Muscle tension

    Posted In: Training Theory

        • Participant
          Linas82 on February 13, 2011 at 11:28 pm #17390

          Probably many of us felt flat during competition or during quality sessions. I’m not talking about CNS fatigue, but muscle tension. If it’s too low, athletes feel less power or muscle fibres don’t contract as fast as they are capable of. I had simmilar feeling few days ago during competition while running 60m and 200m. I thought what was wrong b/c during testing I was much faster. However, during competition my muscles were relaxed and I think they were too much relaxed and I couldn’t use all power wich I have. After race I had a feeling like doing submax running, but couldn’t run faster anyway. Probably my mistake was doing too easy training few days leading to competition which made my muscle tension low. Two days before competition I took warm bath with some massage wich lowered muscle tension even more.

          Do you guys had such a case like feeling flat during competion, but you were sure that problem wasn’t overtraining?

          How do you manage to have optimal muscle tension during competition?

        • Participant
          Patrick_Bateman on February 15, 2011 at 9:54 pm #105502

          yea if I dont lift for awhile like over 2 weeks and get no higher intensity running stimulus I will start feeling really loose and like I cant get the fibers to contract as rapidly. This is why really flexible people tend to be weak because they have no fiber tension and can therefore produce little force. good post.

        • Participant
          comando-joe on February 15, 2011 at 10:47 pm #105503

          Explain this then

        • Participant
          Patrick_Bateman on February 16, 2011 at 12:33 am #105505

          Explain this then

          thats not that hard to do?

        • Participant
          star61 on February 16, 2011 at 2:49 am #105506

          [quote author="joe" date="1297790299"]Explain this then

          thats not that hard to do?[/quote]Then do it. Provide some medical studies to back it up. Is it actually muscle tension or CNS detraining? Is it overtraining? Improper adaption? You can’t just say its ‘loose muscles’ unless you can provide some science. Charlie Francis has said the best taper is actually around 14 days. Is there a window of tapering that allows CNS and muscle recovery but does not creep into detraining and ‘muscle looseness’?

        • Participant
          Chad Williams on February 16, 2011 at 3:56 am #105507

          Muscle tension and muscle tone are two different entities. You want optimal muscle tone when peaking. Carl can probably comment in much more depth on how to achieve “perfect” tone through massage, rest, and training.

          Some sprinters are very flexible but still have great tone. An overstretched muscle will have a reduction in tone.

          There are a variety of ways to prime the CNS and achieve optimal tone before competing. Typically a day of rest 2 days before competing, then a long, stimulating warm-up one day before will help achieve better tone.

        • Participant
          Linas82 on February 16, 2011 at 6:46 am #105516

          Muscle tension and muscle tone are two different entities. You want optimal muscle tone when peaking. Carl can probably comment in much more depth on how to achieve “perfect” tone through massage, rest, and training.

          Could you explain what are the main differences between muscle tension and muscle tone? Can it be the case that when muscle tension is low but muscle tone is optimal?

        • Participant
          Patrick_Bateman on February 16, 2011 at 10:42 pm #105534

          Is it actually muscle tension or CNS detraining?

          Is there a difference?

          Is there a window of tapering that allows CNS and muscle recovery but does not creep into detraining and ‘muscle looseness’?

          The sweet spot between maintenence of tension and other qualities optimally probably

        • Participant
          star61 on February 17, 2011 at 7:34 am #105545

          [quote]Is there a difference?

          Between muscle tension and CNS detraining? Are you saying every athlete with muscle tension is in a state of detraining? Conversly, is every athlete, or person, who is in a state of detraining a victim of muscle tension? What about a coach potatoe whose muslce tension is so low that they are almost a fluid. I would guess their CNS would be as detrained as can be. The two are hardly the same thing.

          The sweet spot between maintenence of tension and other qualities optimally probably

          Are we guessing here or is there some scientific basis for what you’re saying?

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