Dictionary Def of a - Stimulus:
An agent, action, or condition that elicits or accelerates
a physiological or psychological activity or response.
When we put the body under conditions that are more
stressful than it is used to, it responds in a myriad of
ways. The mechanisms within the body - cardio vascular,
muscular, neural, skeletal and hormonal (CMNSH) - are
pre-programmed to protect and nurture our precious bodies.
It is exactly this response that we are trying to elicit in
our training pursuits, whether they are sporting, health,
weight loss or any other type of physical pursuit where a
physical change is the goal.
It does not matter if you lift weights or train for
marathons. Every time you train the goal is to get the
body to respond to the stimulus you are giving to it. The
mechanisms of CMNSH need to be challenged beyond what they
have been put through before. When this occurs the body
adapts to this extra stress by building its self bigger
stronger and healthier.
It is whilst you sleep that the real healing and
rejuvenation begins. After your eyes shut the pineal gland
(situated behind your eyes) releases melatonin. This
starts a whole hormonal cascade of events with all the
important hormones like testosterone and human growth
hormone being released.
This is called the overload principle and is undisputed as
the system by which we progress. When you are actually
training or lifting weights you are not changing your body
you are actually damaging it (in a good way). That is why
athletes are told to: train, eat and sleep, then they grow!
However, as soon as your body gets used to the stimulus it
stops. In other words your body has stopped adapting as
the stimulus is not great enough to elicit the responses
that it once did and adaptation has halted.
The body actually adapts quicker than most people think and
keeping a training programme in the same mode for to long
will either end with a plateau or possibly with some form
of overuse injury.
To continually challenge all the components of CMNSH
systems is therefore essential to change the stimulus.
Below is just a small sample of the different types of
components:
* Strength * Hypertrophy * Muscular endurance *
Cardiovascular * Power
And these all have sub components that are interrelated,
such as:
* Enzymic changes * Rate coding * Fibre type *
Motor unit synchronicity
Add to all that plyometrics, lactate threshold, hill
sprints, intervals, bodyweight....the list goes on.
Well I hope you're still following me but what I'm trying
to say is - If you don't continually change the type of
stimulus you give the body then you will stop changing.
Let's look at a practical example. Most people know some
one who either plays tennis 3 times a week or goes out for
a 3 mile run every day. The one thing you notice is they
don't seem to be changing shape at all. Maybe they did
when they started but not for a long time. This is because
their body is used to it now. If they changed what they
are doing I can guarantee they will start to progress
again. That doesn't mean they have to stop what they enjoy
doing they just need to make some changes.
One word of caution though. You should not change what you
do every time you train. In order to get the most
consistent changes it is important that some sort of
structured programme which changes regularly but follows a
system is adhered to.
This is the basis of cycled training - also know as
periodization - that optimises progression and avoids
plateaus.
My clients and I will not spend any longer than 6 weeks
doing the same programme. In most cases they are between 2
and 4 weeks. As I said earlier it is important to keep to
some structure otherwise it is hard to monitor progress and
progress will be slow.
To help explain this further I am going to look at one
weight training exercise and explain how you would progress
with it.
Example: Squats Weeks 1-2 Strength: 4-6 reps Weeks 3-5
Strength Hypertrophy: 6 to 10 reps Weeks 6-8 Muscular
Development: 10 to 15 reps Weeks 9-10 Endurance: 15-50
reps
The weight lifted during each phase would try to be more on
each successive session in that phase. This means you may
squat 100kg for 6 reps in week one but by the end of week 2
you might be able to do 120kg for 4 reps. In week 3 you
would obviously not be able to lift 120kg for 6 to 10 reps
so you would select a lighter weight. Maybe 85kg, which
you would challenge on each successive session until the
phase changes.
This continues until you arrive back at week 1 again. At
this point you will not be able to do 120kg for 4 reps as
before but you wouldn't need to start back at 100kg and by
the end of the week 2 you should be lifting more than you
did at he end of week 2 the first time round.
Now I have massively oversimplified the concept (remember
CMNSH systems are complex) and I probably wouldn't choose
to do either all squats for every phase or return to squats
again the second time. What I hope it has done is shown
the concept of cycling training programmes which have
different focuses.
It depends on your goals as to what you need to work on but
I can almost predict that everyone reading this will avoid
the things that they probably need the most. It's human
nature, you can't avoid it.
----------------------------------------------------
Alex Poole is a strength & conditioning specialist based in
Bristol, UK. He owns and runs Kinetic Fitness Ltd, a
unique members fitness & sports injury rehab facility. He
is an international presenter of his highly specialised
weight training technique and conditioning methods. You
can find more of his tips and training ideas at
http://www.alexpoole.tv
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