Intramuscular Coordination - What is it and what good does it do you?

When someone talks about coordination in sport, they usually mean intermuscular coordination, i.e. the interaction of several muscles. You can improve this type of coordination with the usual coordination exercises: balancing, dancing, jumping rope, yoga, performing several movements at the same time.

Intramuscular coordination is different. This is about how the individual fibers work together within the same muscle. Because your brain does not send a uniform signal to an entire muscle. A whole muscle never (or rarely) contracts when you move.

Depending on how much strength you need, the brain will turn on more or fewer muscle fibers. When you're holding a pen, it only takes a few fibers in the muscles in your hand and forearm to contract. When you hang your whole body weight on a pull-up bar, many fibers of the corresponding muscles have to be activated in order for your hand to be closed tightly.

Where do you need good intramuscular coordination?

If you want to activate the full power of a muscle quickly, your brain has to activate all fibers at the same time. With explosive, fast movements, coordination within a muscle is therefore most important. What are such movements? punches and kicks. The soccer player when shooting, the volleyball player when attacking and the martial artist in everything he does depend on the brain, nerve fibers and muscles working together optimally. That can be practiced.

How do you train intramuscular coordination?

In a muscle that is underused, coordination between the individual fibers is weak; in a trained muscle, it improves. The more you perform a movement, the more practice your brain has in giving the necessary signals. You get a certain amount of intramuscular coordination with every sport.

However, to improve intramuscular coordination specifically for fast punches and kicks, you need to train the appropriate muscles at the highest intensity: bench press at 75-80% of your maximum weight, barbell squats, high resistance equipment training. Choose the intensity so high that you can just carry out the movements in a controlled manner.

Trembling and compensating movements are counterproductive here. Several sets, each with a few repetitions, work best, for example four times five. One such training session per week or every fortnight improves muscle control so that you can unleash your full power explosively with punches and kicks.