Thesis, Antithesis, Synthesis – Legislate Contrast

Physical progress is an ebb and flow proposition. The only surefire bet in the world of fitness-related pursuits is that all progress eventually grinds to a halt., no matter how sophisticated  the program or how great the individual effort.

Progress Booster: The boys watch the video playback of Don Mill's 635x5 squat weighing 211. 

Any untrained individual who suddenly subjects themselves to an intense progressive resistance program will generate substantial progress - for a while. The trick is recognizing when progress ceases and knowing what to do about it when the inevitable stagnation arrives. The real pros have a veritable arsenal of exercise routines and diets read to roll out when the proverbial well runs dry. The real pros are so physically attuned that they actually anticipate stagnation before it takes root and have new modes and methods all ready for inclusion and rotation whenever the current approach plays out. Progress is difficult to generate, tough to keep going and sure to end.

Regardless the sophistication of your approach, regardless the amount of workout intensity you are able to generate, regardless the sheer amount of time you devote to the pursuit of physical training, eventually all routines and all diets cease delivering results.

Repeating the same eating and exercise procedures creates a habit pattern and the Soft Machine will eventually figure out the habitual pattern and produce a physical antidote. The human body is a miraculous organism and given time and exposure to a particular mode or method, it always finds a way to neutralize the training effect.

The trick is to not allow the body to generate the antidote; change modes and methods before the body solves the puzzle. Human beings are creatures of habit. Legislating periodic change runs contrary to basic human nature. 

Embrace Change

Proper training and effective eating favorably alters the shape and composition of the human body. It does so by imposing biological imperatives. Do this and that will happen: simple scientific cause and effect. The biological imperative is the physical expression of the Hegelian Dialectic: thesis, antithesis, synthesis. The status quo thesis (your body as it is) is impacted by something radically different, the antithesis (a new system of training/nutrition). Eventually that which was once radical and different morphs into the new status quo and becomes the synthesis. The synthesis becomes the new thesis and the process repeats itself.

If we are to keep the progress ball rolling, new modes need to be periodically rolled out "New" is no guarantor of better. As Krishnamurti points out in an appropriate analogy, "Just because the window is open there is no guarantee the breeze will blow in. However if the window remains shut  - there is no possibility the breeze will enter." Recognizing stagnation is terrific, embracing change is noble, but that in and of itself is no guarantee that the changes selected will be the correct ones that will stimulate new progress. Effort is no substitute for success.

To trigger progress, consistently and consciously examine the current status quo and assess if progress is proceeding apace. When a radical new procedure is implemented it needs to create dramatic contrast to the current status quo. If the contrast is sufficient the organism will undergo an adaptive response. Slight variations in current procedure are insufficient to trigger the adaptive response. Re arranging the contents of the box is not enough. To create contrast sufficiently contrary to the current status quo requires stepping outside the box entirely. Radically new exercise and =/or eating procedures are needed. The antithesis needs to possess significant contrast to the thesis.

New and different stresses need to be imposed and once the new and different stresses are no longer new and different, once the contrasting procedures are no longer innovative and shocking, measurable physical improvement is over! The theory of the adaptive response also applies to nutrition. We need to periodically institute radically new and different dietary procedures. Perhaps changing the amount of food consumed, or changing the type of foods selected or change when we eat. Once the body becomes used to nutritional or training procedures progress peters out. The truly attuned continually rotate in new protocols and procedures. 

No One System, Mode or Method Trumps All Others

Here is a fitness truth of the first magnitude: No single exercise routine or system, no single dietary approach or eating protocol, trumps all others. There is no such thing as a single exercise or eating strategy that is so effective that it can be used forever. Yet those who make fitness devices and market fitness products would have you believe that they have invented a product or a system that beats all others and will deliver incredible results endlessly. This is fitness myth.

This is a fitness fact of life. Progress must be nurtured and stagnation recognized. Savvy transformation masters know that periodically the body needs to be jolted out of its complacency. Pablo Picasso once said, "Occasionally a man needs to be jerked out of his torpor." These are words to live by in life and in all fitness and nutrition related pursuits.

When those protocols once shocking, jarring and exhilarating morph into old and familiar, when what was once radical has now become tired, it is time to institute radical change: thesis, antithesis, synthesis. Learn to embrace change and cultivate continual contrast. Most fitness devotees labor under the illusion that once they stumble upon a system or mode that delivers substantive change, that system can and should be used on an exclusionary basis ad infinitum. After all, "I know what works for me. The devotee develops a rabid allegiance to that initial mode or method that provided that initial burst of physical progress.

