TUNING TENSION: GETTING THE MOST FROM YOUR MUSCLE
A few weeks ago I spoke at the Spurling Spring Seminar in Kennebunk, Maine. The first presenter, Noah Harrison, a physical therapist from Portland, blew me away with his talk on muscular tension. He agreed to summarize his thoughts for my site, and here is a cleaned-up version of his ideas.
There are two things that determine a muscle’s strength: its size and how hard it can contract at any moment during a movement. Based on that, you can train a muscle to get stronger in two ways: make it bigger and give it more leverage, or teach it to contract harder by generating more tension. Hypertrophy has its place, but sometimes the goal is simply to get stronger without changing your wardrobe, or moving into a higher weight class. Other times your muscles already have more potential, and the challenge is to get them to work fully in the moment.
This article explains how to train your muscles to fire a little or a lot harder, instantly, and apply it to almost any exercise. Yes, you can practice tensing like a bodybuilder during a movement, and if you could attach an EMG, you’d see a spike. But consciously focusing on flexing during a movement often increases local tension at the expense of performance, making you work harder, move slower, and fatigue sooner.
So how can you boost power without wrecking performance? The answer is: don’t do it consciously. Use reflexive reactions you already have. Here are three areas you can focus on with any activity, which can trigger a reflexive increase or decrease in whole-body muscular tension. This article centers on increasing muscular tension.
The three areas/actions are:
– How you breathe
– What you do with your hands
– What you do with your face
WHAT YOU DO WITH YOUR BREATH
To increase muscular tension, you’ll either hold your breath or exhale forcefully. The better option is a forceful exhale. Why? In one scenario you hold your breath, creating a valsalva-like effect; in the other you exhale forcefully through resistance. In both cases you raise intra-abdominal pressure to keep the trunk stiff and give your limbs leverage for difficult tasks.
Core strength comes from producing pressure, so you want a lot of it. The valsalva maneuver, however, has drawbacks: it’s hard to perform for many repetitions, it can spike heart rate and blood pressure, and it carries some risk to cerebral circulation. It can also increase the chance of incontinence for some people, which isn’t desirable if you’re trying to stay active.
A forced exhale has none of these issues and has been shown to raise abdominal pressure just as effectively. It can also increase activation of the abdominal wall, stiffen the trunk as well as bracing, and even instantly boost grip strength and recruitment of large muscle groups. We know a tight midsection helps prevent the body from buckling under heavy loads, so the takeaway is to exhale with effort during the challenging part of the movement and let the breath work for you. To ingrain this, exhale through the sticking point of each lift.
WHAT YOU DO WITH YOUR HANDS
This one is straightforward. To increase body-wide muscular tension, tense your hands as much as possible—ideally in a fist. If you’re gripping something, grip it hard. The rest of your body tends to tighten as well, so you’ll often feel your arms, shoulders, and torso engage more fully. This is practical because many movements involve gripping, whether you’re lifting a barbell, dumbbell, or performing a pull-up or dip.
Why does this work? It’s related to the irradiation principle and how the brain’s organization supports movement. Gripping harder can cause a ripple effect that tightens nearby muscles, including the rotator cuff and torso, and it also tends to improve posture under tension. In other words, a firmer grip can help your whole body engage more fully during pushing movements.
The brain has large sensory and motor representations for both the hands and the face. When your hands are tense, your brain pays more attention to the rest of your body, and your muscles respond accordingly. If your hands are relaxed, your body relaxes too. So, focus on your grip during the movement you’re performing.
WHAT YOU DO WITH YOUR FACE
Your face matters more than you might think. The brain dedicates substantial processing to the face and hands, so what you do with your eyes and jaw can influence the rest of your body.
Eyes: Your gaze can steer your body. The direction you look often leads your body to shift weight accordingly. For most movements, keep your eyes relatively forward and fixed on the task to maximize tension.
Jaw: Clenching your jaw can increase reflexive activity in distant muscles such as the forearms and calves. This jaw engagement has been shown to improve performance in activities like squats and vertical jumps. If you’re prone to jaw tension, use caution and ensure your bite feels comfortable and balanced.
Facial expression: A serious, task-focused expression helps maintain tension. Eye contact and jaw control contribute to a game-like focus. Laughter, on the other hand, can temporarily reduce muscular tension, so save the jokes for after the effort.
PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER
If you want to increase body-wide muscular tension, follow these steps:
– Exhale with resistance
– Clench your fists
– Fix your eyes
– Set your jaw and stay serious
This approach focuses your mental effort on these few factors during challenging movements, giving you the best chance to unlock your muscles’ potential on any given day. Practice integrating this into your training, and you may find you get stronger not only because your muscles have grown, but because they learn to work together more effectively.
Enjoy!
