Anatomical Adaptation – the Training Phase You Need
We’re almost halfway into the year and you have a fitness goal you’ve been working towards. Maybe you want to lose some body fat. Or you want to “lose weight,” lean up or tone up, or just get in better shape. Maybe you want to be stronger, to put on some muscle mass, or increase flexibility. Perhaps you need to work on a specific health condition (i.e., get your blood pressure down or A1C numbers down) or even work on getting more sleep. Or perhaps you had a new year’s resolution that started but lost momentum…and you want to get it back on track. Well, I’ve got the key to jump tarting your goals – Anatomical Adaptation (AA) training.
To set yourself on the course for achieving your fitness goals, you should begin your training cycles with an anatomical adaptation training cycle. The AA phase, by design, builds a foundation from which future training practices are developed and established. As a result, it should be the first 4-weeks of a training cycle.
The AA phase will always be a crucial part of the training phases you go through to realize all your fitness (and overall health) visions.
Considering this, it has several key objectives. It is the first phase of training for athletes and should absolutely be the first phase for you too. A 4-week AA cycle stimulates increases in lean body mass. Lean body mass is also referred to as muscle mass and fat free mass. It simultaneously stimulates a decrease in fat mass – the body fat we carry. Why is this important? Increasing your lean body mass AND decreasing your fat mass equals a better / improved body composition. The AA training cycle also stimulates strengthening soft connective tissue (tendons and ligaments). Improving your body composition and strengthening soft connective tissue are foundational elements on which a solid training program is constructed. There is a reason every athletic program from the college level up has anatomical adaptation training built into their yearly training programs – even the best of the best recognize benefits of going back to the basics in order to maximize their training efforts. Imagine the jumpstart your training goals would get if you started with a solid foundation! AA training is rarely THE training cycle to get you to your ultimate goal, but it’s always the springboard that launches you from where you are now to the doorstep of that goal.
We will be breaking down the year into 4 segments - each kicking off with an AA cycle. It’s beginning with a Jumpstart to your fitness journey this spring so make sure to get on board and dialed in to my training programs, so you transcend and crush your fitness goals.
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