I am addressing the individual that is currently in an exercise slump or has not previously exercised on a regular basis. The goal of this Schaudt Out is to inform currently untrained individuals on some facts to hopefully provide motivation to put exercise in their routine.

FACT: untrained individuals under submax or max exertion cannot activate all of their available muscle fibers. They are there…you just can’t use them. It’s analogous to having a phone that only charges to 75% even though it has the capacity to be 100% charged. The phone works, but it’s a darn shame when it dies and you need to call animal control because there is a bear in your backyard.

This difference between trained and untrained muscle fiber usage has no correlation with the amount of muscle fibers person #1 has compared to person #2. Untrained person #1 could have 400 fibers in a muscle while trained person #2 could have 375. Person #1 can only activate 350 of those fibers while person #2 can activate just as many fibers or greater.

This process is called recruitment and involves neuromuscular activity at a microscopic level. Basically nerves that attach to muscles send a signal for the muscle fibers to contract. An individual can gradate the amount of strength, or force, they use by the amount of fibers they activate. If you are performing a back squat at a lighter weight, you will not contract all of your fibers. If you are performing a max back squat you are contracting all of your fibers. Untrained individuals simply cannot do the second one.

The good news is that you can easily #TrainBIG by regularly attempting to contract your whole muscle (otherwise known as exercise). Your body will take note and adapt by contracting more muscle fibers until you have full access to your muscle! A large percentage of initial gains in strength during exercise come from learning to actually use the entire muscle that is currently available.

It sucks to have a phone that only charges to 75%.

Schaudt is out!