Routine Is The Enemy...
I've been giving quite a bit of thought to training recently. Not martial arts and combatives but general fitness training necessary in order to be able to perform the afore mentioned at a reasonable level. The preponderance of new training methodologies is staggering. From weight training, cardio-kickboxing, plyometrics, body weight movements and rapid paced resistance training to various boot camp style workouts. The thing is, they all work. Some better than others but they all deliver results... to a point.
Now, there's a reason for this, they all stress your body and put demands on it that force it to adapt. If you're constantly forcing your body to adapt by placing these demands upon it, it will certainly do so. If that adaptation means building more aerobic capacity, more lean muscle mass or more explosive strength your body will oblige, but it will do so grudgingly. This means than every workout will grow less effective over time as your body adapts to it. Changes in pace, resistance and form will mitigate this and force your body to continue adapting, but ultimately as your body becomes more and more acquainted with the workouts it will adapt less and less since by then it will already be quite well suited to the demands of the training regimen.
This is actually in many ways a very good thing. If you’re training is sport specific, this progressive reduction in adaptation will mean that your body is now better suited for the desired task whether that task is running, jumping, throwing, rowing or any combination of such. The bad news is, that you will now be seeing less and less results from your efforts. The solution is to change not only the individual workouts but also the basic styles of training.
Elite athletes already know this. They add plyometric exercises to their strength training. They perform both general movements and isolation exercises. They train with weights and with bodyweight movements. They vary the rate, order, intensity and duration of exercise. In other words, they continually keep their bodies guessing. Athletes make constantly changing demands on their bodies, forcing them to continue adapting.
The how is fairly easy in theory, more difficult in execution. If you’ve been doing weights, try plyometrics. Then after bit add bodyweight movements. If you even think that your training might be getting stale move to resistance bands. As soon as you’re comfortable with your routine, don’t even wait for a plateau, make a change. Mix and match, but keep your body guessing. In the end, it will thank you.
Now, there's a reason for this, they all stress your body and put demands on it that force it to adapt. If you're constantly forcing your body to adapt by placing these demands upon it, it will certainly do so. If that adaptation means building more aerobic capacity, more lean muscle mass or more explosive strength your body will oblige, but it will do so grudgingly. This means than every workout will grow less effective over time as your body adapts to it. Changes in pace, resistance and form will mitigate this and force your body to continue adapting, but ultimately as your body becomes more and more acquainted with the workouts it will adapt less and less since by then it will already be quite well suited to the demands of the training regimen.
This is actually in many ways a very good thing. If you’re training is sport specific, this progressive reduction in adaptation will mean that your body is now better suited for the desired task whether that task is running, jumping, throwing, rowing or any combination of such. The bad news is, that you will now be seeing less and less results from your efforts. The solution is to change not only the individual workouts but also the basic styles of training.
Elite athletes already know this. They add plyometric exercises to their strength training. They perform both general movements and isolation exercises. They train with weights and with bodyweight movements. They vary the rate, order, intensity and duration of exercise. In other words, they continually keep their bodies guessing. Athletes make constantly changing demands on their bodies, forcing them to continue adapting.
The how is fairly easy in theory, more difficult in execution. If you’ve been doing weights, try plyometrics. Then after bit add bodyweight movements. If you even think that your training might be getting stale move to resistance bands. As soon as you’re comfortable with your routine, don’t even wait for a plateau, make a change. Mix and match, but keep your body guessing. In the end, it will thank you.
1 Comments:
Hey QS, have you read any of Ross E's
stuff?
rossboxing.com
I sent /DN a book about it and have
been doing this for a while too.
See, I'm not much of a weights fan,
I just dunno how to make good use of 'em and tend to use simple
exercises like Burpees, etc...
I think that the "old school"
boxing gym routine is bankrupt,
btw, since you get too used to it.
A little variety will go such a
long way it is unbelievable!
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