The 7 Commandments

[hotasice2003]

The reason I am posting them is because the first thing people ask is usually "Will X work?" With X being a type of workout, the amount of time working out, etc.

If you want progress - these laws HAVE to be considered. This is why I hate for someone not to design their own program that is for their goals...

I usually mention a few of these when someone asks me if something will work. Here are the definitions:

- The Law of Individual Differences: We all have different abilities and weaknesses, and we all respond differently (to a degree) to any given system of training. These differences should be taken into consideration when designing your training program. In short - we are ALL different. What works OPTIMALLY for you probably will not work optimally for me...

- The Overcompensation Principle: Mother Nature overcompensates for training stress by giving you bigger and stronger muscles. How do you overcompensate? See next principle.

- The Overload Principle: To make Mother Nature overcompensate, you must stress your muscles beyond what they're already used to. One more rep, one more set, shorter rest periods, etc. Now, with that being said, you still have to remember to stay within the parameters of your goals. If you are training to get bigger, that doesn't mean to go in there and rest 5 seconds between sets - that would be more of an endurance style workout. Use common sense and don't take this out of context...

- The SAID Principle: The acronym for "Specific Adaptation to Imposed Demands." If your training objectives include becoming more explosive, then you have to train explosively. If you desire greater limit strength (primarily from an increase in the cross section of myofibrils), you must use heavier weights than if you were training, for example, local muscular endurance (capillarization and mitochondrial adaptations). If your objectives include deriving cardiovascular benefits, then you must tax the heart muscle as well as the oxygen-using abilities of the working muscles. Yes, specifically training for one objective can detract from another objective, and this is why periodization is important.

- The Use/Disuse Principle: "Use it or lose it" means that your muscles hypertrophy with use and atrophy with disuse. This is common sense.

- The Specificity Principle: You'll get stronger at squats by doing squats as opposed to leg presses, and you'll get greater endurance for the marathon by running long distances than you will by (say) cycling long distances. YOU HAVE TO TRAIN TOWARD YOUR SPECIFIC OBJECTIVE, whether it is to grow, shrink, get faster, stronger, or whatever...

- The GAS Principle: The acronym for General Adaptation Syndrome, this law states that there must be a period of low intensity training or complete rest following periods of high intensity training. This is usually one of the more confusing, so I'm going to take Dr. Sal Arria and Fred Hatfield explain it better than I can:

"The GAS is comprised of three stages according to its originator, Dr. Hans Seyle: 1) the “alarm stage” caused by the application of intense training stress (the overload principle), 2) the “resistance stage,” when our muscles adapt in order to resist stressful weights more efficiently (The Overcompensation, SAID and Use/Disuse Principles), and 3) the “exhaustion stage” where, if we persist in applying stress we will exhaust our reserves and then be forced to stop training.

"In gym lingo, the GAS law states that there must be a period of low-intensity training or complete rest following periods of high-intensity training. The reason for this is that the stress you have applied is traumatic, forcing your “injured” muscles to heal and then adapt. The recovery and overcompensation time must be taken so that further stress does not continue the downward spiral caused by repetitive bouts of trauma.

"Confusion frequently arises in applying this principle. Some tissues and cellular components may have been stressed very little or not at all, and are therefore in need of little or no rest. In fact, if you do not work these tissues, owing to the “law of reversibility,” some atrophy will occur. For example, when heavy negative training is performed, much rest is needed because this form of training is highly traumatic to muscles. On the other hand, if the same exercise is performed with the same resistance and speed but the eccentric stress is removed, the rest period needed would be far less. The most frequent misuse of this principle is seen among those who insist on training each body part once weekly (for example) just because “it works.” This is generally not advised, as it is far too infrequent and too much rest. Inevitably, either precious time is wasted or detraining results in some systems’ tissues or cellular elements.

[eggy_wont_grow]

thts some good stuff.

and yet ppl will still post the "X VS Y" threads...lol

got reps?

[Ski]

Damn good post that everyone here should read multiple times over!!

[TXScout2]

The Specificity Principle and the SAID principle are the same principle.

[Tyrbolift]

Very good! Very succinct and compact, though by no means all-complete regarding bodybuilding.

[Tyrbolift]

Originally Posted by eggy_wont_grow

got reps?

Reps to the threadstarter. You bet!

[hotasice2003]

Originally Posted by TXScout2

The Specificity Principle and the SAID principle are the same principle.

Not exactly..... I quote my friend Boyd Myers.

"the SAID principle is more general (training for cardiovascular endurance won't make you lift heavier weights, etc). Specificity is, well, more specific. If you want to be a faster sprinter, sprint. Want to bench press more, bench press."

[jdiritto]

Originally Posted by hotasice2003

Not exactly..... I quote my friend Boyd Myers.

"the SAID principle is more general (training for cardiovascular endurance won't make you lift heavier weights, etc). Specificity is, well, more specific. If you want to be a faster sprinter, sprint. Want to bench press more, bench press."

cardio will increase your bodys ability to move oxygen into blood, which will reduce muscle soreness overall from lifting, which in turn will make it easier for the individual to lift heavier weights consistently.

