THE ROOT 9: 36.1

I don’t typically watch baseball, but Dylan put on the World Series in our apartment on Saturday night … I understand the baseball buzz.

In the ninth inning, the Dodgers were down to their last outs against the Toronto Blue Jays and Miguel Rojas tied the game with a home run. That moment forced the game into extra innings. Will Smith hit a home run in the eleventh, and the Dodgers won the World Series after a game ending double play (mostly new terms and rules I learned on Saturday night, to be fair).

Dylan said it was the kind of miracle little kids imagine seeing live at a stadium, but my favorite part about it was the commentary from the players after the win. The theme was simple: gratitude for their teammates and their refusal to give up, despite the odds not being in their favor.

That feeling, the one where you are down to your last out and still manage to find a way to tie the game, is a powerful form of motivation. It is a reminder that when you feel a personal goal is unreachable or the odds are completely against you, your community and your internal refusal to concede can uplift you to come right back. That collective hope is a true force.

My motivation for this week is simple: Keep your hope and your head high, no matter the inning or the odds. You might just hit a home run. (Cheesy! But you gotta lean into it!)

Intention for the Week: Lean in to the confidence of your teammates. When personal belief wavers, use the strength and hope of your community as your anchor.

Strength of Our Nervous Systems

On Saturday, Dylan and I hit chest together (my favorite lift of the week!) I was benching 27.5lb dumbbells for my incline chest press and he pushed me to go heavier… I had been using that weight for a while and was able to perform consistent reps with good form in all my sets. His advice was hinged on the opportunity to increase strength by strengthening mind muscle connection.

We often talk about getting stronger in terms of hypertrophy (making the muscle fibers physically bigger) but there is another (arguably much more important) piece of the puzzle: your neural connections.

When you lift heavy, you aren’t just stressing your muscles; you’re sending a powerful signal to your central nervous system. Your brain is forced to maximize the amount of electrical signals it sends to those muscle fibers to complete the lift (called motor unit recruitment, if you wanna get nerdy with me) . A heavy load demands that your brain efficiently activate every possible fiber in that muscle group.

The more you force your body to lift heavier weight, the more your nervous system adapts and refines the communication pathway to that specific muscle. It is like turning a faint and static radio signal into a loud and clear one.

That’s why after a really heavy lift, you often feel mentally fatigued. That mental exhaustion is the feeling of your neural system having worked its full capacity. Each pulse sent to your muscle is an electrical signal, and your brain has been sending a lot of them. Getting stronger is just as much about building a better brain muscle connection as it is about building bigger muscles.

The next time you are tempted to stay at a comfortable weight, push yourself (only if your form with the current weight is consistent and proper! And…do this when you’re with a buddy 🙂 ) You aren’t just building muscle; you’re building a faster, stronger neurological pathway to power your lifts.

If you’ve been here for a while, you know that I use music as an anchor, and this week I want to share one of the songs that started it all.

I created the first playlist (1.1) that began my full Spotify organization system on May 12th, 2016. The song I’m sharing this week was only the second track I ever added to it. It holds so much meaning to me that I go back to it all the time, no matter the season in my life.

It is crazy to think over nine years have passed since I first added this to my library permanently. I deeply love it, and I hope you will find some joy and quiet reflection in listening to it too.