Fitness Improvement Through Deliberate Variation
by Eddie
Lomax
zone3
By varying the stresses, methods and intensities of your physical
training you will continue performance improvement in the physical skills
of cardiorespiratory endurance, strength, power, speed, flexibility,
balance, coordination, agility, accuracy and toughness needed for
functional strength, superior conditioning and fitness excellence.
Why do we physically train?
Well, for most of us it is to bring about desirable performance
improvements in the physical abilities needed to meet the challenges of
sport, work and life with excellence... and to improve body composition
through physical activity.
That's right... performance improvement first and appearance
second.
Or, at least that's how it should be.
The body adapts to the specific stresses it is subjected to... making
it easier to perform the activity in the future and the body more
efficient in handling the stress.
Well, that sounds great... so what's the problem?
The problem is that if you do the same thing over and over again your
body will adapt to a certain point... and then slow down and stop
performance improvement.
Anyone that has ever trained before is guilty of doing this...
We train a certain way and see great performance improvement in the
beginning... then the improvements are far and few between until they just
stop all together.
Then we start asking for advice about "Breaking Plateaus" or consider
using some kind of "Supplementation" to keep the performance improvements
coming.
The fact is... there are better ways to spend your valuable training
time and money than trying to force your body to do something it doesn't
want to do by using elaborate load and repetition training schemes and
costly supplements.
Routine is your enemy if you want long-lasting and sustainable
performance improvement... you must break out of the mold of predictable
behavior to keep the improvements coming.
When you fall into the trap of using monotonous and unsustainable
routines you inevitably end up wasting your training time trying to force
improvements... instead of shifting the focus of your training to other
areas in need of performance improvement.
While you grind out boring workout after monotonous routine in search
of the elusive "one more rep"... the other physical skills are receiving
zero training.
Therefore, you are gaining NO performance improvement in the physical
skills that you are training and NO performance improvement in the
physical skills that you are neglecting... meaning that you are making
ZERO positive improvements in any of the physical skills regardless of all
your hard work.
Now, I don't know about you... but that does not sound like a very
productive way to spend my time training.
Yet, that is how the majority of people train!
Albert Einstein said, "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over
again and expecting a different outcome."
I guess you know what I think of most "fitness" workout programs.
To combat this problem, you must plan to continue your performance
improvement by deliberately varying the stresses, methods and intensities
of your physical training.
Train all 10 physical skills...
Train different aspects of the skills... like maximum strength,
explosive power and strength endurance.
Train different intensities of activity... like the anaerobic,
anaerobic lactate and aerobic energy pathways.
Train combinations of different skills together... making you more
versatile and prepared for any challenge.
Adding variety to your workouts will not only keep your over-all
performance improvement on track, but it will also make it interesting and
sustainable... meaning you will not only make the initial performance and
body composition improvements, but you will continue to improve as long as
you keep training.
Well, that sounds more like it... getting positive and lasting
performance improvement results for all your physical training
efforts.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Coach Lomax is a strength, conditioning and fitness coach dedicated to
building better humans for sport, work and life. Learn more at Optimum Physical Training or take his FREE Tabata
Calisthenics Workout Mini Course.
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