Posted on December 18, 2015 by Jenny Cromack
Train Well! Rest Well! Make Gains!
Following on from last week’s blog about burnout and overtraining this blog will cover the general principles of adaptation and what part rest plays in this process. By understanding this principle, we can make sure we are training optimally but ensuring we are resting enough to make sure we get the most out of our training to optimise your workout goals.
The body is a great machine and is very good at adapting to the stresses that we put it under. We do, however, need to make sure we give it enough time to recover from, recuperate, and adapt to these stresses. The process of this adaptation is known as the General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS).
General Adaptation Syndrome
GAS represents the body’s reaction to stress and has several stages; alarm, resistance, and exhaustion.
Alarm Phase:
This phase is stimulated by the onset of the stressor, and in our case this is our exercise. We start to exercise and place our body under stresses of exercise load and intensity. This phase prepares us with resources to deal with the stressor. The body secretes hormones to get us through the stressor such as adrenaline and cortisol. This phase is also associated with a temporary reduction in the efficiency of the immune system, which we will be an important factor that we will discuss later. Basically our body is alarmed into preparing for and dealing with the stress or exercise.
Resistance Phase:
This phase may be seen as the phase of adaptation in which the body adapts to and optimises itself to deal with increasing or continued stressors. The body finds resources to reduce the effect of the stressor. In the case of exercise our body will want us to sleep more, rest more, and eat more to fuel us for the stress of exercise. We also start to make specific physiological adaptations to the exercise. This may be cardio-vascular changes or muscular changes such as hypertrophy or muscular strength. This is an important phase as we make most of our adaptations here. In the case of exercise however the physiological changes tend to take place when we allow our bodies to rest and recover which is of key importance to optimising your results or “gains”.
Exhaustion Phase:
This phase represents a decline in adaptation. If the body is not allowed sufficient time to rest between stressors or the stressors are simply continuous the adaptations will stop and the body will start to decline in terms of the progress it has made and its ability to cope with the stress. The immune system, especially, takes a huge plummet in this stage leaving us open to illness and disease and a lowered ability to fight it off. Therefore, ensuring we minimise this phase is key, not only to our exercise progressions but also our general health.
Applying These Principles
So now we know that when we start to exercise our body takes a brief decline in terms of immunity and stress coping but the body gathers the resources, very quickly, to prepare the body and deal with the stress. This occurs mainly via hormonal responses. After exercise our body starts to adapt to its stresses and finds physiological resources to resist the stresses when they occur again. This comes in the form of specific exercise adaptations such as improved stamina, strength, or muscle mass etc.
Train to Gain!!
Using the principles of GAS we can understand that, with well-timed rest, we can introduce the stress of exercise at certain points to encourage further adaptations without entering the exhaustion phases. By introducing a new stress of exercises midway through the adaptation phase will allow enough rest for the immune system to recover, the body to put in place some adaptations, but will also kick-start a new set of adaptations via a new “alarm”. The stresses can afford to be slightly higher intensity than before, provided enough rest was applied previously. This will encourage further adaptations and the results and gains we are looking for.
Rest is Best!!
We know that these adaptations occur during periods of sleep and rest that the resistance phase tries to drill into us. If we do not allow rest periods and we hit the body with the same stresses day after day on top of a busy stressful lifestyle we will not only keep adding cyclic alarm reactions but our body will hit a point where we will eventually run into the exhaustion phase. With these repeated “alarms” and the eventual exhaustion our immune system will be at an all-time low, we will start to feel ill, drain, and will not be able to shake the feelings of tiredness or overcome the illness effectively. This will reduce our motivation and ability to exercise at the same levels.
Summary:
To optimise your workout goals we should consider how our body reacts to training and the stresses we put it under. A well designed training regime that allows sufficient rest between intense sessions (24 hours or so) along with well-timed, gradual, and realistic progressions will ensure we keep pushing our results but also remain illness free, healthy, and minimise the risk of overtraining, exhaustion, and burnout.