Adrenaline as a strength boost

Adrenaline or epinephrine is a hormone. Others imply adrenaline as a neurotransmitter. So why is adrenaline such an important thing for us and our strength. Many of us found yourself in various situations like competitions. For example doing push ups in front of a group of people or lady's (yup!). Do you noticed that you can do way more push ups in front of someone or a group then at home? Do you faced a angry dog and ran scared away? Did you noticed that you where able to top the world record for 100 metres?

Why?
Adrenaline usually gives you bursts of super human strength in situations in which we have to deal with danger, fear or stress. Some people experience high amounts of adrenaline rush before a match, a game, a interview in front of audience. Which isn't a good thing - why? Isn't an adrenaline rush better before a boxing match to knock out your opponents? Nope! Read on.

How does it work


Adrenaline has many functions in the body, regulating heart rate, blood vessel and air passage diameters, and metabolic shifts. The root of everything is the hypothalamus. That little buddy has a amazing job, he decides what to do in states of excitement, stress or fear. The hypothalamus is located just under the thalamus above the brain stem.

Now imagine a stressful situation: You walk in the office a few moments late and notice your boss and other employers in a meeting you did not realize had been scheduled for today. The main reason of this meeting was to choose and fire employees because of the global economy crisis. Guess what, one among the chosen ones are you! Your heart seems to stop, your mouth is dry, your knees feel weak and you momentarily consider punch everyone around. Your life is not really in danger, and running away will not solve your problem - so why should you feel a physical urge to escape?
This is called "Fight or Flight" response. More on this later.

When we are confronted with a stressful situation e.g. we enter a dead end and behind us are masked persons with knifes (damn...) the body undergoes an amazing change. The hypothalamus send signals to the adrenal glands, firing up the symphatetic system which sends the body into an excited state. After the order to launch adrenaline and noradrenaline via rockets trough our body we gain enormous power. Those hormones work together increasing respiration, increasing heart rate, dilate the pupils, slow down or temporary stops digestion and allow muscles to contract which end up with an increased strength.

Doubling the strength

All of these changes prepare our body to confront with danger head-on. So how the hormones combined together increase strength. The adrenal medulla - an interior region of the adrenal glands releases the adrenaline which allows your body to transcend blood transfer speed, resulting in a better blood flow to our muscles. The blood can care more oxygen to our muscles that can operate on elevated levels. They shorten and tighten just like when we lift objects, push things away and train. Same happens with muscles that are attached to bones, called Skeletal muscles - those who are connected with bones over tendons. The difference is that Skeletal muscles are activated over electrical impulses.

Adrenaline also facilitates the conversion of the body's fuel source - glycogen into its fuel - glucose. This carbohydrate gives more then enough energy to muscles, and a sudden burst of glucose also allows muscles to strengthen further and above all possibilities.

Some theorize that people use only a minimal amount of the muscle capabilities. Some theories claim that during the fight or flight response the muscle could leverage up to the full potential. Other theories claim that they go far above their voluntary limitations.

Adrenaline pumped superhuman


wouldn't survive 30 minutes in this state. But why don't we possess superhuman strength all the time? Wouldn't it be demulcent?

The state of higher awareness and excitement doesn't do any good if prolonged. Turning potential muscle strength into actual strength requires a lot of training. The fight or flight response can lead to injuries, it can happen that joints can be pulled out of their sockets. The adrenaline rush has usually 3 phases.

  • alarm reaction phase
  • resistance phase 
  • state of exhaustion
The first stage appears in a stress situation. The hypothalamus send out signals, that's when the stressors kick in. During the resistance phase the blood flow and muscle contraction is in it's full swing. The exhaustion phase occur when the duration response took too long and that's the phase when your immune system begin to tear down. There is a increased chance of illness, heart attacks and random pain syndromes caused from any physical activities you may do. As you can see it's better to stay calm. This is a article how to increase strength using a state of excitement.

Avoid stress situations in your life, job, kids try to take it easy. Life is short you know.