Thursday WAR Strength & Conditioning

"Something It's Not"

WAR Strength & Conditioning WorkoutA. Back Squat 5 Reps X 3 (80% of the weight you used on Monday) Rest 2 MinutesB. Bench Press 5 Reps X 3 Rest 2 Minutes +4 Sets of:5 Squat Snatch (135,115,95,65)Sprint 200 Yards (WAR Sign & Back) Rest 3 MinutesNOTE: Time each Individual Round. Log the load used.Very informative article below. The brain is so powerful.  I found the part about alcohol abuse to be pretty interesting.  Have you ever noticed that the people who binge drink (party) the most (and have been doing so for the longest), get drunk faster than everybody else.  It almost seems like they drink less than everyone else, but yet their speech and motor skills go down hill faster than everyone else.  You would think it would be just the opposite. That their tolerance levels would be higher because they drink so much; but for whatever reason their tolerance levels seem to be lower. My opinion on this (and this is only my opinion), is that alcohol has damaged this persons brain to the point that the speech and motor skills go quicker than they used to.  It's not that this person doesn't have a high tolerance, because they seem to be able to drink all night; it's just that after 4 beers and a single shot of liquor, this person's speech and motor skills are affected to the point that it is very noticeable; and this usually occurs early on in the night when most of the people at the party aren't even close to having their motor skills or speech go. This is interesting, and the only thing I can think of is that brain damage has occurred due to the long term abuse of alcohol.  However, the brain can be healed - we just have to be willing to grow in a different direction. Addiction and the BrainScientists now know that addiction is the result of key changes in the brain. For example, all drugs of abuse affect the dopamine pathway in the brain. Dopamine is a kind of neurotransmitter - a chemical produced by nerve cells that process and transmit information in the brain. The dopamine neurotransmitter's job is to produce feelings of pleasure so this pathway is commonly known as the "pleasure pathway.""What happens when people develop a substance use disorder is that they tax the ability of their dopamine system to keep up," says Dr. Kathleen Brady, an addiction researcher at the Medical University of South Carolina. "The amount of dopamine we have in our brain is limited by the substances that the brain uses to make dopamine. And if we release it too often, we get into a situation where the brain has less dopamine. What that means is that an individual who has depleted their dopamine source in their brain has a difficult time feeling pleasure from even the normal events that would make someone happy - a mother seeing her child, or having a good meal."The dopamine pathway is not the only part of the brain affected by addiction. Alcohol and drugs can profoundly affect different neurological circuits. Prolonged excessive alcohol use, for example, is believed to cause cause pervasive alterations in the brain's stressand stressand anti-stress systems. These changes, in and of themselves, may lead to additional compulsive drinking.Drugs of abuse affect the parts of the brain that control pleasure, motivation, emotion, and memory, these changes can lead to the disease of drug addiction. Using drugs repeatedly over time changes brain structure and function in fundamental and long-lasting ways that can persist long after a person stops using them. Different types of drugs affect the brain in different ways, altering different aspects of the brain chemistry. However, with prolonged abstinence, some of the brain changes caused by specific drugs (e.g., methamphetamine) may be reversible, which is one reason why treatment is essential.