[A common, major misconception] A comment on my recent article reminded me of a mistake most people make when thinking about training. Its the idea that as you get stronger, youre exposing your body to more stress, so you need to train LESS to allow your body to recover. While this may work in the short term, its NOT going to allow you to ultimately push toward your genetic limits in the long run. Here was my response: That is the bill of goods youve been sold, but thats not how it works. Its true that you need more time to recover if you dont increase your work capacity, but theres a logical end point to that approach: As you get stronger and stronger, it requires that you train less and less to the point that you barely ever lift. Of course, thats obviously ridiculous. Show me one professional level strength athlete or bodybuilder with a low training volume, and Ill show you 20 who train more in a week than most people do in a year. People tell you to train less and simplify because it sounds like an easy fix - better results from less effort. It sounds good so it sells and it gets clicks. But thats not how it works in the real world. Your body requires more and more stress to force adaptation. Also, we have to deal with system vs. tissue-specific work capacity (he used the example of increasing general work capacity not benefiting a pitcher in baseball). I dont think anyone would argue that Michael Phelps has/had incredible work capacity, but he wouldnt be able to run a marathon at the rate of the best marathoners in the world. He certainly has similar general work capacity, but not work capacity specific to the task (marathon running). In your examples, youre talking about tissue specific capabilities, vs. the general ability to endure and recover from a given total workload. Strength, like anything else, has a point of diminishing returns. You can get pretty darn good results without much time or effort invested. However, if youre going to become the best, you need to realize that you reach a point where you have to do more and more work for smaller and smaller returns. In the world of sports, greatness and efficiency are contradictory goals.
Posted on: Fri, 28 Mar 2014 00:03:51 +0000
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