Evolution and Adaptation
The human body is a remarkable creation! It will try to "evolve" based on the stimulus it receives. This is extremely important to understand in the context of exercise.
For example, when it encounters physical stress, the body can elicit a positive adaptation enabling it to better handle that stress the next time it is encountered.
This strength adaptation may be neurological by calling more motor units (i.e. a motor nerve and the muscle fibers it stimulates) into play, or it may respond to the stress by growing larger (i.e. hypertrophy) which is believed to be the result of an increase in the contractile elements (i.e. actin and myosin) within the muscle.
This is a simplistic illustration as there are many other adaptations that go on at the same time, but I just wanted to give a little bit of information on how the body responds to the "input" it receives.
Appropriate Intensity and Proper Progression
In an exercise program, appropriate intensity is absolutely necessary if you want to give the body a reason to adapt. If the intensity isn't high enough, the body will be happy to stay at it's status quo (i.e. no change).
The key word is "appropriate".
If the stress is too great, then it may far exceed what the body can realistically handle and injury can result. So it's important to find that threshold where there's enough intensity without overwhelming the body.
In order to make sure you continue to use appropriate intensity, you must learn how to properly use the principle of progressive overload. This allows you to continue to systematically increase the stress to the body in a way that stimulates positive physical changes with the minimum amount of risk.
Getting Extreme
Speaking of a possible excess level of stress...
Lately it seems that the biggest buzzword in fitness is EXTREME (or some variation of it)!
It’s in almost every infomercial for the various fitness products that are advertised non-stop via infomercials that flood the television screens. This is a trend that concerns me because of the way it is being presented to the general public.
It can appear as if this is the only way one can reach their fitness goals. The constant barrage of "before" and "after" pictures, the notion that this is what must be undertaken to achieve this physical transformation, and all at a cost of "thousands less" than it would cost if you ordered the components of the product separately.
Even though they may imply that this isn't for the sedentary individual, it appears that message can easily get lost as the viewers are seduced by the promise of the elusive 6 pack!
"It's Better To Look Good Than To Feel Good" Or is it?
Years ago, before I became a certified personal trainer, I did one of those extreme programs and did it pretty much by the book for 90 days. Now doing it by the book meant that 50 percent of the effort was nutritional and I was fanatical in my attention to detail.
At the end of the program I definitely had excellent visible results, was really “ripped” (in large part due to diligent adherence to the nutrition plan) but I was also pretty much drained and overtrained and not feeling nearly as healthy as I appeared.
The way I looked compared to how I felt reminded me of Billy Crystal’s characterization of Fernando Lamas (Saturday Night Live”) where he would always say “It’s better to look good than to feel good, and you look marvelous!”. Well, that was me alright, I definitely looked MUCH better than I felt!
I was thinking “If this is what I have to do to “look” like this, it’s hardly worth it!”. I felt it wasn’t realistic for me to keep up that level of intensity indefinitely.
I actually enjoyed training hard, but my body just wasn’t able to recover enough to stay healthy and this is in spite of getting plenty of rest and having spotless nutrition!
Risk vrs Reward
Also, there were many things in that program that seemed fairly dangerous to me. It often appeared that things were intense for the sake of being intense without being smart or sound.
Fortunately I was a long time fitness enthusiast and I just modified those exercises to make them safer and my visible "results" didn’t suffer from these modifications at all. But I often thought about how someone without my experience could get pretty badly injured by trying to follow verbatim what was presented on the screen.
Unfortunately that old adage of “No Pain, No Gain” is still very much present in many people’s mindsets. This mindset is definitely a recipe for injury, and without a doubt, nothing shuts down a fitness program (or the results you hoped to gain) like an injury!
Ultimately you have to weigh if the risk is worth the possible reward.
Musculoskeletal Concerns
Since finishing that program many years ago, and becoming a Personal Trainer, I have continued to learn and grow daily in my knowledge of exercise science and programming.
If there's one thing I’ve become more and more convinced of, it is the importance of having sound musculoskeletal alignment. This is especially critical before subjecting one's body to any significant stress related to exercise. Experience as a Personal Trainer has shown me that more often than not, folks have postural issues that need to be addressed.
