SQUEEZE the handles, by golly!

If you have had a session with me, how many times have you heard me say that? Or another one…”Have the feeling of the inner thighs drawing together.” Two ques I give to get the body ready for some work. One for the arms, another for the legs/hips. Those ques are based on Sherrington’s Law of Irradiation.

Sherrington’s Law of Irradiation states

“A muscle working hard recruits the neighboring muscles, and if they are already part of the action, it amplifies their strength. The neural impulses emitted by the contracting muscles reach other muscles and enhance the desired contraction.”

Which, we can summarize, and maybe understand a little more as:

A muscle working hard will recruit other muscles. As though spreading the effort and strength building to its neighbors. The neighbors will JUMP into action and you will feel tension migrating. Your body does that automatically.

The neural impulses that started in the hands, for example, are like an electric current traveling through the forearm to the biceps to the shoulder to the pec. Slowly reaching and reaching and reaching farther away from the initial contraction.

Adding a little irradiation serves a BIG purpose. It enables the recruitment of more and more. And as you become accustomed to that, full body exercises whether sitting, standing, kneeling, etc become the norm for you. A lot of times people tell me that if a stranger looked at them working out, the stranger would think they weren’t doing anything. That is because their body is in full irradiation mode, and that shit is hard to do.

Just think….white knuckling the handles with inner thighs activated before even starting a movement. That travels throughout the body, the neighbors are jumping to get into the action; then you start the movement and B A M you are in full body mode. Plus, its pretty easy to mentally start at your hands or inner thighs and proceed for most.

Instead of just moving from triceps press to biceps curls, see if you can feel more than just the front or back of the arms. See if you can add the legs in too. Or if you are lying down for footwork, see what happens if you make some fists and press your armpits into the mat. Be a boss at the basics and the advanced stuff will come easily.

SQUEEZE the handles like you are squeezing the water out of a sponge the next time you go to any session. And let me know your experience!