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THE VALUE OF SHOCK TREATMENT (Part 1 of 3)
The human body is highly adaptable – both to the environment it’s in and to its lifestyle patterns, as well.
For environmental matters, the ability to adapt is essential for survival. For instance, if you fly from the North Pole to the equator, in just a few hours, you will have experienced a potential change in external temperature of over 100 degrees, Fahrenheit. Yet, in spite of such an extreme change over such a short period of time, your core temperature will have stayed exactly the same. Another example is if you were to go from sea level to a high altitude, your body would adapt to the resulting lower atmospheric oxygen levels in a relatively short period of time. Once again, adaptation is essential.
In the arena of lifestyles, however, adaptation can be problematic. For instance, if the only physical activity you give your body on a day-to-day basis is being seated at a computer while at work, and sitting in front of a TV when at home, then your body will adapt to only being able to handle that level of activity--or inactivity.
Consequently, your strength will diminish as your muscles atrophy, thereby decreasing your ability to function efficiently with anything more vigorous than sitting at a desk or on your couch. As this occurs, your heart and lung capacity will also weaken. Once your body adapts to sedentary lifestyle patterns, even the most basic of tasks – such as going up a flight of stairs, carrying a bag of groceries, or even simply standing up from a seated position – will become more laborious and more stressful to your joints and heart.
If you’ve been living the lifestyle of a couch potato, then consider the necessity of beginning a fitness routine that includes strength, aerobic, and flexibility conditioning. Start by taking short walks and lifting very light weights. While the ultimate goal for cardio conditioning is to sustain brisk activities for 20 to 40 minutes, five to seven days per week, it is acceptable for beginners to start off with brief intervals of 10 minutes, three times per day, three or four days per week.
Always remember that the ultimate goal is to “shock” your body by increasing the frequency and intensity of your exercise sessions. As you improve your physical conditioning, it’ll be essential to prevent adaptation by periodically changing your routine (an approach referred to as “periodization”), increasing the intensity and the duration of your sessions. With strength training, it’s important that you also increase the resistance as your muscles become stronger, and change the exercises for each respective muscle group.
What happens as you advance beyond the beginning stage? Be sure to read my next two newsletters for the answers to that question. I will discuss, in greater detail, potential adaptations that occur for more experienced exercisers and how to offset them; my next issue will focus on cardiovascular adaptations while the following will focus on strength conditioning adaptations.
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