HOW WE ADAPT TO EXERCISE
Our body is always adapting. To what we do, what we eat, what time we wake up or go to sleep, the environment around us… the list goes on.
As we exercise, our body tries to adapt and make us better at exercising.
For this reason alone, we cannot just do the same thing over and over and over. Not only will we get bored but our body will no longer become stressed and need to adapt, recover, and grow.
Let’s really break this process down:
During anaerobic exercise (high powered, short duration efforts), muscle fibers do most of the work. Over time our body will begin storing more ATP and glycogen in expectation of what we’ve been doing. These adaptations help us fuel our efforts the next time we do this type of exercise and make us better at what we’ve been doing. This type of exercise also makes our muscle bigger (and stronger) also enabling us to perform better over time.
If we never change the work we are doing or the weight we are doing it with our body will no longer need to adapt and will not change.
The same is true during aerobic exercise (longer duration efforts). Aerobic exercise depends largely on oxygen. As our body adapts to these types of exercise we improve our oxygen transport and delivery system. We make more red blood cells which mean we transport more oxygen. We make more and bigger blood vessels which helps deliver more oxygen and fuel to muscle cells. And to go even a bit further, our bones and connective tissues adapt and get stronger.
If we always run 3 miles at the same speed, our body will no longer need to adapt and improve.
In summary, as we exercise, our body adapts.
We get stronger. We get fitter. We get healthier.
To stay ahead of our bodies adaptations, we need to keep stressing our body in different ways to keep it changing, growing, and improving.
Example week of exercise:
DAY 2:
Strength: Back Squat
3 sets of 5 reps using 5-lbs heavier than last week
Conditioning: Every Minute on the Minute for 7 Min
10 Kettle Bell Swings
5 Pull Ups
into
Every Minute on the Minute for 7 Min:
10 Goblet Squats
5 Burpees
DAY 1:
Strength: Shoulder Press
3 sets of 5 reps using 5-lbs heavier than last week
Accessory: 5 Rounds for Quality of:
:20 Max Ring Rows
:20 Rest
:20 Max KettleBell Sumo Deadlifts
:20 Rest
:20 Max Face Pulls
:20 Rest
DAY 4:
Strength: Bench Press
3 sets of 5 reps using 5-lbs heavier than last week
Accessory: 5 Rounds for Quality of:
10 Hollow Rocks
10 KettleBell Rows
10 KB Side Bends
10 KB Step Ups
DAY 3:
Conditioning:
3 Rounds at 2:00 on 2:00 off:
5 Dumbbell Hang Cleans
20 Mountain Climbers
Accessory:
3 x 10 Dumbbell Bench Press
3 x 15 DB Tricep Kickbacks
3 x 10 Lateral Raises
DAY 5:
Strength: Deadlift
3 sets of 5 reps using 5-lbs heavier than last week
Accessory:
200m 1-arm dumbbell carry
into 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 of:
Sit Ups
Step Back Lunges
Dumbbell Reverse Flys
into
200m 1-arm dumbbell carry
Next week, for each strength lift, we’ll do 3 x 3 with around 10% more weight on the barbell. We’ll change up our accessory and conditioning and even change up our warm-ups each day.
As always, let us know if you have any questions!