in the diet section first, but since CNS is what is taxed with heavy lifting and high intensity I thought this place was a good place to post it.
cns stress isnt really understood well at all. the only thing i know of that helps with that is AAS. according to francis, it makes it function better and recover faster. btw, you wont tax our cns lifting unless youre doing 80%+ most of the time.
Check the "Rating the Supplements" thread, Ted, Terumo recently commented on neurotransmitters (although they are used to "prime" the CNS for workouts, not to recover for the next).
im doing my masters in neuroscience at the moment let me tell you know one really knows much about the cns but vitamin e is good fish oil is good that is omega 3 and i think retinoic acid is also good also dont sleep too much dont eat snacks only eat in big meals
Eating big meals will actually slow down the CNS - the digestive process uses a lot of oxygen that would normally be used by the CNS. Eating several smaller meals would allow your CNS to function more optimally throughout the day.
Explain yourself since this goes against much that normaly is accepted. Sleeping much bad and only large meals?!?? Sounds strange, not sure if I buy it..
A lot of the writers on T-nation are selling Fish Oil for the CNS, but I have no idea how that would improve CNS recovery. I think the best thing you can do for the CNS is to get enough sleep. Not only getting at least 8 hours a night but getting 30 minute naps once or twice a week is a good idea too. I also think mixing the number of sets and reps as well as mixing the movements you use is a great idea.
There is no specific supplement or training program for the CNS that I'm aware of. Rather, there are certain principles that have been tweaked over the years that have shown a degree of consistent positive results with regard to CNS increase and or for that matter, CNS decrease. One observably positive method that was derived from Eastern European Olympic lifting templates is to train with maximal weights for low reps by performing sports specific exercises with approximately 50% of your single max using an almost ballistic execution of movement. This level of speed causes the brain to fire a maximal number of muscle fibers simultaneously thus stressing your CNS without overtraining. In powerlifing, it is commonly referred to as Dynamic Effort day, or speed day. In order for the DE day to stress your CNS maximally, you must apply 100 percent effort to the bar, ie: If you bench press 400 pounds and are training with 200 pounds then you must apply 400 pounds of force to the bar. Your CNS adapts to the specific loads placed on it, however for recovery, and to avoid CNS burnout, never train max lifts on back to back days; therefore one should allow at least 72 hours between max lifting days. Rotate your max lifts every 1 to 3 weeks thus enabling you to adapt to a high work load without compromising the heavy weights required to increase you CNS tolerance. To further increase your ability to lift higher weight percentages for longer periods, it is necessary to reduce the percentage you lift every 4 to 6 weeks for one or more weeks at a time, so as to allow a positive healing and adaptation period. For example, start over at week 1 at roughly 77% of your single max and progressively add weight each week until you
Entropy, your post was awesome and informative as always. I am always left with nothing to say. Please allow me to post before you so as to have some value in my posts, J/k. Thanks man!
