The governor theory

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Ok I realize this probably isn't for everyone however I found it to be very interesting and really got me thinking about exercise intensity, plateaus hitting the wall and reaching max rep failure.
I read this research site on the Governor Theory and though I understood very little the basic premise made lots of sense. The brain works together with the nervous system to limit what the muscles can do there by protecting the heart during maximum effort. That's my interpretation of the summary. I think I got it right.
Why I felt this was important for the group was because muscle strength training and muscle endurance training are different in many ways and have different goals. Heavy weight-low reps=strength. Low weight-high reps=endurance. Over simplified for sure but accurate I think?
As an example. If I train like heck for strength and and reach 200lbs in the bench for 10 reps what's stopping me from doing 15 or 25 reps? Is it lack of strength or lack of muscle endurance? According to the governor theory my brain is saying that the point of rep failure is a safety valve to prevent my heart from exploding. Which to my unscientific mind makes me think with the same amount of strength I can probably increase the amount of reps by concentrating on muscle endurance more than before.
When Karky asked me in another post if it was muscle or mind that stopped me at 50 pushups I think I can say that it was in my head with some science behind my thought process.
Ok my mind tells me enough already.
The conclusion I have come up with which I'm sure will spur some discussion is this. While I want greater strength, muscle development and definition I also want to push the limits of my internal governor so I can reach greater goals in endurance. This will require a different mindset in my training routine where by some days will be with low weight high reps and some with high weight low reps. Plus isometrics and interval training in my cardio (running) workout. All designed to push the limit of my governor.
I want it all!! Training your mind maybe the key to achieving our fitness goals. Listen to your body but pushing the limits in a smart well defined program is a process that also includes mental conditioning.
Who's stronger a guy who can bench 350 lbs 5 reps or a guy who can bench 100lbs 50 times?
Sorry for the length of my post, because this is probably obvious to most.
 
I don't think there is a feedback mechanism to inhibit your muscles to be safe towards the heart. You are right that the nervous system controls a lot of things and your muscles will stop working before they reach their absolute maximum, if we were to preform at the maximum of what our muscles could do, we'd injure ourselves constantly. That's why the only times you have access to that is when you have an adrenaline kick (if a wild beasts tries to kill you or something like that)

there might be some kind of feedback from the heart that will fatigue you during cardio activities like running, though, since they are pretty heavy on the cardiovascular system. Now of course, if there is some kind of feedback from the heart to eventually inhibit muscles that could get activated during resistance training too, but probably to a much greater extent in endurance exercises like running.
 
I googled it and found some reviews on the theory. I'm gonna go through it later and post here on what I think :)

what I've seen so far, though, it seems there might be something that limits oxygen to your muscles so that the heart, brain or other vital organs won't get too low on oxygen. Though I think that would be more of an endurance running type of thing.
 
I always thought my brain was conspiring against me behind my back, it’s been trying to hold me back for years. I’m gonna try and kill it with alcohol and drugs now. ;)

If you could post a link to a good summary of this idea it would be good. The idea of your brain telling muscles to fail when you’re getting close to harming yourself seems pretty straight forward and sensible (not sure about the part where your heart explodes though) but I’m not sure it’s something I would want to try and trick my brain into by-passing. I like the idea that my body prevents me from harm. Instead I’ll just try and push the limit I can reach safely up in small, frequent intervals.
 
Governor Theory

Yes drugs and alcohol may help over come the limits of the brain but according to an article I read this AM coffee may provide the push needed to go beyond our governors. Now if Karky's wild animal is tracking my butt I'll probably go for a dbl latte.
 
I've read up on the theory and no one really knows exactly what the governor is (no one even knows for sure if it exists or not), so no one can tell you that X thing will help you go beyond the governor (I'm not saying that coffee can't help, I don't know, but you can't say it's because of the governor, though you may hypothesize)

The theory basically says that when arterial O2 is a protected variable:
At first in the 1920s or something, Hill thought that when the heart's oxygen supply got compromised (lack of arterial O2) the heart would beat slower, in order to decrease the speed of the blood flow, allowing for maximal O2 saturation in the lunges (if the blood is rushing too fast, it might go past the lunges so fast that it doesn't have time to get fully saturated with O2). However, it was later revised because they found little evidence for this. If the reason you got tired was that blood flow decreased then anaerobic substances, like H+ would build up and cause fatigue (you start "making" more H+ than you "use" when you burn fuel anaerobically, also, H+ build up has a high correlation to lactate production, if you got lactate, then H+ is also building up). However, people get tired without lactate build up, and build up in H+ has never been able to fully account for all of the fatigue experienced during physical activity. Besides, when you have people breathe a mixture low in oxygen or send them climbing on Mount Everest they will get tired without any lactate building up. Now how is that possible? If the governor detects low arterial O2 the heart should beat slower, giving less oxygen to the muscles, causing a lot of anaerobic burning resulting in lactate and H+.

