Other/Mixed Accommodation

[JeffC]

“This is a manifestation of the biological law of accommodation, often considered a general law of biology. According to this law, the response of a biological object to a given constant stimulus decreases over time. Thus, accommodation is the decrease in response of your body to a constant continued stimulus.”
-Vladimir Zatsiorsky-

How do we avoid The Law of Accommodation?

I have found staying on the same program, doing the same exercises, for too long causes progress to go stale, and worse go backward.

Is making small changes to volume, intensity, and density enough to maximize progress? Should we be changing hand position, foot position, body position? Is that enough? Or go as far as changing implements and exercises often? Like a Westside Barbell style method.

At what point on a minimalist template like S&S or PTTP are you too adapted to what you are doing?

I have been doing Wendler 5/3/1 for about six months and I recently changed things up a bit. I went to a BBB template, with higher volume, and I have been changing variations, and implements every few months. I feel like that is enough, but I also feel like progress is slowing. I did have a few weeks of high stress where training and food dropped off, and I am recovering from that.

I am intrigued about minimizing Accommodation.

 

[Carl in Dover]

High

......I have found staying on the same program, doing the same exercises, for too long causes progress to go stale, and worse go backward. ............

At what point on a minimalist template
I have been doing Wendler 5/3/1 for about six months

I am intrigued about minimizing Accommodation.

I'm not so sure that 6 months is an adequate time period to realize the effects that you are concerned about.
Could it be that you are just getting bored, (or impatient with the results) with the program?

Sometimes the motivation lacks, believe me I know. Remember your initial goals. Are they still appropriate and relevant?

Just some thoughts.....

Carl in Dover

 

[North Coast Miller]

This topic never far from my thoughts when planning my routines. I view it as how to get best carryover to unprogrammed, day to day challenges, and I find too long with the same exercise selection I might continue to get stronger, but it will become increasingly specific to that lift.

And then there's the arousal factor, I just plain enjoy variety.

I have a big list of push, pull, hinge, and squat movements that can be done with the gear I possess, organized by higher rep/ballistics and lower rep/grinds. I swap these out every so often as needed to keep my interest high, as new lifts are added or old ones discarded, or as I change my equipment.

Most often I will use the same group of lifts for a period of time before swapping out - 6-8 weeks or so, sometimes longer. Exception are the squat variations, I tend to swap those out more often.

I do keep records of what the weights are so I'm not just dithering with a series of circuits and making no progress at anything. Additionally, by hitting the major movement patterns (macros) with lifts that vary in detail (micros) I feel a lot more well rounded. This strategy obviously a bad fit for competitive lifting, but for GPP or GPP leaning toward a specific profile, I find it works great.

I know what and how I like to train, so I've set my routines up as though I had a trainer who understands, and is feeding me work that will fit with my goals.



Not entirely applicable to the conversation as it largely focuses on muscle fiber response, but close -
Grow Like a New Lifter Again? • Stronger by Science

 

[Anna C]

I am intrigued about minimizing Accommodation.

Is what you are calling Accommodation also called the Repeated Bout Effect?

 

[Deleted member 5559]

Progress is an asymptote. Progress isn't stalling, it just doesn't have as far to go in the same time. It's like changing the incline on a ramp and only have to raise 1 inch in 10ft instead of 2ft in 10ft. Feeling that you're stalling should be more of a gratification that you've done such a good job training leading up to now, that you're getting close to your available genetic potential given all of your individual constraints.

Congratulations on the plateau!!

 

[JeffC]

High



I'm not so sure that 6 months is an adequate time period to realize the effects that you are concerned about.
Could it be that you are just getting bored, (or impatient with the results) with the program?

Sometimes the motivation lacks, believe me I know. Remember your initial goals. Are they still appropriate and relevant?

Just some thoughts.....

Carl in Dover

6 months of the same program is more than enough time for the body to accommodate. If you Squat, Bench, Deadlift or Swing and Get Up the same way, day after day, month after month, you will stall, and start to go backward.

The questions were posed more in a general sense, than a personal scenari. Everyone likes to debate theories.

Boredom is not an issue for me at the moment. I am actually more interested in getting stronger than I have been in years.

My expectations of my training are very realistic. I understand that strength is not linear, and is measured in time, not weight. I have less potential, but it does not diminish my effort.

If you check in with my training log from time to time you may notice I change things up consistently. When I did PTTP as an example I used Trap Bar Deadlift and Axel Bench because I was to used to the same old lifts and wanted to do some same but different for a while.

Motivation is a factor I struggle with. Sometimes I wonder if the discomfort is worth it, and how my life will be easier if I don’t Deadlift or Squat today. I have a sense of guilt and selfishness by spending time in the gym and not with my family. I often train at night.

Are my goals appropriate and relevant? That is the real question I have not considered.

I do not care about the weight on the bar. Or pushing my Bench or Deadlift. They are tools and a means to an end. Getting stronger and building strength endurance.

I do know if I lift 10lbs less and/or a rep or two less I am weaker. I don’t mean week to week or month to month. I mean a trend over several months or a year.

 

[JeffC]

“Individuals undergoing an unaccustomed exercise bout incorporating a high degree of eccentric muscle contractions commonly experience delayed onset muscle soreness. The damage manifests itself via tenderness, loss of strength, swelling, elevated muscle enzyme activity and loss of flexibility. Following an initial "damage bout," a repeated bout results in reduced symptoms. This protective effect is known as the repeated bout effect (RBE) and can last up to 24 weeks between bouts.”

