Tip Take the Tapping Test for CNS Health Search Skip to content Menu Menu follow us Store Articles Community Loyal-T Club Loyal-T Points Rewards Subscribe to Save Search Search The World s Trusted Source & Community for Elite Fitness Training Tip Take the Tapping Test for CNS Health Sounds crazy but counting how many times you can make a dot on a page with a pencil can tell you a lot about your nervous system Info here by Dan John July 29, 2016August 18, 2019 Tags Tips, Training Take This Test Have you checked in with your central nervous system (CNS) lately? Years ago, the late Stefan Fernholm showed me this interesting test where you'd take a pencil every morning and put as many dots on a page as you can in ten seconds. Let's say you knock out 40 to 45 every day for two weeks. Then, one morning, you struggle to hit 30. Now, making dots on a paper is pretty simple, but if you're down 25%, it's bad. For two years, I started my day with a ten-second test. And, after charting all of this, it turned out to be remarkably accurate. When my pencil tap numbers dropped and I continued training, I ended up getting sick and hurt. The reduced performance on my finger tap test was indicative of CNS fatigue. After that, when I saw my tap numbers drop, I eased my training, increased my protein, and took care of the little things like sleep and resting. It was a miracle. Training a Lot at Lousy is Still Lousy This "tapping test" shouldn't come as a surprise because our fingers are filled with nervous connections. Some of our most complex movements are the simple ones we take for granted, like typing or picking our nose. When your CNS starts to feel fatigue, you just can't go heavy any more. Of course, you can always train "medium" (also known as "crappy") for years and years while making no progress. In other words, training a lot at lousy is still lousy. If you can't go heavy, back off on your training until you can! Get The T Nation Newsletters Don' t Miss Out Expert Insights To Get Stronger, Gain Muscle Faster, And Take Your Lifting To The Next Level related posts Training Tip Dip with Chains Set the chains up so that the majority of the chain weight comes off the floor for the top half of the dip, overloading the triceps. Arms, Bodybuilding, Exercise Coaching, Tips Paul Carter January 14 Training Tip Squeeze-The-Bar-In Bench Press If chest size if your goal, don't use the common spread-the-bar-apart cue. Instead, squeeze the bar in. Here's why. Bench Press, Exercise Coaching, Tips Lee Boyce July 20 Training Tip Take Your Shoes Off to Lift If you train at home (or can be sneaky at the gym), here's why you should ditch the shoes when squatting and deadlifting. Training TJ Kuster September 18 Training 5 Things You Can Train Everyday Think you've gotta wait a few days before training some muscles again? Nope. Make gains faster. Here's what thrives with frequency. Training Christian Thibaudeau January 17