While doing cardio wont directly increase your weights, it will increase overall health (oxidizing affects, modd affects, energy/focus affects.. etc) which will lend to an increase in weights (if you train correctly both ways)


.. and I think the GAS theory is more of a psychological phenomemnon (sp) used in experiments and lab reasearch designs.. I def. recall studying this in one class recently, but would need the book/notes to remember specifics... it is pretty interesting how you found it applied to weight lifting...

[hotasice2003]

Originally Posted by jdiritto

cardio will increase your bodys ability to move oxygen into blood, which will reduce muscle soreness overall from lifting, which in turn will make it easier for the individual to lift heavier weights consistently.

While doing cardio wont directly increase your weights, it will increase overall health (oxidizing affects, modd affects, energy/focus affects.. etc) which will lend to an increase in weights (if you train correctly both ways)


.. and I think the GAS theory is more of a psychological phenomemnon (sp) used in experiments and lab reasearch designs.. I def. recall studying this in one class recently, but would need the book/notes to remember specifics... it is pretty interesting how you found it applied to weight lifting...

Well, I guess it could be looked at from that viewpoint. The cardio would have to be pretty intense to increase you're VO2 capacity, but I don't think it would be enough to be noticed when lifting heavier weights, ya know? You are correct though......

[JOHN GARGANI]

HOT: I enjoyed reading this very much.......good job!

[hotasice2003]

^^ thank you kind sir........ I'm just trying to help.....

[jdiritto]

in general doing cardio increases the bodys ability to move oxygen.. this will in turn reduce the amount of lactic acid build up from weight lifting.. which is less soreness, etc.etc. its an additive thing...

[hotasice2003]

Originally Posted by jdiritto

in general doing cardio increases the bodys ability to move oxygen.. this will in turn reduce the amount of lactic acid build up from weight lifting.. which is less soreness, etc.etc. its an additive thing...

True, you get my point tho lol.......

[MoGeaYuglay]

Great post! Though a bit shy of sticky worthy material, but perhaps this is very much needed to be seen by all: Just cause it works for person A doesn't mean it wont work for person B, though it may very well work for person C and only slightly better than person F.

I guess it boils down to: Be smart, use your head, and try different shiz yo.

[hotasice2003]

^^ lol agreed. It's never good to stick with one workout plan for too long......

[hotasice2003]

bump........

[AllusionDB]

Originally Posted by MoGeaYuglay

Great post! Though a bit shy of sticky worthy material, but perhaps this is very much needed to be seen by all: Just cause it works for person A doesn't mean it wont work for person B, though it may very well work for person C and only slightly better than person F.

I guess it boils down to: Be smart, use your head, and try different shiz yo.

awesome thread start hot..

and MoGea...I love your sig haha, made me chuckle

[TXScout2]

I dont know who Boyd Myers is, but its still the same principle.

[hotasice2003]

Originally Posted by TXScout2

I dont know who Boyd Myers is, but its still the same principle.

Here's his site......
www.thepersonaltrainer.com

[hotasice2003]

bump.....

[MoGeaYuglay]

bump for the love.

[hotasice2003]

bumpin......

[hotasice2003]

bumpin up.....

[hotasice2003]

bump.....

[OLP]

http://www.drsquat.com/articles/populartraining.html

Want to explain why you didn't cite the article, yet use several key phrases from it, as well as a quote from the end? You basically just dumbed it down.

Negged

[HoosierBoy]

Originally Posted by OLP

http://www.drsquat.com/articles/populartraining.html

Want to explain why you didn't cite the article, yet use several key phrases from it, as well as a quote from the end? You basically just dumbed it down.

Negged

Good catch.

Negged again.

[bouche_]

just some opinions:

i learned these general principles back in the early 90's and though providing some decent info, they r mostly useless, imo, except for the overload principle.

for me, that is where truth in bodybuilding lies.

yes, we r all different, but, science can establish many basic facts that individuality cant change.

for example: a 1-3 rep range produces primarily strength gains. or someone who does isolation exercises will not get as strong or big as someone who uses compound movements.

i bring this up because ive been reading alot of "it works for me" lines.
thats great, but, for me, what needs to b asked is whether or not 'XYZ' is the most effective and efficient way to meet my goals?

imo, "it works for me" is irrelevant and useless, unless u dont care about maximizing your potential.

there r absolute truths in bodybuilding and that is where the overload principle rules over all others.

and the best way to overload your muscles to gain maximum strength and muscle is through using progressively heavier weights.

[hotasice2003]

Originally Posted by OLP

http://www.drsquat.com/articles/populartraining.html

Want to explain why you didn't cite the article, yet use several key phrases from it, as well as a quote from the end? You basically just dumbed it down.

Negged

I didn't get this from that site...... I got it from another user on another forum....... Everyone knows that I didn't write those principles.......

[OLP]

"The reason I am posting them is because the first thing people ask is usually "Will X work?" With X being a type of workout, the amount of time working out, etc."

Cite things. No idea, I bet most everyone though you wrote it, and even if you didn't, its plagarism.

[westtexasfury]

just bumping