Anatomical "Fixer-upper"

Eventually, as an athlete, you will hit a point where performance stagnates whether it is from asymmetries, lack of mobility in certain joints, injuries, or false plateaus. Whatever the specific reason we have all felt a loss of performance. It is at this point you need go back and check your training, nutrition and recovery journal. You should be looking to see if there are repeated setbacks. The next step would be to enter a phase of preparation for the next upcoming max strength, power, hypertrophy, or endurance phase. It is at this intermittent phase that you should work on any weak points specifically with motor skills and asymmetries. This will not be the most glamorous, hardcore, or excruciating training. This is a point of anatomical adaptation. Some will give it the name of maintenance or GPP. Different names but the same outcome and for the purpose of this article we will call it AA (anatomical adaptation).

Anatomical adaptation is a period of general preparation that prepares the body’s systems for the onslaught to come in the next phase of training. Keep in mind this is for general adaptation. Regardless if you are seeking strength, power, or endurance or if you are an athlete competitive in a specific sport, this is a phase meant to gain general endurance, strength and motor function. With that being stated, athletes with shorter non competitive phases will want to make sure they train the movement needed for their sport as well. It is at this time you need to be your own worst critic and practice perfected practice. This phase will do you no good if you just go through the exercises to get through them. Each rep should be precise and performed better than the previous one. In most other phases of training you will act subconsciously allowing your homeostasis body to adapt, conform and surpass the stressors of your regiment. In AA you will need to be more conscious of your movements, posture and your body’s signal such as bad pain (a big difference from good pain). In order for you to be conscious, the movements will not be of an explosive velocity. You need to use a more controlled and medium tempo speed. To discover the asymmetries, and deload the spine most movements should be unilateral and taken to different levels of failure. I credit Tudor Bompa with the idea of feeling for the levels of failure for AA. There are three levels you should use to identify your type of failure. The first is slight discomfort (SD). It is at this point the tempo begins to slow and you are beginning to gain the lactic acid building up. Second, is discomfort (D). Discomfort is a bit of a grey area. You will have lactic acid buildup. You will be moving at a slower tempo. It is at this point that concentric (lifting) failure is only a repetition away. Finally, high discomfort (HD)goes past what you thought was your stopping point in good form. I say “what you thought” because many will be surprised how much they have left in them to get another repitition or so. The end of high discomfort is near isometric failure (unable to neither correctly lift the weight nor hold it).

During AA, a linear periodization should be used. It makes it easier to track progression and possible unforeseen problems. The length of AA will depend on your individual needs and yearly regiment. If you have not created a basic year periodization for yourself, I suggest you do so. Periodizing yourself out for 52 weeks really helps to keep you on track and headed towards a long term goal. Generally any athlete will need from four to six weeks of AA.

Mainly, the emphasis is on endurance strength and general motor/muscle development. Beginners will want more exercises with fewer sets and more advanced athletes will do better with more sets and less exercises. Also, during this phase you want to increase motor skills and proprioceptive awareness in all three planes of motion (sagital, frontal and transverse). For the most part all exercises should be performed without any accessories that will end up debilitating your motor learning and proper muscle recruitment (weight belts, knee wraps, gloves etc.). Also to enhance proprioceptive awareness of environment, take your shoes off and train. Many great coaches such as Mel Siff, Paul Chek, and Gary Grey speak of enhancing function by taking your shoes off and training. Since most movements, if not all, will be closed chained in nature (generally standing on feet or suspended by hands), allowing your body to react to not only the load and gravity, but ground forces will enhance this AA phase. The linear microcycle should progress in a direction of more endurance and higher levels of lactic acid buildup each week. I would suggest if you are new and decide to phase through AA for more than 4 weeks to add a deloading week after week three to keep from plateauing and overtraining the lactic energy system. Also, be smart about your environment when choosing your exercises. Tudor Bompa recommends separating your sessions to exercises and areas in the gym where you can move effortlessly to the next exercise. One way to handle this is have one session containing all body weight, band, and cable movements; another session would have dumbbells, kettlebells, and medicine balls; and the last would hold barbell movements. The program repeats in an every other day format (including weekends). Any weight used should start at a 60%RM.

One important note about asymmetries, is if you find you have very unlevel asymmetries I would suggest you take an additional one or two weeks away from moving to the next phase to really correct the problem. If that’s not something you want to invest a lot of extra time in, then add drills and stretching to your warm up that will aid in correcting your asymmetries.