The Unadorned Reality of Weight Training
February 7th 2007 11:41
Enhanced conditioning in weight training means more weight in less time. That means that in a rational and progressive manner your training should be adding weight to your various exercises and at the same time attempting to lower the amount of time spent resting. Resting in turn refers both to the time spent between sets and also the frequency of workouts.
Athletes are driven to use steroids largely as a result of their inevitable confrontation with this reality of weight training. The body is so avid in its pursuit of homeostasis that it soon adapts to workouts of unchanging character. When that occurs muscle growth stops, as does that aerobic benefits of weight training.
The pursuit of ever greater perfection in strength and size of muscle thus requires a continuing escalation of volume. Constantly escalating volume exhausts the unenhanced human body fairly rapidly, which in the case of professional athletes might mean diminished performance on the field instead of the advantage there for which weight training is pursued in the first place. The answer for some is steroids. Steroids decrease full recovery times to the barest minimum and this, of course, allows all the kind of high volume training that forces new levels of adaptation and muscle growth. The central challenge of building the body is thus solved.
Using steroids is short term thinking at its worst, since ultimately gains achieved with them cannot be sustained after they are discontinued and their real long term effects are lethal. For a serious weight trainer who has not lost perspective the issue of more weight in less time remains and is the central impediment to reaching the level of conditioning that is desired.
So,after an initial period of acclimation for beginners all weight training becomes focused on performing more work in less time and recovering from that effort as fully as possible and as quickly as possible. Most weight trainers only partially solve this multi-faceted problem. They either fall into a pattern of training which does not vary enough to challenge their system or they focus intently on the ego aspects of training where poundage is their dominant motivation.
In fact a complete solution to the more weight in less time conundrum is one of increasing poundages, lowered rest periods, intensity techniques(which demand more of the body in each individual set), adequate sleep,proper nutrition and a devotion to excellence that is encompassing. In total these considerations require a great deal from the individual- a commitment of intellect, volition, time, and often self-denial. That is why achievement in the weight room is so sweet. Your servant, as always
Athletes are driven to use steroids largely as a result of their inevitable confrontation with this reality of weight training. The body is so avid in its pursuit of homeostasis that it soon adapts to workouts of unchanging character. When that occurs muscle growth stops, as does that aerobic benefits of weight training.
The pursuit of ever greater perfection in strength and size of muscle thus requires a continuing escalation of volume. Constantly escalating volume exhausts the unenhanced human body fairly rapidly, which in the case of professional athletes might mean diminished performance on the field instead of the advantage there for which weight training is pursued in the first place. The answer for some is steroids. Steroids decrease full recovery times to the barest minimum and this, of course, allows all the kind of high volume training that forces new levels of adaptation and muscle growth. The central challenge of building the body is thus solved.
Using steroids is short term thinking at its worst, since ultimately gains achieved with them cannot be sustained after they are discontinued and their real long term effects are lethal. For a serious weight trainer who has not lost perspective the issue of more weight in less time remains and is the central impediment to reaching the level of conditioning that is desired.
So,after an initial period of acclimation for beginners all weight training becomes focused on performing more work in less time and recovering from that effort as fully as possible and as quickly as possible. Most weight trainers only partially solve this multi-faceted problem. They either fall into a pattern of training which does not vary enough to challenge their system or they focus intently on the ego aspects of training where poundage is their dominant motivation.
In fact a complete solution to the more weight in less time conundrum is one of increasing poundages, lowered rest periods, intensity techniques(which demand more of the body in each individual set), adequate sleep,proper nutrition and a devotion to excellence that is encompassing. In total these considerations require a great deal from the individual- a commitment of intellect, volition, time, and often self-denial. That is why achievement in the weight room is so sweet. Your servant, as always
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