What contributes to a good lift or Muscle pump?
What are the factors that come into play when we experience that feeling of a good ‘pump’ when we exercise? Good nutrition, good rest, good technique and that mind-body connection, a term called Neuromuscular activation.
Neuromuscular activation is that complex combination of the nervous and muscular system which describes how the nervous system sends electrical impulses to muscle fibers to contract and move. Many things can contribute to an increase or a decrease in those electrical impulses. Things such as injury, disuse, damage to nerve or muscle fibers which leads to lesser quality of muscle activation which leads to overuse and injury when performing activities that require a certain amount of muscle activity to perform an activity.
On the other hand, what can help facilitate or improve muscle activity? Many things can help facilitate improved muscle activation. Use of external inputs to the periphery ( local inputs) such as electrical stimulation (also known as Russian neuromuscular electrical stimulation) Tapping or stroking a muscle that is often use in post stroke patient, taping (Kinesio taping) which is often used by athletes to enhance specific muscle groups to be engaged when there may be disengagement due to overuse (tendonitis)
Enhanced Grip can have substantial effects on improving neuromuscular muscle activation to muscles along the kinetic chain ( shoulder girdle, elbow, wrist, and hand). By enhancing ones Grip you improve the impact of increasing muscle fiber recruitment proximal (upstream) and distal (downstream) leads to greater muscle activation and strength output.
You can test this hypothesis by extending your arms out in front of you to shoulder level, hold and squeeze something that fits comfortably in one hand while keeping the other hand open. Have someone push down on your arms at the level of the wrists and note the difference in strength between arms.
This enhanced neuromuscular facilitation with grip optimization has been shown true with surface EMG studies using the GP3against no grip and against a leading grip enhancement product where GP3 showed greater muscle output across 3 common pulling exercises ( pull ups, biceps curls and low rows) by substantial margins.
Although number of subject tested (3) was limited the results were consistent, showing GP3 grip superior to no Grip conditions but also versus a commonly used grip enhancement product, supporting the premise that the ergonomic design is the difference in performance.
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