Ep. 225 - Be Stronger NOW: Top Sets & Avoiding Stress & Social Media (MASScast 2 ft. Mike Zourdos)

We’re back with MASScast episode 2 and we’re joined by Dr. Mike Zourdos to discuss several things which can impact your strength performance right now. In this episode we discuss the effect of mental stress on lifting performance, the effect of social media use on lifting performance, and post-activation potentiation, which is a tool where you can potentiate your back off sets’ performance with a heavy top set. What constitutes mental stress? How do you minimise the negative effects of mental stress when it can’t be avoided? What type of social media usage might be a bad idea before training? How can you set up your top sets in such a way to improve your volume performance in back off sets the most? Join us as we answer all these questions!

For more MASS science-based content check out https://massresearchreview.com (en español https://revistamass.com/)

00:00 Welcoming back Dr Mike Zourdos to the Iron Culture and reviewing reviews.

08:24 What is mental fatigue, and how is it measured?

Iron Culture Ep. 135- Lifting For Endurance Athletes https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YjOMuzSc1PM

Gantois 2021 Mental Fatigue From Smartphone Use Reduces Volume-Load in Resistance Training: A Randomized, Single-Blinded Cross-Over Study https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34000894/

de Queiros 2021 Mental Fatigue Reduces Training Volume in Resistance Exercise: A Cross-Over and Randomized Study https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32962539/ 

17:51 The Stroop test vs. real world demands

29:40 How much mental fatigue is required to impair performance?

Fortes 2022 Effects of social media on smartphone use before and during velocity-based resistance exercise on cognitive interference control and physiological measures in trained adults https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33372542/ 

Cook 2012 Changes in salivary testosterone concentrations and subsequent voluntary squat performance following the presentation of short video clips https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21983238/ 

Iron Culture Ep. 4- Periodization & Autoregulation Roundtable https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RIVw1OxvZUA

Dallaway 2022 How am I doing? Performance feedback mitigates the effects of mental fatigue on endurance exercise performance https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1469029222000784

50:04 Dissipating mental fatigue and maximal strength performance

Smith 2019 Comparing the Effects of Three Cognitive Tasks on Indicators of Mental Fatigue https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31188721/

Alix-Fages 2023 Mental Fatigue From Smartphone Use or Stroop Task Does Not Affect Bench Press Force-Velocity Profile, One-Repetition Maximum, or Vertical Jump Performance https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37024109/

Russell 2019 The application of mental fatigue research to elite team sport performance: New perspectives https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30606625/ 

Bartholomew 2008 Strength gains after resistance training: the effect of stressful, negative life events https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18545186/ 

1:10:20 What is post-activation potentiation (PAP)? And applications for Powerlifting

de Freitas 2021 Postactivation Potentiation Improves Acute Resistance Exercise Performance and Muscular Force in Trained Men https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30507733/

Alves 2021 Postactivation Potentiation Improves Performance in a Resistance Training Session in Trained Men https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31567790/