Anorexia to Arm Curl

Elvis twitch (or subclavius muscle twitches?)

Ever noted when you lift weights that involve your upper back, your lip snarls into an Elvis esq quiver? Not everyone is ‘fortunate’ enough to have the king live on within them…but what on earth causes it?

In neurology terms, it is a ‘synkinesis due to aberrant nerve regenerarion.’

Often, secondary to some level of trauma, you grow new nerve endings to places where they do not belong. So when activating the motor nerve to contract your upper back muscles, it also activates a nerve for lip movement too.

Nerves innorvating different parts of the body is surprisingly common. Hence why when having a heart attack – people can describe pain in their jaw and down their arms, when really the pain is in their heart muscle. The nerves from the heart branch off to sensory receptors in the arm and jaw too so we are unable to fully locate the source of pain. People can also experience pain in the tip of their shoulder when they have something wrong inside their stomachs.

Children are particularly bad at locating their source of pain. So when they are ill, they will often say their stomach hurts when really their throat is sore or they have a urine infection in their bladder or urethra – their nerves are not developed enough to know exactly where the pain is coming from.

For now, we can just identify (how awful I look when training) and the strange phenomenon that is our nervous system. Keep watching to see Simon Fitness Master also give a little ‘a huh huh.’