LaoDan wrote:Bhassler wrote:It may also be a training artifact. The body has numerous mechanisms to protect itself from flailing about and causing injury. The muscles used to retract a punch are the same ones used to act as brakes if the punch misses-- and the nervous system doesn't know that a punch is a punch, it just knows that the arm is being thrown out quickly and it better be able to deal with the consequences of that.
By developing a strong, explosive, and efficient retraction, you're also improving the ability to safely throw the limb out there in the first place.
Or you could do something wacky, like using some kind of trained body motion to project force to the limbs without relying upon local musculature in a way that needs oppositional control (i.e. retraction) to prevent injury, but I digress...
Sorry that this is off the topic of punch retraction, but the above quote brought up the following for me.
I have been wondering about human evolutionary muscle development and the implications for martial arts (especially TJQ), but there does not seem to be clear research evidence for many of the questions that have come up for me when looking into this topic. Does anyone know of scientific studies that examine the “protective” or “inhibitory” mechanisms thought to exist to protect humans from muscle usage damage?
It certainly seems like humans have difficulty using full strength and power. This is brought up anecdotally with the stories of emergency use of strength to lift a car off of a child, or the greater muscle activation when under a strong electric shock, or the presumed greater strength per body mass shown by chimps and other great apes, etc. for example. But why would we so inhibit ourselves when the other great apes (e.g., chimps) seem to have more capability to be “full on” when exerting their strength.
Here are some unconfirmed speculations: Human children are closer to the “full on” approach that other great apes use, but we learn fine control and precision as we develop (this aids in tool use, the ability to use precise and finely graded movements, etc.). This development includes a greater percentage of slow-twitch fiber content in humans than in other great apes. Is the greater percentage of slow-twitch muscle somehow inhibiting the full usage of the fast-twitch muscles? It also seem that humans recruit the smaller and more efficient slow-twitch muscles for tasks, prior to recruiting the larger fast-twitch muscle fiber bundles when the smaller muscle groups are not sufficient for the task. Could this progressive recruitment of muscles contribute the seeming lack of ability for humans to utilize more of their muscle power during normal activities? Does the slow-twitch fiber content aid in fine and precision control of our muscles, but at the expense of the explosive power that can be generated by fast-twitch muscle fibers? Adding muscle mass (bulking up) appears to primarily involve increasing the fast-twitch muscles, but at the expense of tiring quicker (the fast-twitch muscles are anaerobic and produce lactic acid as a byproduct...). Adding fast-twitch muscles may be good for increasing one’s power and explosiveness, but would not be good for a marathon runner, for example. There seems to be a trade off [note that sport fighting formats seem to favor fast-twitch power athletes who exert effort over relatively short bouts with breaks in between bouts in order to recover from the previous bout’s exertions and to be ready for the next round – the formats are generally not ones that favor those who possess greater endurance instead of power].
TJQ appears to primarily train the slow-twitch muscles, but these develop much slower than muscle mass from bulking up one’s fast-twitch musculature. Since humans have evolved to posses a higher slow-twitch muscle content than other great apes, the efficiency and endurance provided by this difference can be speculatively explained as being beneficial for humans (being able to tire a prey that has greater burst speed than we do and can easily sprint away from a human, but tires more over time when continuously being pursued). But why inhibit whatever power we still retain from the explosive fast-twitch muscles? Can athletes train to overcome any apparent “inhibitory” mechanisms so that they can strike with more power? Are the mechanics of a jab “unnatural” for humans (and other great apes), and therefore more prone to injury consequentially requiring measures to prevent injury, than striking with “flailing” arms would be? Are TJQ and other martial arts that refer to tendon and ligament strength, rather than the muscles, developing power differently than the typical fast-twitch power and explosiveness, but still is capable of producing power by some other mechanism? If so, then what is that mechanism? Does it have something to do with the slow-twitch muscles? If so, then how?
I do not know. There are so many questions that I have not yet found clear answers for.