Strength Training, Force, and Memory in APUS

Series: Breathing, Body, Consciousness, and the Shifting of the Tensional Selves (Eus Tensionais)

Introduction — Brain Bee (first-person consciousness)

When I lift a weight, my body isn’t just producing force.
It is learning a way of existing.

I feel muscles contract before I even think.
I feel some regions harden, while others swell slightly after effort.
The next day, some movements feel easier. Others feel shorter.

None of this is a mistake.
None of this is excess.
It is my body recording memory in space.

Force isn’t just power: it is bodily memory

We often think of strength training only as strength gain or aesthetics.
But from the body’s perspective, it is something deeper:

strength training is applied proprioceptive memory.

Each repetition:

• reinforces movement trajectories,

• stabilizes joints,

• creates functional shortenings,

• increases temporary fiber volume and stiffness.

This makes specific tasks easier.
That is exactly why it works.

APUS: the body as learned territory

APUS—extended proprioception—is not just “posture.”
It is the way the body recognizes itself in space, under gravity, load, and direction.

When we train:

• APUS learns where to support,

• learns where to stiffen,

• learns where to save energy.

The body begins to “know” how to act without consulting the mind.
This knowing is useful.
But, like every kind of learning, it also creates limits.

Tension as an ally, not an enemy

Muscle tension is not something to avoid.
It is what allows us to:

• lift,

• push,

• sustain,

• protect.

During strength training, the body builds functional tensional selves:

• a Self of force,

• a Self of stability,

• a Self of mechanical readiness.

These Selves are necessary.
The problem is not creating them.
The problem is not being able to release them.

Shortening and swelling: normal adaptations

Physiologically:

• fibers adapt to the most-used length,

• tissues gain tone,

• adaptive micro-inflammation occurs,

• transient swelling signals growth.

This:

• improves performance,

• increases efficiency,

• reduces the metabolic cost of the trained task.

At the same time:

• range of motion decreases in unused directions,

• global flexibility may drop,

• breathing can become more localized or constrained.

All of this belongs to adaptive normality.

When strength becomes rigidity

If the body only repeats the same patterns:

• APUS becomes over-specialized,

• variability drops,

• other tensional Selves lose space.

Rigidity doesn’t appear because strength training is “bad.”
It appears because the body lacks enough variation.

Here, the issue is not muscular.
It is territorial.
The body starts living inside a narrow APUS.

Breathing and strength training: a silent conversation

During effort:

• breathing tends to shorten,

• exhalation loses space,

• sympathetic tone rises.

That is expected.
But if this pattern persists outside training:

• RMSSD tends to drop,

• the vagus nerve loses influence,

• the body stays in readiness.

Strength training then stops being a stimulus
and becomes a permanent state.

Healthy strength is strength that can vary

A strong body is not the most rigid body.
It is the body that:

• knows how to tense,

• knows how to sustain,

• and knows how to return.

When there is space for:

• other movements,

• other postures,

• different breathing patterns,
  APUS expands again.

Strength without variability becomes a cage.
Strength with variability becomes functional freedom.

Recognizing this in your own body

Without judgment. Observe:

• Can my body shift patterns outside training?

• Does my breathing redistribute itself again?

• Can I access untrained movements?

• Does the tension I gain also know how to leave?

These answers say more about health than any weight lifted.

Closing

Strength training doesn’t create problems.
It creates memory.

APUS learns what we do with it.
And, like every kind of learning, it needs context, variation, and space.

Strength is a necessary tensional Self.
But health is being able not to be only that.

This text is part of the series Breathing, Body, Consciousness, and the Shifting of the Tensional Selves (Eus Tensionais), where different aspects of the same living system are approached from complementary angles.

References (post-2020)

Behm, D. G., et al. (2021). The Science and Physiology of Flexibility and Resistance Training. Sports Medicine.
→ Analyzes how strength training changes muscle length, stiffness, and range of motion.

Schoenfeld, B. J., et al. (2021). Mechanisms of Muscle Hypertrophy and Their Application to Resistance Training. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research.
→ Describes physiological hypertrophy processes, including adaptive swelling and tissue remodeling.

Muehlbauer, T., et al. (2020). Proprioception and Strength Training Adaptations. Frontiers in Physiology.
→ Shows how strength training modifies proprioception and motor control.

Proske, U., & Gandevia, S. C. (2021). The Proprioceptive Senses: Their Roles in Signaling Body Shape, Position and Movement. Physiological Reviews.
→ Grounds proprioception as the basis of bodily learning and the APUS concept.

Aagaard, P., et al. (2020). Neural Adaptations to Resistance Training. Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports.
→ Shows early strength gains are largely neural, reinforcing the idea of bodily memory.

Hackney, K. J., et al. (2021). Inflammatory and Recovery Responses to Resistance Exercise. European Journal of Applied Physiology.
→ Discusses adaptive inflammation and muscular swelling as normal parts of strengthening.

Kwon, Y. H., et al. (2022). Resistance Training and Autonomic Nervous System Modulation. Frontiers in Neuroscience.
→ Relates strength training to autonomic changes and HRV.

Blazevich, A. J., & Babault, N. (2020). Post-Activation Potentiation and Muscle Function. Sports Medicine.
→ Explores how temporary tensional states improve performance but require recovery to avoid fixation.