Here is a salient point grounded in fact: when any untrained individual suddenly subjects themselves to a "serious" training regimen (or radical diet) virtually any system will deliver results - for a while. An appropriate fitness cliche is ... "It's not so much what you do as how hard you do it." Any untrained individual suddenly subjecting themselves to an intense resistance program will trigger gains for a period of time. The trick is not in generating progress initially but rather how to revive progress once the initial burst subsides.

Great Intensity Is the Key to Success

When an individual suddenly and consistently trains the body intensely using new methods the body responds. I've seen people obtain incredible results from lousy exercise systems by generating incredible training intensity and applying Herculean physical effort. I've seen other people obtain terrible results using incredibly effective exercise strategies as a direct result of sub=maximal effort and piss-poor application. The best of both worlds is to combine a superior training regimen with gut busting effort and consistent application.

Result-producing exercises routines and effective diets need to be rotated on a regular reoccurring basis. Using a favored mode, method or tactic exclusively and ceaselessly, is stagnation-on-a-stick. Sameness is the progress killer and the athletic elite accept inevitability of becoming stagnant. They actually anticipate stagnation ahead of time and figure its arrive into future plans. They know that when stagnation arrives the best way to rekindle momentum is to construct a new exercise or dietary approach that contrasts dramatically with what they have been doing.

One mistake repeatedly made by fitness buffs (too clever by half) is to alter the current effective approach ever-so-slightly. they do not understand the need for a dramatic alteration. Dramatic contrast jolts the body and stagnation morphs into momentum. Slight modifications are easily neutralized by a body that has figured out the status quo antidote. It is a relatively easy thing for the organism to adjust to a slight change in the current status quo. It takes guts to jettison a program that has been proven effective. It is psychologically difficult to toss a system we have grown to love. But we don't throw it away forever: categorize it as effective and simply set it back on the shelf for future use. The athletic elite have an arsenal of proven effective training and eating regimens, hung in their philosophic closet like a row of clean shirts on hangers.

Don't Turn a Once Effective System into a Religion

People fall into a reoccurring trap they obtain spectacular results from a particular resistance, nutrition or cardio program and attempt to turn the effective regimen into a religion. They become acolytes and adherents and feel compelled to use the precise regimen that worked for them at one time in the past. They develop an unhealthy allegiance that often veers into religious zealotry - this despite the mathematical fact that any meaningful results have long since dried up. They refuse to change, or if they do change, the changes are so minor, so cosmetic and minute that the antithesis remains virtually indistinguishable from the original thesis. This rearranging of the deck chairs never works. 

Periodically institute a complete and total overhaul of what you are doing. To trigger results requires significant deviation from current protocol. Real results requires real change. At best, continued usage maintains the status quo. Someone said stupidity is repeating the same behavior over and over while expecting different results. Stimulating progress requires the institution of a new regimen that significantly contrasts to the current status quo.

Contrast is King!

Generally speaking most exercise and diet routines lose effectiveness after 4-6 weeks, but this can vary. Knowing when to change comes with experience. The more training cycles you have under your belt, the better you'll be at identifying the signs of stagnation. Don't use change as an excuse to change everything every week. Three to four weeks is the absolute minimum to stay on a selected course. Anything less and you can be accused o not giving the approach a decent tryout. Humans are creatures of habit and when left to their own devices prefer to follow a path they know. The iron elite are attuned to the body's subtle rhythms and patterns and they know that blind allegiance to a particular system, mode, methodology or approach is progress suicide.

The Purposeful Primitive understands that while anyone can design an initially effective training or eating regimen, the real secret to prolonged physical success is in knowing what to do when the initial burst of progress ceases. After a while the trainee becomes aware of the natural ebb and flow of training and eating and gravitates naturally towards a holistic system that provides a reinvigorating change of pace every 4-6 weeks.

Embracing change eventually becomes something we look forward to: it becomes exciting to try radically different modes and methods. The journey of self discovery positively impacts the physique in ways you never thought possible. Embrace change and become comfortable with the fact that Contrast is King. Over time come to understand that there is a natural ebb and flow to training and eating  - and life itself. 

Check out the links below to other posts discussing how to legislate contrast in both training and nutrition.

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