Adaptation and Attention within Your Training
Adaptation is your body’s response to the stimuli you present it with through training, nutrition, supplements and rest is of paramount importance. If what you are doing is currently working, then there is no reason to make any changes to your program. Simply continue working away on the principles you have in place and do so until the return on the effort you are looking for doesn’t occur.
When this happens, an adaptation to the plan you have in place has set in and your attentiveness to this matter is extremely important moving forward. Unfortunately, many times this goes unnoticed and what ends up happening is a lot of wasted time and energy being put forth to no avail.
Don’t let this be you and don’t ignore the signs your body provides you with. Paying attention to the adaptation that can and will occur within our training efforts will be the key to your success long term so make sure you watch for and prepare for the following scenarios as they arise.
Mental “Look Fors” Within Your Adaptation
Eventually, through all of your training, the weights will lose that lustre they once had. Your level of motivation to crush your workouts, to beat the logbook and to amplify your intensity levels to new heights will slowly diminish. The excitement you once possessed for that one to two hours in the gym a day that you always looked forward to won’t be there anymore and the discipline and consistency you once applied to your nutrition just seems to be fading away.
These are sure signs that you are in need of an adaptation by way of the fact that you are just simply tired and bored with what you have been doing and you need something else to get excited about. A change is needed to invigorate your efforts once again and to provide you with something new to look forward to.
Sometimes all it takes is a small change or the thought that you are giving yourself a different opportunity to grow through different measures to get yourself going again. Or perhaps you need a venue change with a new environment and atmosphere to train in that re-ignites that flame the way we do here at Brickhouse Gym.
Maybe it’s a new piece of equipment you start using or a different training principle that fires you up. The point being made here is that sticking with the same old will only get you so far. If your mind is not there in this entire process, then the physical can’t occur the way it should.
Physical “Looks Fors”
The other side of the story involves the physical notifications your body will send out to you when adaptation has set in, and this is really where people tend to ignore the signs and faulter in their approach. There is a ceiling to our strength gains and we can’t just expect to get stronger and stronger every week with no limits or end in sight.
However, with that said, you can only continue working on improving within certain exercises until the futility of it all sets in. If you’ve been stuck at three plates on the bench for weeks on end, it’s time to move on to something else and come back to the bench at a later date. Secondly, what type of pumps are you getting in the gym with the current workout you’re using?
This seems to be lost on many for some reason but the exercises you use and the order in which you do them should give you a great pump. If this isn’t happening, then your body is just going through the motions you’re putting it through and not really responding the way you want it to. Many will say that this is just a byproduct of poor nutrition but try mixing up your exercises and you’ll see.
Finally, if you aren’t getting sore then nothing new is taking place breakdown-wise. Again, being sore isn’t necessarily the caveat to new growth, but it is a notification that you’ve given your body something new to adapt to and it’s trying its best to do so.
As easy as it would be to simply put a plan together and just stick to it knowing that everything you do thereafter will go towards improving gains in strength and muscle, it, unfortunately, doesn’t happen like that. Adaptation to any sort of stimulus we provide it with at some point in time.
What will allow you to jump that hurdle so that you can keep progressing in your efforts is your attentiveness to the matter and your ability to identify it when this occurs. There is much more to this game we’re playing than simply picking up some weights and putting them down. You’re being educated about your body and how it responds to everything you throw at it and then knowing when adaptation will be the key to your success.
Take heed of the look fors mentioned above, evaluate what you’re doing every few weeks, decide on what needs change and what doesn’t and then just keep repeating this same process year after year. It will prove to be your best course of action as you continue to seek the positive change that you are after.
Author: Dana Bushell
Gym Star Team Member
