Fundamental Exercise Concepts- adapted from an article by KC Parsons (from Eat.Move.Improve)
General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS)
Part of the very foundation of all effective exercise programs is the proper application of the concept of
General Adaptation Syndrome. It states that when the body is exposed to an external stressor, it will
undergo specific responses in the short-term, and specific adaptations in the long-term. Repeated sublethal exposures to a stressor leads to a tolerance to prior experienced exposures of said stressor.
More specifically, it consists of three stages. Stage one is ‘Alarm or Shock’. Essentially, this is where the
body is damaged but not beyond a point where adaptation can occur. During this stage, the body is
suppressed below its baseline. In stage two, ‘Adaptation or Resistance’, the body actively expresses
homeostasis and responds to the damage done in stage one. Here the body is helping ensure its survival
by equipping itself to handle repeated exposures to the damage caused. Having recovered from the
damage, one’s baseline after adaptation becomes slightly higher than that person’s baseline before the
damage. Finally, ‘Exhaustion’ (stage three) is wherein adaptation is unable to adequately occur due to the
damage caused being too great, either in magnitude or frequency.
We can use this framework (stimulus/stress, recover/repair, adaptation) as a model of training (with
training considered the stressor). Training therefore forces to organism to response by adaptating to the
training load and increasing preparedness. The deliberate application to exercise to drive adaptating and
increase sports potential throughout the course of a competitive season is referred to as periodization.
The primary point here is that exercise itself is technically physiologically damaging. So we
must manage fatigue properly and understand that it is the recovery from the training that causes
improvements.
Image from VRP.com
Progressive Overload
Paving the most efficient path to goal achievement is through the combination of progressive overload
and the comprehension of General Adaptation Syndrome. Training load should be increased as soon as
recovery has apparently occurred. The particular individual whom undergoes this method of training is
simply properly cycled through stages one and two with a consistent increase in the stressor, while
avoiding overreaching into stage three.
The more punctually one is cycled, the quicker progress is made. When too much time is taken to increase
the stressor (such as resting more days than needed), training time is somewhat wasted and efficiency
drops. Conversely, if stress load is increased too soon (such as not resting enough), overreaching is met
and training must be readjusted, also wasting time and lowering efficiency.
Maintaining balance between training too much and too little while continually increasing the
workload is the key to a successful, result-yielding training program.
Consistent, Hard Work & Motivation
No matter how well designed, planned, and orchestrated a training or diet regimen is, its usefulness
cannot be fully realized when the individual it’s designed for doesn’t follow it strictly (or at all for that
matter). Program adherence is the key that unlocks the potential generated from the individual’s genetics,
the individual’s available resources, and the efficacy of the program.
Internal drive is often responsible for the success an individual finds even on a routine that is not
physiologically well-designed. Lack thereof can be equally responsible for the failure one may find on a
system that typically works extremely well.
While ideally one would have 100% dedication to a program designed optimally for that individual, the
simple reality is that some are born with less of an innate drive than others, and many external factors will
influence his or her consistency as well. Because of this, at times the physical optimality of the program
must be slightly sacrificed to make amendments that will keep the athlete motivated.
Motivation is the mortar that holds together the bricks of the foundation of progressive overload.
Therefore, reducing physiological efficacy of a program to ensure the trainee will consistently
follow the program is acceptable and encouraged when necessary.
Individualization
What works for some, does not work for all. While this statement seems like simple common sense, it is
often ignored by individuals designing or choosing their workout program. What works for Jordyn
Wieber, or another high-level athlete is not necessarily going to work for an aspiring athlete even if his or
her goals are the same. The improper approach is to select a preset routine and attempt to squish oneself
into it. The proper, more effective approach is to first analyze the factors that vary from person to person
and incorporate this analysis into building an individualized routine.
The most important factor in program design is the trainee’s rank or level of experience. Differences
between level of advancement lie not only in performance, but more importantly the time needed to
recover from an adequate training stressor. While it may take a novice only two or three days, an
intermediate trainee may require a week to repair and recuperate from any training hard enough to cause
significant change. Advanced athletes go much further beyond this: it may take a month or longer before
the adaptations fully occur from a training session designed to induce those adaptations.
In addition to individual training status, other personalized factors strongly influence the structure of a
program. Genetics of the trainee must realistically be approximated and taken into account when the
trainee’s program is constructed. One’s natural eating habits will as well have massive effects on his or
her ability to achieve set goals. Availability of both helpful and damaging foods will further affect the
program, along with availability of equipment and motivational factors. Natural motivation from within
and natural personality type, from apathetic to overzealous, influences the approach to training. Even such
factors like line of work and preferred ways of spending off-time will shape how one should train to
achieve his or her goals. Every individual will vary from the next, and failure to take these variations
seriously will result in a suboptimal routine.
No one program is ever broadly perfect. Each and every program must be calculated, refined,
and tailored to the individual.
Form Before Output
While seeing performance increase is one of the greatest motivational tools, it’s secondary to performing
properly; increasing the training stressor should only be done within the context of proper form.
Progressive overload is the driving force behind continual gain, but overloading further than a trainee can
handle with safe movement patterns will lead to setbacks that will blunt progress. These setbacks are
avoided by simply keeping ego in check and embracing the philosophy of ‘better safe than sorry’.
From an obese, sedentary individual walking on the treadmill, to a lean, naturally active individual
beginning an intense strength-based regime, any program should prioritize form in the initial few weeks
of training and continue to regularly enforce it throughout the life of the training career. Especially so for
those new to movement and exercise in general, keeping the first few weeks light and focused on almost
solely form allows the athlete to become more familiar with the physical, mental, social, and logistical
