26
Apr 2012
General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS)
Hans Selye once said, “That which does not kill us makes us stronger”. A brief explanation of the adaptive changes at the cellular level, caused by CrossFit training, will help you understand how intense CrossFit workouts will result in an improvement of your fitness.
We have known for centuries that when the human body is presented with a sub-lethal dose of physical, pyschological, or chemical stress, it can adapt to the source of stress, allowing the body to tolerate incrementally larger similar stresses. This is known as the General Adaptation Syndrome. Either we as humans successfully adapts and improves, or fails to adapt and dies (or over trains in our case).
The General Adaptation Syndrome has three phases: 1) Alarm 2) Resistance 3) Exhaustion. The first two represent a positive adaptation, while the last represents a failure to adapt.
The first stage – Alarm – is when the body experiences a novel stress (CrossFit WOD). This stress must be larger than any previous stress induced in order to induce the Alarm stage. The physiologic intent of this stage is purely survival at all cost. Once we have adapted (improved our fitness) to this stress through physiologic changes in the body, we will return to a normal homeostatic balance. Now if the same stressor is reintroduced, it will cease to cause disruption of homeostasis, and provide no further adaptation (fitness gain). This is a very important point! If you don’t introduce a stressor of a higher magnitude ( a heavier load) than the last, further adaptation does not occur (you will not become more fit).
The second stage – Resistance – is when you, the organism, starts producing more metabolic and structural elements required to enhance its ability to withstand another exposure to the damaging stress. This is also called the adaptation phase. There are numerous elements that affect this stage, including but not limited to, workload, level of fitness, and length of and type of work performed.
The third stage – Exhaustion – is when you, the organism, is overwhelmed or exhausted. This happens when the magnitude of disruption is so profound that recovery is impossible. A result of this stage to the organism is quite dire, in some cases, even death. In our situation, engaging in CrossFit WOD’s, the result is overtraining. This usually happens as a result of excessive intensity and/or volume of training. When this happens, fitness is reduced.
So how do we increase our level of fitness if we are causing great stress to the system? It is called super-compensation. Put simply, exercise causes fatigue and stress which reduces work capacity. If this is followed by recovery, a return to baseline is accomplished. Now, with adequate rest and nutrition, an increase in fitness should be the result. Failure to do the aforementioned, the result will be overtraining and a decrease in fitness.
So there you have it! Train progressively harder each and every workout, followed by sound nutritional and sleep habits, and the results should be more positive than you ever could have imagined!
Strength/Skill:
Barbell Reverse Lunge 4×8
Conditioning:
“Nancy”
5 rounds for time of:
400m run
15 overhead squats 95/65#
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