Is what you are calling Accommodation also called the Repeated Bout Effect?

I never heard of this, but no.

 

[JeffC]

@North Coast Miller I agree a competitive lifter has to get very specific. In Weightlifting we trained the same lifts the same way for years. That is the way it is done. We used a lot of special exercises, but they all try to mimic your and strengthen your bar path. Rarely training outside the groove.

This is in effect the definition of Accomodation.

One of my main thoughts is do we have to vary exercises?Westside Barbell lifters will have up to 20 1RM’s at one time in different variations and exercises.

Is varying the parameters and protocols for a small number of exercises enough?

For a Powerlifter and Weightlifter I would say, yes.

For a Strength Trainier I would say, no. You want to be strong all over. If you only Deadlift the same way all the time you are prone to get hurt and not as potentially as strong as you could be. That is one reason people get hurt. They lift the same way all the time and as soon as they get out of their groove that are weak and hurt their back or something. Someone who trains outside the groove and with different implements is stronger all over as opposed to only certain positions.

 

[Antti]

Good questions. I'm not sure what to say. Maybe I'll know better when I get better.

I don't believe in the true minimalist programs for a longer while for a proficient athlete. Then again, certain kind of true minimalist programs may work for an elite athlete.

If we have finite recovery capability I think it's the best to spend it on something that improves our goals the most. If you're a powerlifter who wants a better deadlift, you concentrate more on the deadlift than the other lifts. If you have a weakness in the lifts, you concentrate on the weaknesses.

It makes sense to make the body strong and durable all over. A fresh stimulus works the body in a new way, both the muscles and the nerves. If I do only the conventional for a while, doing sumo makes me sore in a whole different way. And it doesn't have to be so drastic. Just doing a snatch grip instead works different. Then there's deficit deadlifts and rack pulls. All enable me to give a different stimulus without overloading a certain pattern. But, I think it's essential to get good enough in the regular variety before getting too far in the variations. And if sport or trade or such depends on a specific variation, it is always good to make sure one has it at 100% in the backbone.

At some point it is also worth it to ask whether it is better to concentrate on refining technique or whether it's more cost effective to concentrate on hypertrophy, for example, or the weak points or the durability and injury-proofness of the athlete. I know it's hip to say that one can only do technique work and claim that it is something to be solely done for a whole career. But I say at some point it is not the cost effective way.

When it comes to overall strength, outside a narrow spectrum such as powerlifting, I think in general more variety is better than less. One can go too far of course. It goes too far when one ceases to progress sufficiently in these varieties, and keeps on changing the exercise instead of getting stronger at them. And no one needs to add a bosu ball squat to the staples of back squat, front squat, zercher squat.

Then again, there is a big spectrum between sets of ten at 70% and singles at 95%, rest periods, training frequency, etc.

 

[JeffC]

@Bro Mo The best program is always the one you are not doing. No one wants to waste their time. Doing enough and knowing when to change things up is the key to progress, and the most difficult skill to learn.

When progress slows is it because what you have been doing is not working as well as if you changed things up? It’s hard to decide when to maybe run another cycle or change variables.

We are all Bodybuilders. Maybe working some seemingly unlelated movement, muscle, or protocol will have a great effect on strength. Maybe another good topic for a post. We are all Bodybuilders? Why is Bodybuilder a bad word?

 

[Al Ciampa]

Why is Bodybuikder a bad word?

Maybe something to do with that “k”?

 

[North Coast Miller]

For a Strength Trainier I would say, no. You want to be strong all over. If you only Deadlift the same way all the time you are prone to get hurt and not as potentially as strong as you could be. That is one reason people get hurt. They lift the same way all the time and as soon as they get out of their groove that are weak and hurt their back or something. Someone who trains outside the groove and with different implements is stronger all over as opposed to only certain positions.

"Wave intensities and weave modalities"

Sounds good to me. Have been moving in this direction for a few but only recently have dialed in the structure to allow for variability and still have consistency of sorts.

You can minimize your program, you can minimize accommodation, will be quite the trick to do both with the same tools.

 

[Deleted member 5559]

I think planned periodization of some kind is valuable. Grow muscle, make it strong, rinse and repeat. I used to do curriculum development as a profession and a model I often resorted to was a pie of skills and then rings within the pie as representations of the skill level. The learning journey consisted of a spiral that would rotate through the skills before advancing to another level of each skill. In 3D it would look like a cone rather than a pie and the summit being mastery. In the image below, each of the twelve slivers (4 topics x 3 levels) could represent a program or cycle to create a strength curriculum.

 

[JeffC]

@Bro Mo Are you working on these skills at one time, or pushing one forward and maintaining or refining the others.

Like focus on one lift per cycle or multiple cycles.

I thought I would maintain my Deadlift and push my Front Squat. What happened was doing less volume with the Deadlift and assistance actually made my Deadlift go down, but my Front Squat did progress well.

 

[Deleted member 5559]

The idea is to push one thing forward at a time. The next time you come around to that topic again, the skills of the other topics should help provide the context for a new level of achievement in that topic. I think the basic periodization model of strength endurance, hypertrophy, strength, and power are a good example of how this model would be applied to training. Each time you come back around to strength, you should have a little more muscle, lift a little faster, etc. I think the hard part is ensuring the time to get around all the topics can't so long that you lose all the gains from the previous time you were there.