In battle, the most skilled warrior prevails. However, skill alone does not guarantee victory when a warrior meets his match on weapons, skill, fitness, bravery, fierceness, and wiles. The warrior must dig deep within himself seeking an advantage over his enemy.
What if that advantage he seeks is another enemy inside him? What if something inside him impedes his success? Like a traitor, an inside man? Then chances are this great warrior must suffer defeat.
Today, meet the enemy inside you. Your muscles. That’s right muscles: those 600 incredible engines under your skin that take on every task you put out. They propel you on land, in water, and even in flight, from the most mundane to the unimaginable.
Whether it be smiling or crying, copying documents at the office, singing in church, swimming, running after your toddler, climbing straight up sheer cliffs, hopping onto a bus or over a fence away from the neighbor’s dog, your muscles perform for you. So how can they possibly be your enemy? Or turn against you especially when you need them most?
How and why
Your muscles may turn against you.
Residing under the skin, muscles need a good supply of fuel and oxygen to function. As we breath, oxygen enters the bloodstream through tiny pockets lining the lungs. Fuel for muscles is generated when the oxygen combines with digested food (nutrients, like carbs) that is absorbed through the small intestines. Red blood cells carry this fuel through capillaries to the muscles. Muscles consume the fuel, fast, and waste is released (in form of de-oxygenated blood, through blood vessels).
When waste is released faster than fuel is supplied deoxygenated blood accumulates in the muscles. This results in hard-hitting fatigue.
Again, during exercise as blood flow to muscles increases; muscles increase in size. The flexing and contracting action of the muscles then squeeze capillaries, resulting in decreased blood flow to muscles. This results in oxygen starvation. Ladies, you are better off on this: smaller muscles mean smaller contractions and thus less pressure on capillaries.
Being all chiseled with chests like billboards looks all good. But when it comes time to deliver, in terms of endurance, don’t count on beating that opponent with a rather slender physique. I have often wondered what the point was in benching 350lbs in the gym and not being able to carry a six year old on your shoulders for an hour while shopping at the mall. Under intense stressed, big muscles turn on you big time.
Suggestion: the smaller the muscles; the greater the resistance to fatigue under stress. Women with smaller muscles exert less force, their capillaries are crushed less, and the result is muscle endurance. This is especially evident in endurance sports and rock climbing that do not demand big muscles. I learnt that first hand in the summer of 2007.
There I stood gazing at what seemed to be an opportunity to flex my muscles climbing this little monster. “Hmm, a few pull ups like in the gym would do the trick” I thought. I couldn’t be more wrong: four minutes later with forearms swollen with deoxygenated blood I couldn’t hold on anymore. Meanwhile, the slender teenager by my side climbed those rocks like it was his back yard tree house. I watched closely just to make sure he wasn’t some kind of mutant, a giant frog or something. This warrior suffered defeat that summer afternoon. My muscles turned against me like there was no tomorrow.
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Did U know? The word “muscle” was coined from the word “muskrat?” That’s right a rat. The muskrat is a large amphibious rodent, closely related to the vole and the lemming, with a thick brown coat and musk glands. Latin name: Ondatra bioethical (Encarta ® World English Dictionary). In the old days muscles were describe as a rodent under the skin. The movement of the bicep muscle under the skin, for example, was thought to resemble the movement of the muskrat under the ground. There you have it, so go ahead flex those solid muskrats. |
Expert rock climber, Julie Seyfert Lillis says “…its about strength to weight ratio for one: you only have to pick up your own body weight, and I’ve seen that it is better to have smaller muscles”.
Strange isn’t it? When muscles rise to conquer they defeat themselves. Why? Well because they can’t help themselves. They flex under stress and increase in size and in their glory lies their demise. And because the body’s main goal is to protect you from danger, when waste builds up in the muscles, or when they can’t be supplied quickly enough, destruction is imminent. The result: the brain shuts down the whole operation before you get hurt.
Need to hit the gym and get buffed with looks like the Michelin man!? Think again: how come those buffed guys do not sweep all the gold medals in the Olympics? Though they increase your metabolism, big muscles do not make you run or swim faster, jump higher, they neither make you more agile, nor more flexible!
The Bottom Line
The bigger your muscles; the greater the chances they will turn against you under extreme levels of stress. It is not the size of your muscles that count, it is how well you can get them to perform for you.