THE ARTICLE
21/11/2006 UPDATE: This article has been featured on the cover of and in Australian IronMan, Issue 13-11 p142-145.
30/10/2007 UPDATE: This article has been featured in Australian Fighting Fat Magazine, Issue 2007 p78-81.
Go into your typical gym and look around. What do you see? No doubt you'll see 95% of the people exercising very leisurely. Go into the same gym a year later. Take a look at that same group of people - how different do they look?
Most of the time, this group of gym members will not positively change over a week, a month or even a year. They will go into the gym, go for a walk and pick up the small weights to do some exercises whilst having a chat. Many of these people will quit due to lack of results or boredom. They end up right back where they started.
Whilst I will admit that the gym is a very social atmosphere, what is the number one reason you go into the gym? To have a chat (an expensive one at that), or to improve who you are - physically, mentally and emotionally? If the latter, you need to learn the art of adaptation.
Let's say John walks into the gym wanting to pack on some muscle and lose his beer gut. He goes into the weights room and lifts some fairly light weights. When he begins to get bored, he stops, lifts a few more weights and then goes for a slow jog on the treadmill whilst watching TV. John completes his workout when the TV show finishes. He has barely raised a sweat and walks out of the gym. John then does exactly the same thing, 6 days a week for 6 months. Guess what - 6 months later John has lost a couple of kilos of fat, yet is still no where near achieving his goal. His strength has not increased and he looks pretty much the same in the mirror. You know what, 6 months later John has not completed a single proper workout. Yes, he's been into the gym over 150 times, yet never once forced his body to adapt.
The human body is a very adaptive organism. If you spend time in the sun, you will get a tan (okay, well most people). If you walk out into a cold breeze, your skin will develop goose bumps. If you derive a math's equation multiple times, you will become better and more efficient at it. If you stretch your hamstrings, they will become more flexible. It is exactly the same when exercising. If you exercise, your body will adapt as to be able to handle the exercise more efficiently and effectively.
For example, John now tries a different method of training. He now goes into the weights room and lifts a relatively heavy weight for 6 repetitions. Once he lifts it 6 times, he can no longer move it - no matter how hard he tries (ie. positive failure). He is then effectively telling his body "Hey - you're too weak! You need to be able to move this weight more!". One week later he walks into the gym and again lifts that weight to positive failure, but this time lifts it 8 times. His body has adapted to last weeks workload. John has become stronger and more efficient at that exercise. Now John repeats the process by lifting heavier weight, or performing more repetitions. In contrast to this, John was previously lifting the weight and stopping when he became bored. What is he telling his body? Something to the tune of "You handled this weight alright this week, there's no need to get any stronger". Of course his body has no reason to adapt - so it isn't going to change.
Let's go to John's cardio routine. He previously performed a leisurely jog for 6 months and obtained very average results - losing a few kilos in 6 months. Again, since his body could handle the run without too many drama's, his body had no reason to adapt. Let's now make John perform a 20 minute high intensity interval cardio workout where he pushes himself to the absolute maximum. He stumbles off the treadmill sweating like crazy. This time he has effectively told his body "You're not fit enough! I want to go harder and faster and you're holding me back!". His body now adapts to this new workload that he demands.
You see, when we train with high intensity, we force our bodies to go into a state of recovery - you finish your workout and you're exhausted! When our bodies repair themselves, they recover to our previous level of fitness - and then some. The additional level of increase in fitness is so our body will handle the workload more effectively next time around. Nearly every system in your body will work in unison to become more efficient - your heart pumps more blood, your muscles become stronger, your breathing becomes more efficient and your metabolism increases. If we don't continue to test our limits, then our body will realise that it is handling the demands effectively and stop making progress, or plateau.
That's the physical side covered. But what about the mental and emotional side? Just as our physical bodies are adaptive, so too is our brain. John spent 6 months in the gym and learnt nothing. But now he is testing his limits on a day-to-day basis. This requires complete focus and concentration - which improves both on the treadmill but also at his workplace. John is continually setting personal bests and as a result his self confidence levels improve. Plus, John is now sticking to a demanding program on a regular basis which encourages maturity and discipline. John is improving himself not only on the outside, but on the inside too.
At the end of the day, the gym is the place to stimulate the adaptation process. You'll see from above that the number one catalyst for adaptation is intensity. A high intensity program, combined with a sound diet and recovery plan will cause your body to change - in the way that you want it to.
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