That’s a question that requires quite a detailed response to be perfectly honest. However, I’d like to break it down into a simple concept to get your mind wrapped around the process. Its called Progressive Overload.
This is an extremely important, but often overlooked, component to an exercise program. It is this very process that causes the body (bones, muscles, tendons, ligaments to name a few) to become thicker and stronger. Progressive overload basically means that components of training (weights, sets, reps, exercise choices, frequency of sessions) are modulated making the next session “harder” than the last. Unfortunately, people slip this up a little somewhere along the line.
To keep things simple, the body has a wonderful way of adapting, for better or for worse. Consider this; if you go out in the sun, your skin becomes a little tender for a few days, but then it begins changing its pigment to handle the UV radiation. Suddenly, with the same time out in the sun again, you don’t burn. The opposite is also true; if you stay out of the sun your skin does not have a need to change its pigment, so it becomes pale.
Weight training has the same effects on the body as the sun. If you increase the stress on the body from training, your body will adapt so that it can handle the same stress a few days later. If you keep stressing the body with the same training (i.e. using the same weights, exercises, sets and reps) the body won’t have a reason to get stronger. Thusly, you will be spinning your wheels.
Large portions of my clientele are people recovering from motor vehicle accidents. It’s imperative for them to get stronger so that they can function optimally at work, and at home. This article is a reminder to all of you that you have to beat your personal bests if you want positive adaptive responses (running faster, jumping higher, getting stronger, improving mobility…you name it). Of course this goes without saying that you only increase the stimulus if you are pain free and not experiencing flare-ups.
Progressive overload has much more detail than presented in this article. But if you walk away knowing, for now, that each workout has to be building on the previous session in some manner, this article has done its job.
-Michael McIsaac