My Gift to the Genuinely Hard Working
December 22nd 2006 11:02
The gym is populated by various types. There are those who pass through their "weight lifting" phase never to be seen again. There are the cardio masses who are never going to get what they are looking for until they combine cardio with weights. There is the arm-chest crowd who labor on those two body parts and look really large up there(and like preteen girls below the waist). There are those who train regularly and never really think about how to do it better. There are those who are really athletic and look great with only the most crudely designed workouts. Finally, there are those who are dedicated and work very hard and retard the progress they crave for that very reason. This one's for you, the dedicated and hard working.
It is simply a fact that the body has a pattern of adaptation that cannot be altered. The mechanism of adaptation is repetitive exposure to a stimulus and the opportunity to adapt before another exposure. That is why we train repeatedly using the same movements for extended periods. If the stimuli are repeated in a regular pattern for several days the body will begin to make adjustments to meet what it perceives as a part of its future activities. Walk in the gym once a week and work hard and you are doing very little to alter your body long term. Be there hitting the same body parts five days a week and you will be smaller and weaker.
In reality a couple of hard workouts in a period of 5 or 6 days elicits a growth response from the body. As surely as it ramps up to meet the challenge of a new but apparently regular routine,however, the body will recognize workouts of monotonous simularity and scale back the pace of its adaptations. Thus if the body is stressed more a second week than in the first the body will escalate a second time its adaptive response. The same will be true a third week.
At three weeks the body is at a crossroads. If it has truly been stressed and exposed to more stress for each of three consecutive weeks it will be operating at a heightened state of adaptive capacity. If it is exposed to more and more stress beyond the third week it will teeter on the edge of shut down or breakdown. Most, if no all, real adaptation halts under too much stress for too long. This is where your brain has to shut up and listen to your body. After three legitimately escalating weeks you have to back off and train sub-maximally for three weeks.
During the three light weeks the body will be prepared to meet the heavy stress it has been experiencing. It will note the stress of the lighter workouts and apply its heightened recuperative powers to the situation as it has been primed to do. At that point this will really be overcompensation. The body will grow more during this period than before, because it will not be stressed by heavy work loads and yet stressed enough to continue its compensatory work. It will take a three week period for the body to realize that the stress is going to remain submaximal and start to ramp back it adaptive efforts.This period of overcompensation , will be the purest adaptation you will ever experience. The body has a chance to do it right if your brain gets off it.
My experience with this cycle was a total revelation at first. I was really stronger and fitter after three weeks with maybe 30% of the work load. No matter how motivated you are and how hard your brain can force your body to work you will gain muscle and firmness only by recognizing this pattern and easing off even when you want to keep up the pressure. Work hard for three and ease off for three. That's for you hard workers of the gym. You can get what you want by backing off a little.Your servant,as always.
In reality a couple of hard workouts in a period of 5 or 6 days elicits a growth response from the body. As surely as it ramps up to meet the challenge of a new but apparently regular routine,however, the body will recognize workouts of monotonous simularity and scale back the pace of its adaptations. Thus if the body is stressed more a second week than in the first the body will escalate a second time its adaptive response. The same will be true a third week.
During the three light weeks the body will be prepared to meet the heavy stress it has been experiencing. It will note the stress of the lighter workouts and apply its heightened recuperative powers to the situation as it has been primed to do. At that point this will really be overcompensation. The body will grow more during this period than before, because it will not be stressed by heavy work loads and yet stressed enough to continue its compensatory work. It will take a three week period for the body to realize that the stress is going to remain submaximal and start to ramp back it adaptive efforts.This period of overcompensation , will be the purest adaptation you will ever experience. The body has a chance to do it right if your brain gets off it.
My experience with this cycle was a total revelation at first. I was really stronger and fitter after three weeks with maybe 30% of the work load. No matter how motivated you are and how hard your brain can force your body to work you will gain muscle and firmness only by recognizing this pattern and easing off even when you want to keep up the pressure. Work hard for three and ease off for three. That's for you hard workers of the gym. You can get what you want by backing off a little.Your servant,as always.
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Comment by Nichol