Anyone can create a training stimulation. Not everyone can create a training adaptation, especially the desire one.How do I facilitate the training environment and the training variables in such way that my client actually gets the desired adaptation?
Isn't that a key question to any training? Well, yes it is, but I do not think it is always that simple. Otherwise every client would reach their goals much more efficiently, I think.
I do not think knowing the client's goal means I will always get them there. Sometimes it is my fault, sometimes it is theirs and sometimes it is no one's fault....
I think the desired training adaptation requires an Optimal Adaptation Environment.
There are a lot of variables in creating O.A.E., for example:
1. Physiological variables
- the training stimulation itself
- the state of the neuro-muscular system pre- and post-training
(pains, fatigue, lack of sleep, recovery, nutrition, other movement needs etc.)
2. Mental/Emotional variables
- state of mind (work stress, family stress etc..)
- motivation
- focus
3. Environmental variables
- temperature (heat, wind, rain..)
- equipment/facility
- other people
But let me stay on the physiological adaptation environment and say hello to Mark, our case study for today.
Ok, so Mark needs to improve his Vertical Jump. Now we know the goal.
Now I need to ask, Which training adaptation will take Mark to the desired goal?
Then I need to know, Which training stimulation will take Mark to the training adaptation that will lead to the desired outcome? .....huh?
Anyway, the goal is the Vertical Jump. After the evaluation we decide that Marks's internal hip rotators are in such a bad shape that he can't load his hip musculature and produce force properly.
So, we determine that the desired training adaptation would be first mobility/flexibility in the hip and then strength of the same area.
Now we decide to use prone posterior hip stretch passively and actively as a training stimulation to get some range of motion in the area.
Then we make Mark do some 3-dimensional lunges without additional resistance.
Finally we get to do some single leg and double leg strength followed by some vertical jumps.
OK, so we figured out a path that should lead from training stimulation to adaptation to performance.
What if that was not the right path? What if we created an adaptation that was not the desired one? I think that happens a lot.
What if we had Mark do back squats without creating a mobility adaptation first in the hip rotators? Could the vertical jump still have improved? I guess it could have. Is the desired training adaptation and the desired movement goal always the same thing? I believe you can improve someone's vertical jump by just jumping under some heavy weight and repeating the desired movement pattern under resistance....so the answer would be NO then.
The question still remains though ...which adaptations did this training create and are all of them "good" adaptations? He might have improved his vertical jump and at the same time decrease his ability to change direction laterally in high velocities. Well, that is not a good thing for a basketball player. But we won't even worry about it because we have no idea that we had created such "secondary" adaptation. Oh oh!
Creating an environment where the optimal adaptations occurs, requires that I know quite a bit about how the body responds to given stimulations. The challenge is in knowing all the possible adaptations that an exercise can have on the movement system.
This might have been pretty confusing, I recognize that, but I guess my point is that a trainer or a strength coach should not facilitate only training stimulations but more so, training adaptations.
Thanks for reading!
Tommi
PS: Be a yardstick of quality. Some people aren't used to an environment where excellence is expected. Steve Jobs
