Part 2 of 5 - Fitness Fundamentals Series
By: Jason Bungo, CSCS
Success in fitness can be primarily attributed to these "2" principles of fitness, overload and adaption. We are using overload to cause the body to make an adaptation. But, what do we overload and how can we tell if the body is actually adapting to what we are doing.
In the beginning of our training we are trying to find a base line challenge that is acceptable in each of our movements. For many beginners, this will primarily be our fundamental movements, but applies to all of our movements including the isolation, endurance and explosive movements. Once we have this baseline we will attempt to overload them gradually to cause the body to make an adaptation. Lets say we can do "3" sets of "10" reps with "30" pounds for our kettlebell goblet squat. We do these sets and find the next day that everything is fine, there is no pain and no unacceptable soreness. How would we overload. We could complete the same number of sets and reps with "35" pounds vs "30" pounds during our next workout which would be more challenging and cause a stronger adaption.
Now when it comes to overload the most commonly used and thought of strategy is the weight or load we are using. But this is not the only method of overload. In a given set of an exercise there are many ways to overload the movement other than the weight. Another approach would be to use the same weight and reps but complete the reps slower than we had been doing them before. In our squat example, lets say we use the same weight and reps, but instead of taking "1" second in each direction of the movement, we take "2" seconds. We now made the set take twice as long and increased the challenge. Another way to make the set more challenging would be to simply add additional reps to the set at the same weight. So instead of "10" reps, we are now completing "15" reps with the same amount of weight. The last, most commonly used way to overload a movement in a given set is to increase the range of motion, meaning we are squatting deeper than we were previously. These are the "4" primary methods to progress a given exercise within a given set. A different form of overload would be choose a different more challenging exercise.
We can also look at a given workout day, training week or cycle and overload from that view point versus the individual set. In the given workout, we could increase the overload by adding additional sets at the same weight, reps, and rep speed (tempo). Also within a given workout, and possibly considered a way of adding sets, would be to add additional exercises in the same movement pattern. Yet another way when looking at a given week or training cycle is to increase the number of days or frequency we are training that movement throughout the week.
Overload is important to increasing our fitness level, but each exercise can take time to get comfortable with and we need proper form/technique before we continue to overload a given movement. There are however happy mediums to overload, if we are not getting stronger in any of the above mentioned strategies, we are probably not adapting to the overload we have chosen.
Adaptation is our body's physiological response to stress or overload on the body. We overload a given movement or muscle and add stress to the body, which will in the given workout decrease our performance from the fatigue. However, after rest and recovery the body will adapt to the stress and get stronger which is called supercompensation. This is happening in our muscles, connective tissue (tendons/ligaments) and even our nervous system. This is also happening in our brains, as we learn to perform the movements with better coordination and movement quality. Sometimes the body or a given person gets too used to a given movement or pattern of movements and stops adapting even when using overload. This is why we rotate exercises after a given number of weeks or months using periodization in our training.
Another reason our overload and adaptation cycle may not be working is that we are not overloading the movements or muscles frequently enough, which can cause detraining. When this is happening, it is like we are spinning our wheels in place. It could be as simple as adding another day per week on the given movements and muscles to correct this. We are trying to overload/stress the movement again while we are still in the supercompensation/adaptation phase to cause an additional supercompensation. If we miss this by too much we will be stressing the movement again at the level we were before, too long without this stress will result in de-training or reversibility, which is another principle of our fitness. This is rinsed and repeated over and over again, and how we go from beginner athletes to advanced to elite.
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