Specific Adaptation to Imposed Demand
(SAID Principle)
Indeed, this is a very wordy title to describe one of the basic ideas of fitness. Essentially, SAID states that over time, your body would react and adjust to specific stresses imposed on it. If you perform regular aerobic exercise, then your cardiovascular fitness would develop and become more efficient. If you do regular stretching, you will naturally see an improvement in your flexibility. Thus, in order to build on your fitness, you must consider the training specificity needed to achieve your goals.
This specificity involves several factors, including:
- The type of exercise / activity
- The energy systems involved
- Speed of movement
- Range of motion
- Neuromuscular pathways (muscles and nerves involved)
Progressive Overload
Progressive overload works hand-in-hand with
the SAID Principle. It states that the
level of physical improvement will plateau over time as the body adapts to the
imposed physical stress. In order to
build on your results, you must add to the intensity of your activity. However, if you try to increase the intensity
too quickly, your body will not have enough time to recuperate and you would be
more prone to injury (thus further delaying your progress). Thus, this increase must be gradual.
You should begin increasing the volume and duration (the days per week and time of each activity session) of your exercise program before increasing its intensity (difficulty / how hard you work). A good rule of thumb is to work at 10% increments. For example, if you have a machine set to 100 lbs, you would probably feel more comfortable training at this level after 3 weeks (the plateau effect). At that stage, you could consider changing your exercise program by adding 10 lbs to the machine.
