Training Adaptations 101

The human body is a complex and intricate system that is continually adapting and analyzing the external stimuluses that it is subjected to. You may not have thought about exactly what is happening to your body every time you train and how you truly are getting faster & stronger but your body is undergoing a complex process every time you exercise. This article will help you understand the basic principles of training adaptation.

When you exercise you subject your body to a training stimulus this leads your body to undergo adaptations in response to the stimulus. Hans Selye’s General Adaptation Syndrome outlines the basic process that a body goes through in response to stress. These principles can be applied to the stress induced by exercise. It consists of three stages: Alarm, Resistance and Exhaustion (Selya, 1978).

The Alarm stage is the first stage and is the initial response of the body when a stress is applied to it. It is often classified as our fight or flight response due to the stress that is applied to our sympathetic nervous system. In this stage the body under goes fatigue and performance level is decreased due to the training stimulus that occurs.

The second stage is the Resistance stage where the body adapts to the stress and increases its resistance to the stress. This is where recovery takes place, fatigue diminishes and adaptations occur to be able to withstand a greater amount of stress the next time the body is loaded. This is referred to as the principle of supercompensation (Bompa & Haff, 2008)

The final stage is the Exhaustion stage. This occurs when a stress is continually being applied to your body. This stage is also referred to as overtraining and is a common mistake made by athletes. When you don’t allow your body enough time to recover from the initial training stimulus your resistance to stress is considerably lower and the body cannot respond effectively to the continual stress being applied to it. This leads to a chronic state of body fatigue and hinders an athletes progression.

These are the basic physiological adaptations happening in your body when you exercise. It outlines the importance of stimulus and recovery in a training plan. A balance of having a strong enough training stimulus to elicit adaptations and recovery is required to have an optimal response for athletic development.

Have you ever had these thoughts: “Am I training too much or too hard?”, ”How long do I need to recover?”, “Am I providing a strong enough training stimulus?” and “Do I give myself enough time to allow my body to adpat?”. These are questions you should ask yourself to ensure you’re getting the most out of the exercise you are doing. At Tri-Body Training we can help you answer those questions to ensure you are getting the most out of your training.

References:

Bompa, T. 0., & Haff, G. G. (2008). Periodization: Theory and methodology of training.

Selye, H. (1978). The Stress of Life. McGraw-Hill.