The Purpose Behind Training:
Adaptation is the entire purpose of a training program, to create enough stress & challenge to the body to where it favorably adapts to the stimulus you are providing it. Adaptation can arrive in many different forms: in the form of strength gains (for example your max back squat increases), reduction of body fat, improved endurance (cardiovascular efficiency), larger muscles, smaller waistlines, or any other favorable performance or aesthetic goal you wish to achieve from your consistency in the gym.
Simply stated, adaptation to you and I presents itself as RESULTS…
Here are a few of the biggest factors that drive physiological adaptation.
Nutrition – This is first intentionally because so many overlook it and expect exercise to make up for poor nutrition. IT NEVER WILL. You have heard it said that “you can’t out train a poor diet,” and this is absolutely true.
Load – The amount of weight that you lift. Progressively heavier weights over time continue to provide beneficial stress on our muscles and soft tissue.
Intensity – Your effort level. If you settle into the same output everyday, your body has no reason to adapt, thus no adaptation will occur. Taking a daily inventory of your effort is KEY. If a specific workout or movement is asking for an intensity of MAX EFFORT in 30 seconds….did you really push to that level and go all out Max? Or did you go about 80-90% effort and tell yourself that was good enough….
Volume – The amount of work that you perform. Are you always training the low end strength option? Maybe it’s time to break plateaus with more volume. This is why at P4L Fitness we mix up high volume/lower load sets with days of lower volume/higher load sets.
Density – The amount of work you perform in a fixed amount of time where intensity is the goal. While volume more pertains to strength tiers, density is more closely related to conditioning tiers. Within a 15 minute conditioning block, how much total work are you accomplishing (similar to an AMRAP set up that we perform in our METCONS)? Think of density as a product of volume and load.
If you want results from a program, you MUST force adaptation. Typically, this means first dialing in your nutrition and then gradually increasing your weight lifted and increasing intensity levels across all that you do in the gym. As always….adaptation is a by product of doing nutrition and exercise consistently well over time. Consistently eating healthy with the correct calorie / protein consumption as well as consistently exercising 3-5X per week.
Keep crushing your health/fitness journey, and call or email us if you need any assistance!
