February 15, 2015

Auto-Regulatory Minimalist Training For Strength, Size, And Performance

Know Your Response, And Cater Your Training To It

The act of strength training, or ‘working out’, does not build muscle (or increase strength/endurance) – the body responds to the strength training by building muscle (or increases its ability to generate/maintain force). Strength training is simply the catalyst which initiates the adaptive processes, therefore one must first know what physiological/neurological response it is they wish to achieve in response to their efforts, so their strength training regimen can be tailored accordingly.

Exercises are nothing more than the ‘tools’ that are used to ‘do the job’ and trigger the response. The way in which the tools are used, as in the weight that is used, which determines roughly how many reps can be performed, the amount of sets, along with the rest between them, should all be based upon the goal, as they all heavily contribute to the end result.

Because our ability to progress is limited by our ability to recover, and the body has a limited capacity to positively respond to training, in terms of how much ‘work’ it can recover from, it’s of paramount importance to invest the limited amount of time and energy that can be spent training, on the exercises which provide the greatest return (on investment). It can’t be expected that more and more work can just be piled on without having some sort of downstream effect.

Since there’s essentially a limited supply, or maximum amount, of time and effort that can be invested into training, and there’s a cap on the amount of work that the body can endure, it’s only logical to invest that time and effort as wisely as possible – which is done by placing emphasis on making improvements in the lifts that provide the most benefit and greatest return on investment. After all, it’s the loading parameters that ultimately determine how the body will respond to the workout.