demands of incorporating training into his or her life. Maintaining emphasis on acceptable form from
thereon out ensures safety and properly acquired gains.
Simply put, correct technique must precede any increase in training load.
Strength vs. Endurance (and the Repetition Continuum)
Mechanisms that allow us to produce force contain a fundamental flaw: the higher the output, the less
time it can be sustained. More simply, the harder or faster one moves, the shorter that movement can be
done. If something can be done for a very long time, that something is not very hard. This has very
significant training implications. Increased intensity of a movement means the lower the amount of times
that movement can be repeated. To increase the capacity of repetitions, intensity has to be lowered.
This is from where the repetition continuum is derived. On one end there’s the one Repetition Maximum
(1RM). Due to the intensity chosen, only one full repetition can be completed. The more repetitions
possible, the lower the intensity becomes. With a 5RM, the intensity is lowered to ~87% of the 1RM
intensity; with a 10RM it’s down to ~75%, and when 15RM is reached it’s at ~65%. The further down
one travels on this continuum, the less intense the movement is and the longer it can be performed.
The repetition continuum is also correlated with the strength versus endurance continuum, falling nearly
identical. As training increases in intensity, greater strength adaptations are required. As training increases
in repetitions or duration, greater levels of endurance are required.
This is taken into account when choosing the exercise order of the workout. If one is fatigued from high
endurance work, strength work thereafter will be compromised due to the fatigue induced. Residual
fatigue during high intensity work also increases the chance of injury. The reverse is less detrimental:
high intensity work before endurance work does not limit much of endurance capacity, and can actually
be useful. Depleting short-term energy reserves through relatively high intensity exercise can be used to
prime the following endurance work (which is typically aimed at training the long-term energy reserves).
Managing the different adaptation needs between strength-based exercise and endurance-based exercise is
the more complicated factor. Because these lay on a continuum to one another, it is not impossible to
incorporate both into a regime. In fact this is often done, and if it aligns with the trainee’s goals and is
approached properly then that is the path that should be chosen. It is, however, impossible to train both
strength and endurance optimally in the same training regime.
Energy Systems of the Body
As humans, we have three pathways the body uses for energy: Creatine-phosphate (or phosphocreatine),
glycolitic, and oxidative-phosphorylative. All three are always being used, but the proportion of usage
between one pathway to the rest varies. Variations are controlled by the intensity of
movement/exercise/training. Phosphocreatine is the most readily available but also the quickest to run
out. Glycolitic is the second most readily available, lasts longer than creatine-phosphate, but is also a
short term system. Finally, the oxidative-phosphorylative is nearly limitless and efficient (producing 34
net ATP to glycolysis’ 2), its caveat is being much slower than the previous two.
While sitting and reading this, breaths are taken. When doing laundry, talking to friends, sleeping, or
walking out to the car, breathing takes place. In fact, during any other generic low-intensity activity one
can think of, one will find himself breathing. The oxidative-phosphorylative system warrants oxygen, and
humans’ constant breathing signifies it’s always being used.
When scaled to one’s performance level, marathons and typical cardio workouts such as the elliptical, the
stationary bike, the treadmill, and so on are a slightly more intense version of day-to-day activity (as far
as the body recognizes it). The duration of these activities can be so long that the intensity consequentially
must be very low. While, because they are done continuously they do warrant usage of the glycolytic
pathway, they are easy enough to stay heavily along the oxidative track. Full depletion of glycogen (the
store for the glycolytic pathway) will eventually occur at approximately 100 minutes of sustained aerobic
activity, at which point usage would shift practically entirely to oxidation-phosphorylation.
On the other end of the spectrum, extremely high intensity efforts such as a full sprint cause the body to
call upon its quickest source of energy: the phosphocreatine (hereinafter PCR) pathway. While this
system allows for the highest performance outputs, PCR reserves are depleted in under ten seconds at full
intensity. If the sprint is continued as hard as possible past the depletion of PCR stores, the glycolytic
pathway becomes the primary source of fuel. Glycogen stores in muscles allow for the glycolytic pathway
to run for about 30 more seconds (at full intensity). Runners of the 400m event are very familiar with the
wall they hit around 300m; 30-40 seconds into the race, after stores of the PCR and glycolytic systems
have been exhausted.
Replenishing stores follows the same proportional time slots as using up the stores. ATP and CP (the
stores for PCR) are re-synthesized within 3-4 minutes of rest. Full glycogen repletion takes at least 20
hours with an optimal diet, and up to 48 hours with a diet not-so-conducive to glycogen replenishment.
Fat, the main store for the oxidative-phosphorylative system, is nearly limitless. To refill fat stores to preexisting levels, the diet must reach at least caloric maintenance: the balance of energy taken in via food
and drink is equal to the energy expended via all bodily processes and movement. The volume of the refill
can be increased by entering caloric surplus: more energy is taken in via food and drink than is expended.
The deeper the surplus, the larger the amount being stored.
Different training approaches warrant different usages of the three pathways, and so different goals
require different pathways be improved. Understanding which pathways need to be improved according
to your goals allows one to properly train to achieve them.
Image from brianmac.co.uk
The Role of the Central Nervous System
When comparing the body to a car, we would designate the muscles as the engine but the nervous system
as the person in the driver’s seat. No matter how powerful the engine, or efficient the fuel system or size
of the gas tank for that matter, it would be nothing without a driver to control the vehicle.
Training adaptations occur from two major sources. The first is structural or morphological adptations
which include: increased bone density, tendon resilience, contractile protein abundance, metabolite
abundance, and other related adaptations. These are what allow for improvements in general performance
factors; a denser bone built through proper heavy lifting will still be that same dense bone during a tackle.
Neglected more often is the understanding and focus on the nervous system. Gains originating from the
CNS are specific to the movement(s) trained to achieve those gains. Wholesome training approaches
choose a goal or sport and use specified (CNS) training as the backbone to progress and augments this
with general (architectural) adaptation.
The six primary neurological improvements seen with proper training, aside from technique improvement
are:

