Adaptation to Exercise by Greg Sandora Naples Florida

Adaptation to Exercise by Greg Sandora Naples Florida

 

Adaptation to Existing Exercise Programs causes lack luster Fitness Results. Program Modification is needed to break through Training Plateaus. By Greg Sandora Advanced Certified Personal Trainer. The topic of adaptation to exercise is an interesting one and its ramifications seem to be much overlooked by both beginning and seasoned trainees alike. It is typical to see a new flock of highly charged newcomers join their local fitness center during January at New Years Resolution time. The new trainees are given a program at orientation and follow it for several weeks. At first the results seem spectacular, trainees muscles are sore, as they are experiencing the lameness one gets from using muscles they didn’t even know the had. Every new movement seems fresh and the body responds to the new routine by communicating a symphony of aches, pains and soreness that front desk gym staff and other well wishers assure is part of the sport of weight training. Lofty goals are set to finally get the body that’s been here to for only imagined. Thoughts of this year will be different fill the minds of the new comer and this time they vow to stick to the fight through thick and hopefully thin! The first few weeks efforts result in new found strength gains as trainees who began with say a 20lb. Bicep curl can after 6 weeks time manage 40lb. Gains in other areas are similar as all body parts on a comprehensive program get their respective share of the bounty. Note: Strength gains are first, visible changes like shaping and toning take longer. Then it happens, the inevitable disappointments, further gains seem elusive and/or even difficult to maintain. The hoped for new body does not show itself and the whole process starts to feel a lot more like lifting groceries up three flights of stairs than like the endorphin high promised. Standing on the winners podium at the 2012 summer games , to the sounds of our National Anthem and the roar of an adoring public seem harder to attain than once imagined and even outright impossible, despite forced positive thinking and affirmations. The trainee once bursting with enthusiasm decides to throw in the towel or wait for next year or maybe even try no carbs for a while. Carbs aren’t the enemy Why does this always happen to people, why is it so difficult to actually change the look of the body for the better? Why are the dreams of the summer beach body dashed within the first few months of a brand new gym membership? Why is it that millions flock to the local gym in January never make it to April? What is the answer? Recently during a training appointment at a local gym, the center happens to be in the process of moving, a lady next to my client on a treadmill quipped about the movers, “ How would you like to do that all day? You sure wouldn’t need the gym!” Here in lies the problem, people actually believe that hard work alone will yield impressive physical gains and body change. It is counter intuitive but that is wrong. If hard work alone could produce a consistently improved physique then every lumberjack or construction worker would look like a Mr. America. If Dieting alone were enough then everyone who ever ventured to eat less would lose only fat and keep it off. We all know this is not the case. What people do not realize is why it is not so, and ignorance is not bliss. Americans need to be more physically active and motivated to stick with their exercise routines. Our Health Care Crisis could be lessened if a great effort were made to educate and help every American to get in better shape. Kids need to be taught in the schools how and why the body does what it does with food, and the perils of inactivity. With a massive effort our National Health would improve and be the envy of the world within one generation. Reversing the spiraling mess we are now in. Folks this is not an option, we either get together and reverse this trend or we as a Nation suffer the consequences in health problems and all the associated medical and emotional costs. Why when we exercise do we not make the progress we would like and then end up frustrated and discouraged, even with sometimes years of hard work? The answer is this: The Body is a Survival Mechanism, and in its own miraculous fashion quickly adapts to a level of activity. Once used to its level of activity, no further progress will be realized Period. I know that is hard to believe and your probably shaking your head in disbelief right now, but this is the truth, I have seen people invest years with very little to show for it. I have been in this game for over 30 years and 15 of those years with a National Franchise Fitness Center and seen the wasted effort with my own eyes. I have also seen people make remarkable progress and there are key distinctions and strategies that make the difference. Read on and I will explain how you can get amazing and consistant results. For example in the case of the lumberjack, for the first couple of weeks the axe seems heavy and every muscle in his body aches. His arms get a little thicker and his shoulders and back get a bit broader. But, then he gets used to the work and stays about the same, he’s sore after a hard days work but nothing like those first few weeks. Ten years of hard work later and still no noticeable improvement over what appeared in the first few months. Sound familiar? Apparently his body adapted as a survival necessity to a task repeated often enough that survival of itself and therefore the species is assured. This adaptation to stress is a survival necessity and ranks way above looking good at the beach. In the case of our New Years Resolution Dieter the first few weeks see great results as the body rids itself of bloat and water weight mixed with yes a little fat loss. The weightloss then slows to a halt the body reset and further progress very difficult. Oh, if only we could decide the bodies order of priorities, then every 90 year old would have a six-pack, every high school kid a pair of 20 inch guns, no need for the billions America invests in diet therapy in an anything goes world regardless of the metabolic cost. Americans gorging at the troth want bodies they see existing only at newsstands, the stuff of science fiction, fabrications of the mind. Corporations make millions off this airbrushed, digitally enhanced media. Even the movies we watch are doctored frame by frame by technicians to make eyes bluer, torsos trimmer, veins pop, and other enhancements. My own entry into weight-training began after a disappointing taping of my right arm at 10 ¼ inches revealed the problem and that I was more than a few protein shakes away from the cure. Along with a likewise afflicted neighbor who helped scrape together the $8.95( we were 12 and only had paper routes), and after six weeks of meeting the postman the package arrived. We would spend three afternoons a week for the entire summer following the program. Seven years later on a pilgrimage to see the Night of the Champions, while eating at a Worcester Hotel restaurant, my friend who in his haste for autographs had locked his keys in his car, thought he saw Mr. Universe, (his course purchased for the 8.95), eating at the same restaurant. We all agreed that this 180 lb. 45 year old man sitting in a booth eating alone, although bearing a striking facial resemblance, albeit a jaundiced version, was not Mr. Universe. That evening faith restored, while sitting in a pitch black auditorium, lit only by a single bulb, center stage, the guy from the restaurant, metamorphisized into a 400 lb. terminator look-alike exo-skeleton covered by a thin plastic substance fabricated to look like human skin. Middle age not withstanding when the skin is thin enough and the lighting is just right anyone can look like their from a video game. Our group of four was so motivated to hit the weights after that viewing we barely stopped to smash the side window before driving home. I mean that’s what we all wanted to look like, and we knew you had to lift weights (today it’s called resistance training) to get it. The purpose of this article is to spread the word, incredible physical transformations are possible with the application of sound scientific principles and the aid of the miracles attached to ones own arms. As to the science, how can adaptation to exercise be overcome? How can gains be planned for and achieved? How can trainee’s goals be realized? How can motivation be maintained? The answer is Program Modification, changes in training stimulus must be of primary concern in order to by pass the survival mechanism of adaptation and instead make it work for us. By changing the stimulus and making the body continually seek to adapt to a new stress in a trainng situation we can use the bodies own defenses, its own absolute need to survive in our favor. You can create the body you’ve always wanted. Yes you do need to do resistance training and you may have already guessed it dieting alone ( in my humble opinion does not work ) can not get one to ones best. Progress becomes far easier when the body is tricked into performing its primary function, namely survival, and to our training benefit. Just imagine the concept of working out being that easy. New trainees would have no battle with motivation because no one and I mean no one leaves a winning table during a hot roll. When changes for the better are seen in the mirror the trainee is intoxicated with success and the desire to work out becomes even stronger, a good habit formed and the process self-perpetuating. Copyright

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