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Thread: Central Nervous System stress with heavy deadlifts

  1. #1
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    Default Central Nervous System stress with heavy deadlifts

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    I am getting back into lifting after 10+years off; not injury repeated. Thanks for all your work in this community and I am a huge fan. However I have a question please:

    “Experts” say not to go heavy on squats and deadlifts as heavy deadlifting places too much stress on the central nervous system (CNS). At least they did when I was peer lifting. I am not sure I am buying this as good advice.

    I like deadlifting, probably more than squats.

    I cannot see DLs place more CNS strain than squats because they are below the center of gravity. Squats, having the bar higher, must be causing more stress to the CNS (assuming same weights used) because the body has to activate more nerves for lifting and for balance etc.

    What are your thoughts on going heavy for deadlifts?

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  3. #3
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    Lifting heavy stresses my CNS. I should know as a neurologist. Every Monday I load my bar for my heavy deadlift set and as I stand ready to bend over and pick it up, my brain feels so stressed I want to cry. Methinks I've wiped a few wee tears from my eyes a few times. Sometimes I think I might soil my trousers, which I'm pretty sure is my spinal cord under duress. My brain then comes up with five reasons that I don't need to do it. After all, I've never lifted that much before. It is more than last week....

    But then I pick it up and put it down five times.

    Boy, do I feel stressed. My PNS too (peripheral nervous system). And then I do it all over again the next Monday.

  4. #4
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    Hafthor Bjornsson pulled 1104 pounds this year. He seems fine.

  5. #5
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    Where did this sillyass "CNS stress" bullshit come from? Any ideas?

  6. #6
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    Where did this sillyass "CNS stress" bullshit come from? Any ideas?
    Al Gore and his so-called internet.

  7. #7
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    Lifters were jealous of runners having "burn out" as an imaginary excuse out of training so they invented their own.

  8. #8
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    I don't know, Rip, but it has a lot of teeth in the health and fitness industry. I believed it for years before I found Starting Strength. When I did triathlons, I'd deadlift once a week, maybe 165 pounds for 3 sets of 12, thinking I was taxing my nervous system. I clearly didn't understand stress, recovery, adaptation.

    There are times when I will deadlift heavy and the next day feel very fatigued. This is usually rectified by a larger than average meal. A big steak and some extra carbs usually work best. This has led me to believe that what people really mean by taxing the CNS is that heavy deadlifts put their body in a state requiring recovery. If you are in a constant caloric deficit, you feel like shit from heavy deadlifts. Some moron has subsequently correlated this with a CNS tax.

  9. #9
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    Quote Originally Posted by Mark Rippetoe View Post
    Where did this sillyass "CNS stress" bullshit come from? Any ideas?

    "Experts" obviously.

  10. #10
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    starting strength coach development program
    Quote Originally Posted by Mark Rippetoe View Post
    Where did this sillyass "CNS stress" bullshit come from? Any ideas?
    The "nervous system" has long been a canvas for vivid theories of exercise, load management, etc. More recently, purveyors of heartrate monitors have upped the ante with overzealous marketing materials. These suggest that your wristband's fuzzy measurement of parasympathetic tone somehow describes the state of the rest of the nervous system, and (why not) all other processes in the body.

    Autonomic, peripheral, central, no matter -- it's all fried.

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