What is Working Smarter in the Gym?

Results matter. Whether it is our own training or programs for our clients, after investing the time, effort, and money, the point is to produce positive changes. Unless there is an immediate deadline such as a contest or special event, making training decisions for the maximum long term benefit will produce the greatest results overtime.

We must understand how and why the body adapts to exercise to develop a quality program. Additionally, determining the correct starting point is an absolute necessity. Unfortunately, many training clients start with such a low level of general fitness many common programs are simply too much for them. Using progressive overload and bringing the workouts to their level can do wonders in helping them to make lifestyle changes.

The process of change 

Change happens slowly. It is the result of the interplay of stimulus and recovery. This can be applied to the whole system or just to smaller components such as muscles and joints. It also has effects on trainable qualities like strength and speed. When balanced correctly the desired improvements happen.

Progressive overload is the practical application of the general adaptation theory. To get the best results for beginning clients this must be understood and followed. As professionals, why we choose exercises and loading needs to be specific, deliberate, and part of a larger plan. 

Important concepts

General adaptation syndrome (GAS) was proposed by Hans Selye in the 1950s, it explains how change happens in a living being. The simple version is when a stimulus is applied to the body, the body reacts to mediate the effects. If the stimulus is large or frequent the body will change to minimize any effect from future exposures to it. Some stimuli are too large and cannot be adapted to. This will cause death of the exposed tissue. For example with enough mechanical overload muscle cells will rupture. 

Super compensation is a commonly cited explanation of how this happens via training. Essentially wear yourself down, recover, and become awesome. Repeat this process often enough and you become the baddest on the block. This can be too simple, leading to poor training choices like going to absolute failure. Unfortunately, just going and getting tired only works for a short period of time. But because it works at all, these poor training choices stick around for too long. 

Progressive overload is a way to use all of this and continue to make long term gains. It really is simple. Pick a specific task to get better at. Do some of the task, rest, later do slightly more of the task. If this process is done specifically with consistent small increases, tremendous improvements of the trained quality can happen. It won’t work forever, but it does work for a very long time. When simple progressive overload no longer works it is time for complex programming using percentages and cycling volume and intensity.

Common programming errors

There are common faults coaches and trainers make which can fall on opposite ends of the spectrum; the trainer gets lost in minutia of correctives and stability based programming or they take pride in destroying the person who came for help. Each fault decreases the effectiveness of the programs people pay us for. Our profession requires many skills. Understanding when to do what, and why it is important is an absolute necessity for a coach. Just doing trendy exercises or trying to fill out an hour because that’s how much time the client bought is not programming.

Doing too much total work

Yes working hard will produce better results than slacking, but the rate of adaption of specific qualities is limited. Think of it this way, when a stimulus is applied the body adapts to it, meaning future exposures of the same stimulus will produce no further adaptations. Example; a new trainee starts a program of 1*5 on bench every other day adding 5lbs to the bar each time. Because the trainee is just starting the 5lb increase is enough work to get stronger. This very simple program might even continue to produce strength gains for months. It works because only the amount of stimulus required to produce the adaptation is provided.

If instead of 1*5 we started the new trainee with 5*5 would he get better results? No, it would be pushing someone in a lake when they asked for a sip of water. Strength would go up at a similar rate, but the adaptation happened with a bigger stimulus. To produce the next strength adaptation an even bigger stimulus is needed. This is how people hit a plateau early in their training careers. The important concept is “minimum effective dose.” Spend the rest of the training time working on other qualities.

When less stimulus is applied, there is less wear and tear to recover from. Shorter recovery time allows for a greater training frequency. Specific qualities can only improve so much from a single training session. Once the training stimulus reaches the threshold needed to produce the desired adaptation, doing more work will not create a bigger change of the specific quality. Greater frequency allows these small improvements to add up quickly.

Programming ADHD

Doing something different every time can keep the workouts interesting. However, it won’t get the best results for the trainee. Without measurable standards how do we know what improved and what should be done next? There are short term changes produced from just doing work; fat loss, improved conditioning, but these are not durable and will go away if the workouts cease. Durable adaptations are structural (denser muscles, increased circulatory capacity) and neurological (skill patterns, ability to recruit more fibers faster) even after a period of inactivity much of these changes persist. The durable qualities require repeated exposes to develop. Changing the exercises too often does not allow for this.

Adding complexity not intensity

The example of this would be going from squats to squats on a bosu ball. It is a more difficult version but does not add specific overload. Overload causes adaptation, randomness can burn energy but there is nothing regular for the body to recognize and prepare for with adaptation.

To design a training plan there has to be progressions such as weight, volume, leverages, and rest periods are all important variables. Structuring a series of workouts to build upon each other requires an understanding of what the exercise is doing to the many systems of the body. The size of the change between exposures determines if the series of workouts will collectively produce a greater response. If the change in the nature of the exposure is too great it is now a novel stimulus.

In the example of bosu ball squats, the exercise will not require an increase in force production from the prime movers. Neurologically muscles are not activated in the same pattern. And the point of force application is physically different. This exercise will burn energy, but adding the complexity of the unstable surface does nothing to improve the squat or make substantial changes to the trained muscles.

Other problems with overworking

• Increased hunger - Often a sudden or prolonged period of greatly increased workload will cause excessive hunger and cravings.
• Lower general activity levels - Fatigue or soreness causes a trainee to stop or reduce other activities and increase time spent sitting.
• Irritability - “I’m tired. Leave me alone.”
• Decreased performance - Training near max output produces great results. While it can take a new trainee many months to build up to it, max output can only be sustained for short bursts. With increasing fatigue, speed and quality of movement decreases. Trying to train when tired or under-recovered does not allow for pushing to the max output threshold thus stunting potential performance gains.
• Fatigue produces bad technique - Quality of movement matters. Every rep has an effect on the associated movement pattern. If performed tired or focusing on the clock, the quality of a movement will decrease. If the majority of training time is spent in this fashion, the trainee will be practicing mostly bad reps. Do this long enough and poor form will be locked in and require significant retraining to be changed.

Work hard, but more importantly work smart. One workout is never enough, it takes a series of deliberate workouts to reach a goal.