Here's the "new" theory:
When the governor detects low arterial O2 it prevents the brain from recruiting a lot of muscles. When you recruit less muscles, you need less blood in the muscles and your heart can stop working so hard. So the heart stops working as an effect of less muscle activation, it's not a cause.

That's the theory, simply put. Now, someone who has a lot of background with this theory might blow me out of the water, but I think I got the gist of it.

Here's a quote from the review I got this from:
“The enormous output of
the heart of an able-bodied man, maintained for considerable
periods, requires a large contemporary supply of oxygen to
meet the demands for energy. When the oxygen supply
becomes inadequate it is probable that the heart rapidly
diminishes its output, so avoiding exhaustion” (Hill et al.,
1924a; p. 443). The function of Hill’s postulated governor was
to reduce the work of the heart when myocardial hypoxia
developed, thereby sparing the heart from damage. This
concept that myocardial failure antedated the development of
fatigue was included in Bainbridge’s textbook, edited by the
North American exercise physiologists David Dill and Arlie
Bock: “The blood supply to the heart, in many men, may be
the weak link in the chain of circulatory adjustments during
muscular exercise, and as the intensity of muscular exertion
increases, a point is probably reached in most individuals at
which the supply of oxygen to the heart falls short of its
demands, and the continued performance of work becomes
difficult or impossible” (Bainbridge, 1931; p. 15). As a result:
“The heart, as a rule, reaches the limit of its powers earlier than
the skeletal muscles, and determines a man’s capabilities for
exertion” (Bainbridge, 1931).
Second, as a result, blood flow to the exercising muscles was
reduced, inducing anaerobiosis with the production of ‘lactic
acid’, the rising intramuscular concentrations of which
ultimately caused the cessation of exercise (Hill, 1926).
Clearly, this model cannot explain the fatigue of chronic
hypobaric hypoxia, including the profound muscle weakness
at altitude described by Pugh (Pugh, 1958), or the inability of
Peter Habeler and Reinhold Messner to walk upright to the
summit of Mount Everest during their oxygen-less ascent,
since (i) myocardial ischaemia does not occur during maximal
exercise at extreme altitude (Reeves et al., 1987; Suarez et al.,
1987) and (ii) maximum blood lactate concentrations fall in
proportion to the elevation above sea level (Christensen and
Forbes, 1937; West, 1986; Green et al., 1989), the so-called
‘lactate paradox’. As a result “above an altitude of 7500 m, no
blood lactate is predicted even for maximal exercise. If this
extrapolation held good, a well-acclimatized climber who
reached the summit of Mount Everest without supplementary
oxygen would have no blood lactate. This is a paradox indeed,
because such a climber is apparently more hypoxic during
maximal exercise than in any other known situation” (West,
1986).
However the ‘lactate paradox’ is only paradoxical according
to the classical model, which predicts that the extreme fatigue
at altitude must result from abnormally elevated blood lactate
concentrations despite the very low VO2· and work rates when
climbing at extreme altitude.
Clearly some other mechanism(s) must be operative, at least
during chronic hypoxia.



Evidence that a central governor regulates exercise performance during acute
hypoxia and hyperoxia
Timothy D. Noakes1,*, Juha E. Peltonen2 and Heikki K. Rusko3
Click to expand...

It uses a lot of hypoxia (low oxygen) situations to back up their theory. Then they extrapolate and say that it's probably the same with normal oxygen. I wouldn't see why it shouldn't be, but the researchers note that their support really only goes for hypoxia (and hyperoxia) since that's how most of the studies are conducted.

Wow, this got really long :p
 
Governor

I'm over tired from reading the literature, feeling light headed and weak. So the problem lies in my heart not my head or muscles? Now I'm experiencing eyeball muscle fatigue at max reading rep. Should I climb Everest and try for more pushups or have I got this exercise thing all wrong now? Thanks for the research and clarification --- I think? Your knowledge is amazing.
 
Thanks, and no problem :)

This is very complicated stuff and it is easy to overcomplicate things when reading about it. I seriously doubt the problem lies in your heart. Continue working on your muscles. The literature I've seen doesn't propose any way to deal with this governor, and maybe if you could, you shouldn't, because it is a saftey mechanism. And again, it is just a theory which is controversial.
 
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