Interesting Take on Neural Adaptation...

I was having a conversation with a physical therapist I know the other day. She was telling me about a case/patient she was working with who had just had part surgery on her L3/L4 discs in her lower back. I don't know the entire extent, but evidently she was having numbness in her leg and other associated problems due to a pinched nerve. (NOTE - I might be mistaken, so don't quote me on that.)

She (the physical therapist) was telling me about the rehab she was having the patient doing, and that it didn't take long for the muscular strength to come back, but rehab was going to take weeks longer. I asked her why, and then the conversation got kinda interesting...

She told me that because the patient had numbness in one leg, and there was some trouble walking, that the patient had to do a lot of training to improve her neural pathways and to train herself to walk, jump, climb stairs, etc. as easily as she once had again.

As I understand it, the pinched nerve led to the numbness. The numbness was (more or less) her leg not being able to communicate with her brain. Because of that, her brain couldn't tell her leg what to do, and became weak. The weakness wasn't a result of muscular atrophy or a loss of muscular strength - rather, it was a result of decreased neural adaptation.

I then brought up how neural adaptation (or "Grease the Groove" - a term popularized by Pavel Tsatsouline - as it's popularly known) is used in strength training to increase RMs/performance on certain exercises.

She told me that it was similar in principle, but not really the same thing. What she had to train the patient for wasn't strength, per se, but rather endurance.

REALLY?

I told her that GTG is usually the opposite of what's used for endurance type training. In fact, many have found that while GTG can be good for single rep/set strength and/or performance, it does little for multi-set performance, and the carryover from gains made with GTG to sport and/or other activities (aside from the trained ones) was debated a lot.

She told me that what they're training isn't really based in strength - rather in balance and proprio-reception. Those are the qualities that the patient was lacking. And the patient needs those qualities to be second-nature - they are highly endurance-based. The patient can't just walk a little bit at a time - but rather all the time.

I asked her if it would be somewhat analogous to somebody practicing walking on a balance beam - she said it would. You might be able to walk a few feet, but if you wanted to walk long distances, or wanted to stay on that beam for extended periods of time, it wouldn't be a strength-based event. It would be endurance-based.

I asked how far this kind of training could be taken, and her opinion was that it could be taken as far as the trainee wanted, given that they were physically up to the task. Again, we discussed the balance beam. A female gymnast has to have some incredible strength and power for her bodyweight. But that is to perform many of the feats on the beam. Just to stay up there would require balance - and that can be trained with neural adaptation.

When I asked how they did their training (multiple times per day, every day, etc.), she said it varies, depending on what the patient's medical problems/history is. But, when I discussed how GTG is used in strength circles, she said there were many times they did similar - it would depend on whether the patient needed equipment for training, special rehab massage/therapy, etc.

Interesting stuff to think about and how you could apply it to your own life...

Wiggy