What is an efficient nervous system, which if an athlete has, allows him/her to be naturally fast? I’m familiar with the telltale signs of short temper, the quickness of their feet and a bunch of other stuff… but moving past those subjective tests, what are the true metrics of a powerful CNS? Read in my psychology textbook about the sodium/potassium ion pump, action potential, excitatory neurotransmitters… are those phenomenons related to someone’s inherent speed? And that leads to the question - how can I purposely affect/increase these measures? Will supplementing with electrolytes translate to increased firing of neurons?
Stuart McMillian spoke of Muna Lee as one of the most neural-powerful people in the world (paraphrase). What does that mean, physiologically?
I saw Andre de Grasse at Canadian Nationals… he’s a standard IMO of what a person with a superior CNS is. He is twitchy. He couldn’t stop moving. There was always some articulation of the limb going about even when he was drinking his water. He could not be still. I think it’s that neural configuration plus zero aggression/excessive effort that lets him run very fast
This touches on something I’ve been thinking about, are the explosive personality, short temper, high strung traits, etc. always visible or can one be much more introverted and possess a powerful nervous system? For example Bolt vs. Gay, both would have superior nervous systems to perform at the level they do but Gay seems to be much more reserved externally while Bolt is classically expressive. I would think one that has a powerful nervous system but doesn’t express it externally experiences absolute mayhem internally as the energy is diverted there (constantly running mind/thoughts, inner feelings of turmoil/unease, non-stop analyzation, etc.). Thoughts?
I think that there is way more than being twitchy having short temper or explosive personality. Having all those above won’t guarantee good sprinting abilities or efficiency of CNS.
Just in the contrast comparing European sprinters with North American or Caribbean.
In my opinion efficient CNS is a healthy CNS. I don’t know whether we are that advance today to measure the power of the CNS.
De Grasse might be hypoactive, therefore he cannot stand in one place.
Good post Ange. Proof is in the pudding - nutrition/recovery and general maintenance of the body will maximize training effect and promote nervous system efficiency. Thanks for the post, will have to read CFTS again
Agreed Wermouth, hence why I was wondering whether there were any true, objective measures of nervous system capacity. It seems that it’s hard to measure it.
I think there are visible traits and traits we may not see.
Ben is not twitchy or hyper or loud or someone you would say has an explosive personality. I do not remember seeing him lose his temper. Charlie on the other hand? Yikes. HE was for sure a person that was calm and then BAM. He was demonstrating some med ball drills for Tim and Marian and it was a site to be seen regarding what kind of explosive, innate power he had. Another instance= CMF was coaching a guy whom he felt was a huge talent with incredible power and speed. He was showing this person how to do some med ball drills as well and he blew him away regarding the drill in terms of distance and magnitude of the throws. Angella is a good example of pure, extrovert explosive power. Merlene was from the outside seemed on the opposite according to Charlie and Henk. Mark McKoy was not overtly explosive as far as I knew him.
I believe we do not know all there is to know about the CNS yet.
I also think it’s a good idea to follow what we know regarding the simple things we each can do to keep our nervous system strong and read as much as possible and use your own experience to understand more about your personal chemistry make up. It’s unique. You need to learn to tap into what you have.
