Basic Concepts of Training Theory Part 1 : Laws of Adaptation - My notes of the book Science and Practice of Strength Training By Vladimir M. Zatsiorsky & William J. Kraemer.

Laws of adaptation 

Bloody shins, calluses, scars on upper backs from the barbell pushing into flesh, headaches, sprains, the confrontation with toilet visits two days after heavy squatting.

Your mother may ask, why?

Ever thought about answering:
"The major objective I do all this weird stuff to myself is to induce specific adaptations toward the improvement of athletic performance."

Let me guess, you didn't. But in this post I'll try to give you some perspective.

Whether you're trying to build bigger biceps, a stronger bench press or training to become the next fastest man on earth, you're striving to induce specific adaptations toward the improvement of athletic performance. Simply put, working towards a physical goal.

So from the point you've set your goal, you'll probably start exercising. What happens? Your body adapts. Literally, adaptation means the adjustment of an organism to exercise (physical load). If a training program is properly planned and executed, an athlete's (you) strength improves as a result of adaptation.

We can roughly classify training loads as stimulating (inducing adaptations), retaining (maintaining) and detraining (losing strength, muscle mass, etc.) loads. In order to induce continuous adaptation, the following are required:

• Overload : Maintaining the training load above the habitual level.

Do we grow huge quads from regularly walking up and down the stairs? Chances are, they aren't not growing an inch. Part of this is due to the accommodation of the body to the training stimulus, but I'll cover this later on. Back to walking stairs, let's say you've decided that you will walk up the stairs of the Eiffel tower with a backpack on that weighs about 100kg. First off, you'll never make it to the top due to muscle fatigue (sorry). But secondly and more important, you WILL cause hypertrophy to happen in your quadricep muscles. Why did the muscles grow? Was the training load above usual or was the athlete not accustomed to the exercise? In this case you're accustomed to the exercise (walking up stairs), but the training load was so significantly heavier then in regular stair walks. Result --> Training adaptation takes place. Keep in mind that you'll have to push yourself in some way every training session.

• Specificity : Program/exercises correspond to the main goal. (Transfer of training results)

If your goal is to break the world record of the fastest time to run up the stairs of the Eiffel tower, then yes running up stairs as preparation for that event would be a magnificent idea. The more specific the training is in muscular coordination and physiological demand, the more transfer you'll have to the main goal. However, you'll find your progress stagnating after a while when all you do is run up the stairs day in, day out. Find out why, below.

• Accommodation : Both exercises and training load (intensity, volume) should vary over time periods. When the same exercise with the same training load is employed over a long period of time, performance gains decrease. 

You've been running up stairs for several months now, congrats, but you find that no matter how hard you psych yourself up, your time does not improve. Welcome to accommodation land. You've officially hit a plateau. You see, what has hit you right in the face, is the principle of diminishing returns. By definition : The decrease in response of a biological object to a continued stimulus. So some things will have to change, running up less stairs with greater speed is a start (increasing intensity). Second thing you can vary is your volume, in this case meaning instead of running up the stairs 1 time, running it up 2 times. Still doesn't work? How about some regular ground sprints (changing exercises)? 

Having variation in your training is fun, plus you'll get better results. (I'm looking at you, powerlifter who runs a minimalist program and has been deadlifting the same weight for 5 years straight.)

REMEMBER : following the rule of specificity, exercises must be as close as possible to the main sport exercise in muscular coordination & physiological demand.

• Individualization : All people are different, some exercises or training methods elicit a greater or smaller response in various athletes. 

You may have found that stair-running isn't exactly your thing. That's OK. I don't like pineapple on my pizza. But if you would like stair-running, you may experience that your skills wouldn't improve purely from running based exercises. A bad coach would smack you across the room demanding you to follow their running based program because it worked with all their previous clients. A more seasoned coach will understand the concept of individualization and will try to understand how your body reacts differently from other people on certain kinds of training programs/exercises. He will possibly give you a program more centered around strength-training (or whatever works for you). This is something very important to keep in mind. What works for me, will probably not work for you. Search for your own style.

Well, that concludes it for today.

Thanks for reading,

- Thomas Hermans

Sources : 

Zatsiorsky, Vladimir M. & Kraemer, William J. Science and Practice of Strength Training 2nd Edition (2006)