Every trainee will know the very familiar and downtrodden
feeling of stagnation or plateaus in gym progress. The weights
have stalled, the reps fail to go up and yet it feels like you
make a Herculean effort every time you set foot on the gym
floor. “No Pain, No Gain” is your mantra and you virtually wrote
the book on hard work paid in sweat, blood and tears. SHORT-
CIRCUIT IN THE GREY MATTER... At the epicentre of our very
existence is the central nervous system (CNS) comprised of the
brain, spinal cord and its neural projections to every
contracting muscle fibre in the body. The CNS is one of the most
important facets to human physical performance but is often
poorly nurtured. We hear all the time of incredible and
seemingly physically impossible superhuman feats of strength,
power or endurance. Some time ago, the BBC reported how a young
woman involved in a car accident summoned up the strength to
lift a car 20 times her own bodyweight to free her trapped
friend whilst being severely injured herself (BBC, 2