We have all been there at some stage; our first month in the gym is usually filled with excitement, enthusiasm and learning correct form. However, what becomes the biggest factor in adherence levels to a regular gym programme is the progression which seems to just leap from within. Before you know it, depending on your fitness goal, you would have lost some weight or your volume would have increased by say 40% and your muscles are filling out from noticeable angles.
The sad story is that the rate of your ‘gains’ will plateau and eventually you will require more advanced approaches to training with regard to intensity, volume, tempo and nutrition to still achieve progressions in body composition and muscle definition.
The art of unfamiliarity
“To get somewhere you’ve never been before, you have to do something you’ve never done before.” This quote, attributed to an anonymous person, can be applied to all aspects of life. However, for this article, let us focus on training.
Performing unfamiliar exercises or loading patterns such as high reps, slow tempos or basically anything different to what you have been doing will cause a novel effect – meaning that this new form of stimulus delivered to the muscles causes your body to adapt and as a result will lead to soreness the following day.
To provide a clearer example of this approach, let us observe walking. Humans walk everyday yet our calves don’t pull up extremely sore and stiff for the next 48 hours, right? However, when we want to make the calves bigger or stronger we place them under a significantly higher load and ask them to perform a set number of contractions in a controlled tempo. This will be a completely new experience to your calves and as a result they will be sore and require proper recovery for the following days.
As you keep training your calves under the same volume and tempo you will notice over time that this routine becomes familiar and your calves will cease to be sore the next day; in other words, your calves are now stronger than what they were when you started and will require a new and more demanding stimulus to adapt and grow.
Approach
One of the easiest approaches to providing new stimulus effects is block training. This incorporates performing a certain number of sets for a set number of weeks and eventually alternating to a completely different number of sets for another set couple of weeks. Put simply, use a programme for 6 to 8 weeks and then change it.
That said, if using high sets vs low sets as your approach, remember to manipulate volume and or tempo to still create a physiological stimulus which challenges your muscles. The key is to continually introduce different stresses to the muscles via the implementations described above and to acknowledge that beginners in the gym will all notice gains due to the unfamiliar stresses placed on the muscles and will experience the compensation effect of the body adapting accordingly.
Stay tuned, friends. Anyone with any fitness goals who needs personal training or meal plans, I can help. Serious enquiries only. Email: emmersoncampbell@gmail.com or call 661-5954.
