Biological Normal

DEMAND GROWTH - Your Body Is Engineered Just Beyond Requirements

We’re in the process of buying a boat for Vanuatu.
The boat was built from scratch as the project of a wealthy farmer.
When he was required to select materials he could have chosen to meet the minimum specifications for a boat of that size and power.
Instead he “over-engineered” the boat.
This means that he used materials and parts that can stand much more force than what is required.
If your body massively was to be over-engineered to the physical requirements that might one day be placed on in then everyone would have to eat 2-3 times more to survive.
From an evolutionary perspective this is a disadvantage…
For that reason such people don’t exist.
Some might be engineered a little more expensive than others.
The type of training we do determines whether it’s our tendons or our muscles
Your body doesn’t want to carry any more mass than it needs to!
Muscle mass is metabolically expensive.

Your Body Carries Muscle Is Like Ryan Air Planes Carrying Fuel - Just enough to get the job done.

Dimmer Switches & Signalling

Genes are switched on for anabolism based two things.
  1. Tension
  1. Passing the amino acid threshold.
They can be triggered 3-4 times per day.
Biologically everything works in rhythms and can’t be maximal all the time.

Signal Vs Noise

Playing the same song on the piano everyday won’t develop you as a piano player as well as learning multiple songs and styles.
Telling your body exactly the same message all day everyday just like playing the same song everyday decreases the signal.
Pulsing stimulus can improve results but it also has some risk.
Being very consistent with achievable workouts can help you stay at your current level and make gradual progress.
Having times when training is easy and times when it’s VERY hard will encourage new gains.
Occasionally doing 3-5 times your normal volume will push your body to adapt.
Pushing very hard in terms of volume is safer at moderate intensity.
Risk of injury and mental burn-out increases when pulsing extreme stimulus.
You can think of these days like “race day” or doing a CrossFit competition or an Ultra Marathon… you don’t do them all the time but it’s good to know that you can when you want to and the body will prepare for the next one.

Set Points

Your body fat and muscle mass are probably at a level that is normal for you.
Those levels are probably not your best possible levels.
 
Homeostasis is one of the key concepts in biology. All biological variables like blood pressure, pH, gas levels in the blood, hormone levels etc. stay close to their balance point.
Deviation from normal is a stress.
Stress signals danger to the body.
  1. How far from your common state are you willing to go?
    1. The body (and cellular intelligence) will send strong NO MORE Signals when it moves away from normal. This is particularly true with high volume training / total repetition training. High tension training challenges the nervous system and the tendons more.
    2. If we consistently challenge the body away from normal those signals become weaker for that particular stress and recovery becomes faster.
  1. How able are you to recover?
    1. There is no point causing extreme tissue damage if that results in you breaking down mentally and physically.
    2. Work as hard as possible, as often as possible, while staying very fresh.