On Weightlifting And Grip Strength

On the weightlifting post, Phelps raised the issue of grip strength relating to mortality.

I was thinking about it, and grip strength does not just represent muscular strength. It is a measurable proxy for nerve strength as well – more so than other muscular contractions, since the gripping muscles are distal muscles, located away from the core.

Nerves transmit their impulses using proteins on their surface that allow charge movements. Each protein’s charge-release triggers the charge-release immediately after it, sending the wave of charge-releases down the nerve. This will produce a wave of electrical charge-releases that travels the length of the nerve, in essence jumping from protein to protein. The charge’s impulse as it moves down the nerve is triggered by the strength of the charge-impulse produced immediately prior. The impulse is also affected by other structural factors like a sheath that encases the nerves in the spinal cord to prevent charges from drifting away, the number of protein charge releasers, and the energy engines of the cell which produce the energy to generate the charges, as well as the various vitamins, nutrients, and the ions which carry the charges being released, like Potassium, Calcium, Magnesium, Sodium, and Chloride ions.

Since nerve strength is a chain of charge-releases that are passed down the nerve, each triggered by the charge-release prior, its strength is a sort of knife’s edge affair. If the charge-releases at each protein are above a certain threshold, you get strong nerve signal transduction down the line as each strong charge-release strongly triggers the next strong charge-release. But if it is weakened past a threshold, each charge-release can get progressively weaker as the defective, weak charge-release produces a weaker trigger of the next already defective charge-release. The longer the nerve, the greater the deterioration of the signal strength as it travels down the length of it.

You see this in heavy metal poisoning, where the sensory signals are weakened in this fashion, and the effect is most apparent at the most distal extremities. Heavy metal ions gum up the charge-release mechanism in each protein in a dose-dependent manner, weakening each charge-release in each protein a set amount. As it just begins to have effect, this may not significantly alter nerve signals near the brain, such as in the neck. But as you get to the toes and fingertips, the affected individual will report them being almost totally numb, as if injected with Novocain. Their nerve signals are firing off at the finger tip and toes, but as each gummed up protein releases its charge weakly, its weakened trigger-effect on the next protein weakens the charge release of an already gummed-up protein next to it, and that becomes a doubly-weakened charge-release. As it travels up the nerve, the signal impulse dies out before it reaches the brain, and the brain registers numbness, or a lack of any sensation. It almost certainly works the other way, as the brain sends nerve signals to the muscles, telling them to contract.

So the linkage between grip strength and mortality may be a clearly definable measure of a failing neurological system that is less able to send signals to muscles, and even to the heart and diaphragm to sustain life.

The nerve structure will have several aspects that could develop in response to usage. Transcription of the proteins releasing charges can be upregulated, filling the cell surface with a denser mat of them, which might, due to denser array, and closer proximity increase the power of each charge release’s effect on neighboring proteins, increasing the signal transduction strength. The pumps in the cell surface which build up the charges to transfer can similarly be increased in number. The energy machinery of the nerve cells can develop to increase the energy available to build up charges. And of course nerves transmit across synapses which are referred to as Hebbian synapses because their structures strengthen the impulses they transmit with usage.

There is actually a theory that certain fats integrate themselves into the lipid layer of the nerve cell membranes more effectively, and seal it more effectively, causing it to hold (and release) charges more effectively, and allowing less charge-leakage that would weaken the impulse. The science is weak, but it is not impossible a decent fat intake of specific fats in the diet might help nerve transduction, especially those on a low fat diet who might be deficient in some essential fats. Those who advocate for such, recommend flaxseed oil blended with cottage cheese to aid absorption, in something called a Budwig protocol. (Though it is usually advocated for cancer, I have read of it supposedly affecting nerve impulse strength).

Of course making sure you get enough sodium, potassium, calcium, magnesium, and protein, as well as vitamins and minerals in the right amounts to provide the building blocks of the machinery will help too, should you be deficient in any. I don’t know if creatine plays any role in cellular metabolism in nerves, but it might pay to examine that as well given its effect in muscle. I would also bet immune-stimulation and inflammation play an intimate role in nerve signal transduction strength, so dealing with any inflammatory issues will be absolutely necessary as well.

I think I have experienced training of nerves, but it seems to take a tremendous amount of use of the nerves to exhaust them to the point they will rebuild stronger – and use in a way that muscular and cardiovascular exhaustion are not limiting factors in the nerve’s usage. When I was a teenager, I was throwing 200 punches and blocks on each side to start my upper body workout every other day, followed by twenty minutes on the heavy bag. But the heavy bag usage consisted of power punching, and it was intermittent to minimize having exhaustion limit the power of my punches,. As a result I saw little change in hand speed. But when I added a speed bag, and did 45 minutes with headphones on, every other day, I was doing several thousand repetitions of those punches on each side continuously, driven to do them quickly in succession, without any rest, more fully bringing the nerves to a point of structural exhaustion. What is interesting is the punching was more gentle, less forceful, and less muscularly exhausting than either snapping out 200 punches on each side as fast and snappy as I could, and throwing as much energy into the heavy bag as I could. I was really just gently popping the speed bag to make it bounce. However I quickly noticed my hand speed exploded. It felt like an intensifying of nerve impulses. When I’d throw a punch, the explosion was intense, and each hand felt like it was on coiled springs, waiting for me to pull a trigger so it could explode out like a lightening bolt and snap back in.

Tai Chi has certain, apparently nerve-based exercises as well. As one example, there is an exercise where you squat slightly, and hold your hands in front of you, open. Your elbows are bent, partly to the outside, palms down and slightly facing you, thumbs up. It is described as hugging an imaginary tree trunk as you slightly squat. And then you hold that position. And hold it. It is not muscularly exhausting, and your pulse will barely change. You won’t be out of breath. I started doing it cold while in good physical condition, with good shoulder muscle endurance from punching, and after a few minutes, my arms wanted to collapse. But as I examined the sensations, it felt to me like the nerves were giving out before the muscles.

Of course Kung Fu has the Iron Horse, and God only knows how many other tortuous training regimens that involve similar methods of straining the body in seemingly boring, pointless, and yet exceedingly painful ways. And I get the impression Yoga is similar.

It is not surprising you can develop nerve structures. As the charges are released down the nerve, those charges need to be recharged using small energy pumps in the nerve cell membrane that eat the same energy molecule, ATP, that muscles use. With continued stress, the energy produced by those pumps would exhaust, and the body would likely upregulate the production of the energy machinery used to produce that energy. The charge-releasing proteins, and the charge producing proteins would probably also see their production upregulated. Just like muscle, it is probably natural for the nerve to grow stronger when used to exhaustion. It may just be that the usage forms that exhaust nerves are abnormally strange forms of usage, since in normal usage, muscles and cardiovascular systems will almost always exhaust first, preventing you from exhausting the nerves.

The types of usage that exhaust nerves, since they do not involve forceful usage that performs a discrete powerful action, may be of a boring nature that we do not naturally seek to perform, or find rewarding. You hold a position that is not stressful muscularly, until the nerves give out, or you perform a fairly resistance-free repetition thousands of times, in such quick succession that the nerves have difficulty recharging fast enough to keep up. I suppose a good measure of how effectively you are exercising your nerves is a comparison of how tired you are, vs how much weight you are moving or force you are producing, and how out of breath you are. If you are not out of breath, or accomplishing much force or weight-wise, but you can barely keep going, you may be exercising your nerves intensely.

Just food for thought for those interested in fitness and body development, and exploring how to get more performance out of your body.

Spread r/K Theory, because everything can be trained and developed