Another important issue to consider is the "Fatigue factor". Even if someone appears "sound" from a musculoskeletal standpoint, the onset of fatigue during an exercise session may negatively influence their movement patterns creating the potential for injury.
Fitness Testing?
Even though the “Extreme” program I did had a “fitness test”, it didn’t have anything that would make it possible for a person to evaluate musculoskeletal issues. So basically as long as you could “survive” the fitness test, you would plunge into the program assuming it was safe.
It didn't matter if your hips were overly tight and pulling your pelvis forward and creating stress on your lower back. If you passed that "test" you had the "go ahead" to do the program which included plyometrics (which is basically high impact jumping activity).
If someone has physical issues like those mentioned above of which they aren’t aware, they may be doing the fitness equivalent of getting run over by a Freight train!
Getting Back To The Intensity Issue...
Since finishing that program I have maintained a daily exercise schedule but it is much more sane than the "Extreme" program I did all those years ago.
These days, rather than trying to push myself to an "Extreme" level of intensity, I push into that edge where I feel sufficiently challenged without being overwhelmed to the point of total exhaustion and depletion.
If I was to judge the intensity on a scale of 1-10, rather than pushing to a 9 or 10, I'm probably working at a 7 or 8 most of the time, adjusting up or down as necessary depending on my energy levels.
I find that using the above approach combined with variety in terms of the modalities I incorporate into my program, has given me excellent results which speak for themselves.
I'm not a "bodybuilder", so I don't carry huge amounts of muscle mass, rather my goal is to maintain a lean, fit physique.
Here is a recent pic (S. Fishkind/50 years old/June 30, 2010):
I also recently posted a progress pic, in another blog post, contrasted to one taken when I was 48 years old on day 90 after finishing that "extreme" program:
http://time4youfitness.blogspot.com/2009/08/s.html
Funny thing is that physically, I have the same results (now at 50 years old) as when I was pushing myself at that more "Extreme" level of intensity.
This is in spite of having to rebuild myself back up after undergoing cervical spine surgery a couple years ago (due to the effects of a car wreck I was in previously).
But even more important than how I look physically is the fact that I feel a thousand times better than I did after that "Extreme" program.
One thing to remember is that intensity and volume have an inverse relationship. If you are working at an extreme level of intensity then you need to lessen the overall volume. Volume includes the length of a given set of an exercise, the length of the exercise session as well as the frequency of exercise sessions.
Failure to respect this relationship will most certainly lead to negative consequences such as overtraining and possible injury.
If I had to choose between working at a super high intensity with less frequency, or working out with more frequency but at a lower intensity level (but still "enough" intensity to elicit a positive adaptation), I would choose the latter without a doubt as I believe that long term, this is a solution that gives the best overall fitness and health results!
To put it in simple language, I emphatically believe that "You don't need to "kill" yourself to get in excellent shape!"
NOTES:
The reason I felt compelled to write this particular post is that as a fitness professional, I have concerns that people, bombarded by these infomercials, may feel that achieving their fitness goals would be unattainable unless they can handle an extreme program. This would make most people give up without even getting started.
For those that may decide to attempt these programs, injury is a real issue and they should be aware of the risk involved in undertaking a program that may be completely inappropriate for them.
Now this doesn't mean that these programs would be contraindicated for all people. For example, there are certain performance based situations where the requirement for greater intensity is a necessity. There are also folks who are not athletes but fitness enthusiasts who just enjoy this type of activity and are at a fitness level that makes this appropriate for them.
However if overall fitness, health and appearance are one's primary goals, extreme levels of intensity are not necessary. This is based on my experience both personally and as a fitness professional.
In all cases, someone considering undertaking one of these extreme programs should make sure they are evaluated both from a cardiorespiratory as well as from a postural /musculoskeletal standpoint to insure that it is safe for them to participate. Please don't go only by the "fitness tests" they provide. They are much too narrow in scope.
Ideally, it would be best to have a fitness professional help show you how to safely modify the program and teach you how to progress appropriately to give you the best chance of success with the least risk of injury.
Scott Fishkind/Time4You Fitness
http://www.time4youfitness.com/
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