Recruitment- An increase in the number of motor units being activated for a specific
movement.

Rate Coding / Firing Rate- An increase in the speed at which the electrochemical signals are
sent to the corresponding musculature.

Intra-muscular Coordination (Synchronization)- The closer together (time) motor units from a
specific muscle involved in a specific movement are fired.

Inter-muscular Coordination (Contribution)- How effectively timed the different, contributing
muscles to a movement are fired.

Antagonist Disinhibition- Reduction of resistance from muscles opposite of those performing
the movement.

Growth and Pruning- More neural connections will grow specific to the training that induces
it. The body also prunes connections that it doesn’t need or aren’t used.
These modes of betterment leave much room for performance upgrades, and should be taken advantage
of, most especially during the initial part of the novice training stage. Novices exhibit extremely rapid
neurological improvements especially in the first 2-4 weeks after serious training has begun. During this
period much increase in performance can be seen without much change in body composition, as body
composition is an observable representation of certain types of structural changes. As training experience
increases, structural changes begin to give the strongest input to progress, but the nervous system still
holistically has a much larger role.
As a final point, technique is virtually entirely controlled by the nervous system, and any athletic
endeavor (including gymnastics skill development) warrants technique as a highly important aspect. As
technique becomes more efficient with practice and effective coaching, so does performance. Proper body
placement for a successful take-down in wrestling and correct foot-strike position relative to hips during
running will enhance strength and endurance by allowing those adaptations to be expressed at their
utmost potential. Understanding technique’s immense role in successful athletics allows for even more
optimized training, as technique can be trained as endlessly as acute fatigue permits: as fatigue increases,
precise technique begins to become sloppy, and sloppy technique in practice reinforces this sloppy
technique.
As a coach or trainee it is necessary to appropriately implement specific training to force Central
Nervous System adaptation. Managing fatigue of structure, CNS, and the body as a whole must be
integrated into the training system.