The terms muscle activation and muscle recruitment are often used interchangeably and while they do have some overlap, they also have distinct differences. We believe that people should care to maximize both.

Muscle Activation vs. Muscle Recruitment

When looking at a muscle contraction, there is a difference between the number of muscle fibers being recruited versus how active those recruited muscle fibers actually are. In our opinion, muscle recruitment is determined by the number of fibers that are actually being engaged within a muscle contraction.

For illustration purposes, consider the following example – if a muscle contains 1000 muscle fibers and 500 of them are being engaged, then there is 50 percent muscle recruitment, but this does not indicate anything about the degree of activation.

The force generated by the individual recruited muscle fibers is how we would define activation, or their ability to contract and generate a given force. Ideally, there would always be 100 percent muscle recruitment and 100 percent muscle activation, but in most cases, this simply doesn’t happen.

How Stiff Muscles Diminish Activation and Recruitment

Through repetitive use of muscle tissue during fitness activities or just daily use, muscle fibers gradually become tighter, hardened, immobile and eventually fall into a chronically fibrotic state. As this progression takes place, the fibers can no longer be contracted, which results in a decrease in overall muscle recruitment. In terms of activation, as this muscular tightness sets in, the amount of force generated by the individual muscle fibers decreases. Consequently, activation is diminished.

Keeping this in mind, what is one of the most common complaints we get from patients in addition to stiffness and pain? Weakness. In reality, they don’t actually have a true weakness, but a tightness that is causing the weakness. There is a lack of available muscle tissue or a lack of recruitment and diminished activation. If a patient is only recruiting 50 percent of a muscle, there will be weakness present. So exercising at this point to increase strength isn’t an effective approach because the only fibers that are being strengthened are the ones being recruited for use, i.e. the healthy fibers. None of the tight fibers are capable of being recruited or engaged.

Separating Hard Muscle Fibers to Enhance Performance

So before exercise or training should commence strengthening a muscle, we believe that it is critical for the tight, contracted fibers to be separated. Based on our experience, we believe this separation and loosening process can only happen with precise, direct pressure into the muscle fibers that forces a stretch at the location of the pressure. This method is very different than conventional stretching, deep tissue massage or foam rolling, which are relatively superficial techniques that do not access deep tightness.

Breaking up the fibrotic tissue and restructuring the muscle back to its original anatomical state allows proper recruitment and activation of the individual muscle fibers. This enhances function as there are more fibers being recruited and the force generated in each fiber is elevated, leading to an overall increase in performance.

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Eric Owens

Co-Founder at Delos Therapy

Eric co-founded Delos Therapy in 2012 with Mimi Bosika and heads therapy development. He is a three-time US National table tennis champion, Pan American Games gold and bronze medalist, and he has been inducted into USA Table Tennis Hall of Fame. He graduated from Midwestern University with a Master's Degree in biomedical science.

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