Introduction
The principle of the effective load stimulus is defined as the necessity of a sufficiently high training stimulus to trigger the desired adaptation. In training practice, training goals are often missed because training is done with the wrong intensity (with the wrong training stimuli). The principle states that a training stimulus must first exceed a certain intensity threshold in order to trigger the hoped-for adaptation. Only a sufficiently high training stimulus ensures the desired training goal.
The basic principle of the effective stress stimulus
The principle of the effective stress stimulus is based on the principle of biological adaptation:
- Load –>
- Disturbance of the biological balance (homeostasis disturbance) –>
- Recovery (regeneration) –>
- Adaption –>
- Increased functional state
The different stimuli
In practice, the training incentives are divided into:
- Non-threshold – weak stimuli: Subliminal stimuli have no influence on the biological balance and remain ineffective
- Supra-threshold – weak stimuli: Supra-threshold weak stimuli maintain the current performance level. Thus there is no improvement in performance, but the stimuli ensure that degradation processes (catabolic processes) are prevented.
- Supra-threshold – strong stimuli: Supra-threshold strong stimuli are the stimuli that are aimed for in training practice. These stimuli trigger physiological and anatomical changes.
- Overthreshold – too strong stimuli: Overthreshold strong stimuli lead to structural and functional damage.
A supra-threshold stress stimulus is a training stimulus that is so great that the body is forced to adapt.
Depending on the extent of the hypersensitivity, the body’s adaptation reaction – in this case muscle growth – is greater or smaller. In addition, the supra-threshold stress stimulus is the only natural way to make the muscles grow. The progressiveness of the load is a decisive prerequisite for muscle growth in order to achieve continuous training success.
If one assumes that a person completes biceps curls with 30kg and a total of 40 repetitions throughout their life, this will lead to muscle growth at the beginning. At some point, however, the adaptation of the muscle to this weight is completed and it is very easy for the person to move the weight. So the muscle does not need to grow any further, because it can now cope well with the weight.
Compared to this, a person who increases the weight or the number of repetitions, the muscle growth continues to progress. His or her muscles never reach the status of being able to handle the weight well, because the total load on the muscle has become greater and greater. And that is exactly why the progressiveness, i.e. the increase, of the load stimulus is so important for muscle building.
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