You’ve Blown a Circuit Breaker!

The Hidden Reason Your Exercise Isn’t Making You Stronger

Used under license from Dreamstime

Introduction

Are you discouraged because your progress in your exercise routine has stagnated? Can’t even feel the targeted muscles working during your weight training? This might occur when your nervous system fails to communicate effectively with certain parts of your body due to current or past stress, overuse, or injury. Essentially, you’ve tripped a circuit breaker in your body’s electrical system, causing some muscles to go offline. This means they cannot respond to your strengthening activities.

What Runs Your Body?

Our bodies use electrical impulses to control our muscles. Imagine your body as a house with a circuit breaker box. In older homes (like mine), you can’t run too many appliances at once, or you’ll trip the circuit breaker. The same principle applies to your body. The ‘extra loads’ we take on in our daily lives, such as mental or emotional stress, repetitive motions, inadequate fitness levels for a certain task, or physical injuries can trip the body’s ‘breakers’, causing muscles to be less responsive than you would like.

Used under license from Dreamstime

The Domino Effect

When muscles go offline, it creates a performance gap that hinders your progress. You are setting yourself up for failure, frustration, and physical pain. As a result, stronger muscles keep getting stronger and those that aren’t functioning properly can’t strengthen, leading to imbalances, compensations, and eventual pain or injury.

Do you hate the leg curl machine at the gym? Your hamstrings probably aren’t getting the message from the nervous system so it is quite hard to perform this exercise. If your hamstrings are weaker than your quadriceps, your knees can begin to hurt because there is unequal pull on opposite sides of the joint.

Real-Life Examples

Despite being able to perform everyday activities, some of your muscles might have switched-off without you noticing. One day, a simple task like bending over to pick up a paperclip might cause severe pain. This pain is a signal that various muscles have gone offline, and others nearby have become overburdened because they have been helping but aren’t designed to do so.

If you have a sore lower back you have probably noticed it is hard to do sit ups and you may have given up working on your abdominals. When an activity is no fun, of course it’s natural to give up especially if you don’t see results. That triggers a negative feedback loop because the muscles that oppose your abs, are your lower back! The back muscles have to do more work and get pretty tense just to hold you upright because your abs are switched off.

Key Takeaways

It’s crucial to pay attention to muscles that are hard to strengthen because they aren’t responding. Their electrical circuits need to be rebooted to improve their function. Don’t wait until you throw your back out just bending over to pick up a paperclip.  I hope this article inspires you to work with your 'weaker' muscles sooner rather than later.

If you’re struggling with this issue, find the right therapist or trainer who can help you overcome this challenge. If you’re a therapist or trainer yourself who has clients stuck at a plateau despite your best efforts, consider reaching out to me for some tips.

Offer 

Wake up abdominal muscles and more with this free Muscle Tuning™ hack. Go to this link and look for the 'Exercise Ninja Tip': https://www.muscletuners.ca/r-tips

Your journey to transforming lives by harnessing an unconventional approach may be awaiting you! For more information about easily harnessing the power of meridian theory from the Muscle Tuner® Specialist point of view, reach out: https://www.muscletuners.ca/contact

“In a world where conventional solutions for pain often fall short, my mission is clear: to make positive, measurable changes in people’s physical and emotional wellness through unconventional means. Join me on this journey as we explore innovative approaches to well-being that go beyond the ordinary.”
Denise Cambiotti, D.H.C, CIH, BioEW
Founder — Muscle Tuners International Inc.