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Review
. 2021 Sep;121(9):2413-2422.
doi: 10.1007/s00421-021-04730-4. Epub 2021 May 30.

Chronic resistance training: is it time to rethink the time course of neural contributions to strength gain?

G E P Pearcey  1   2 , S Alizedah  3 , K E Power  3   4 , D C Button  5   6
Affiliations
Review

Chronic resistance training: is it time to rethink the time course of neural contributions to strength gain?

G E P Pearcey et al. Eur J Appl Physiol. 2021 Sep.

Abstract

Resistance training enhances muscular force due to a combination of neural plasticity and muscle hypertrophy. It has been well documented that the increase in strength over the first few weeks of resistance training (i.e. acute) has a strong underlying neural component and further enhancement in strength with long-term (i.e. chronic) resistance training is due to muscle hypertrophy. For obvious reasons, collecting long-term data on how chronic-resistance training affects the nervous system not feasible. As a result, the effect of chronic-resistance training on neural plasticity is less understood and has not received systematic exploration. Thus, the aim of this review is to provide rationale for investigating neural plasticity beyond acute-resistance training. We use cross-sectional work to highlight neural plasticity that occurs with chronic-resistance training at sites from the brain to spinal cord. Specifically, intra-cortical circuitry and the spinal motoneuron seem to be key sites for this plasticity. We then urge the need to further investigate the differential effects of acute versus chronic-resistance training on neural plasticity, and the role of this plasticity in increased strength. Such investigations may help in providing a clearer definition of the continuum of acute and chronic-resistance training, how the nervous system is altered during this continuum and the causative role of neural plasticity in changes in strength over the continuum of resistance training.

Keywords: Brain; Exercise; Hypertrophy; Motoneuron; Spinal cord; Transcranial magnetic stimulation.

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