(Relative) Stress Drives Adapation

Unless you’re a psychopath, training is a process done for some other result. Those looking for suffering and strain for the sake of suffering and strain can act out their fetishes in much more direct, less expensive ways than here at DEUCE Gym.

It’s important to note that the adaptation, albeit weight-loss, strength gain, improvement of work capacity, etc, must come from stress. Stress drives biological adaptation. Whether this is unfortunate or not is up to you, but training must be relatively stressful to result in any change in the system. It’s the reason muscles get stronger and it’s the reason the biology of different species evolve over generations. In the same way that it’d be silly to assume a giraffe would evolve such a long neck if it’s food didn’t demand it, you cannot assume that simply standing inside a fitness facility will change your body. Instead, the stress of taller trees forced the issue. When you’re in the gym, then, the training must force the issue.

We’ve dispelled the notion that fitness is the result of an imaginary exercise bank with debits and credits of calories. You’re body is an intelligent being that requires exposures to relative stress in order for change. It’s here that we find context for fun quotes like, “It’s doesn’t get easier, you just get better” or “if it doesn’t challenge you, it won’t change you.” If you haven’t realized it yet, training will need to continue to be hard in order to find results, by definition.

Consider that men and women of any fitness capacity can adapt to his/her training. Normalizing your routine, like many do, results in stagnation, and even regression, in a number of fitness categories by failing to stress the system. The answer? Go where you’re uncomfortable, make it comfortable, and then find a way to be uncomfortable again.

It’s in exposure to the fringes of our abilities that we find more speed, strength, cardiovascular ability, and body composition improvement. Continue to explore your fringes or you’ll find yourself setting into a fitness purgatory.

 

Logan Gelbrich

@functionalcoach