Adrenaline and Training: How Much is Too Much
It is a known fact that adrenaline will increase your performance in the gym, and on the field. Without getting too into the science of it, basically your adrenaline is the fight or flight response that most of us learned about in middle school science class. Adrenaline causes increased heart rate, as well as recruitment of more muscle fibers and a more powerful neurological response. But what is the appropriate amount of adrenaline for training and sports. I mean you wouldn't need the same amount of adrenaline for a set of biceps curls as you would for a 1,000lbs squat right?
At certain points in training too much adrenaline can actually hurt your performance. The more technical the lift is, the more that adrenaline will have a negative effect on it. I've noticed a few times on my max effort squat days that if i get too jacked up, it can throw my setup off because I'm not focusing on what I need to do in the lift as much as I am focusing on murdering people. As a result my form is slightly off, and occasionally I'll miss a lift, but most of the time I am still able to barely pull the lift out.
If you look at great powerlifters like Ed Coan, and "Captain" Kirk Karwoski, they look calm on the outside when they are approaching the platform. They have learned how much adrenaline is appropriate for a particular lift and have learned how to control their heart rate.
The deadlift, however, is a far less technical lift and therefore you see people at meets and on YouTube acting like they are about to ride into battle before they approach the platform and smoke the lift. This is because there is a lot less that you can screw up technically in the lift, so it is a lot safer when you are all jacked up.
In a lot of sports adrenaline can be a very detrimental to your performance. Take golf for example. If your adrenaline is pumping when you are trying to make a clutch putt, it will screw up your vision and throw off your form as well. This is the same with other accuracy sports like target shooting or archery. Just a little bit of adrenaline being released can throw off your accuracy and be the difference between a gold medal and not even being on the podium. This is why you see a lot of athletes in these types of sports getting busted for taking Beta blockers which are performance enhancers that inhibit the release of adrenaline.
The key to a better performance is to learn how to control your adrenaline. This can take years to master and is very difficult to do. The fact that this process is different for everyone makes it almost impossible to teach this skill.
At certain points in training too much adrenaline can actually hurt your performance. The more technical the lift is, the more that adrenaline will have a negative effect on it. I've noticed a few times on my max effort squat days that if i get too jacked up, it can throw my setup off because I'm not focusing on what I need to do in the lift as much as I am focusing on murdering people. As a result my form is slightly off, and occasionally I'll miss a lift, but most of the time I am still able to barely pull the lift out.
If you look at great powerlifters like Ed Coan, and "Captain" Kirk Karwoski, they look calm on the outside when they are approaching the platform. They have learned how much adrenaline is appropriate for a particular lift and have learned how to control their heart rate.
The deadlift, however, is a far less technical lift and therefore you see people at meets and on YouTube acting like they are about to ride into battle before they approach the platform and smoke the lift. This is because there is a lot less that you can screw up technically in the lift, so it is a lot safer when you are all jacked up.
In a lot of sports adrenaline can be a very detrimental to your performance. Take golf for example. If your adrenaline is pumping when you are trying to make a clutch putt, it will screw up your vision and throw off your form as well. This is the same with other accuracy sports like target shooting or archery. Just a little bit of adrenaline being released can throw off your accuracy and be the difference between a gold medal and not even being on the podium. This is why you see a lot of athletes in these types of sports getting busted for taking Beta blockers which are performance enhancers that inhibit the release of adrenaline.
The key to a better performance is to learn how to control your adrenaline. This can take years to master and is very difficult to do. The fact that this process is different for everyone makes it almost impossible to teach this skill.
