Earlier this year, I posted my ideas about variable resistance. To summarize, I feel that the body is not designed for linear progression in weights, but instead is suited towards varying resistance within a certain range.
I still believe this is true, but now I have more reasons to do so. As I've mentioned recently, hunter-gatherers engaged in high-intensity activity primarily for the purpose of acquiring game. And certainly, the size of this game fluctuated over time. For example, one day a hunter might acquire game that weighs 50 lbs, the next day 100 lbs, and the next day no game at all. There would be seasonal variation in this as well, as the mix of available game and the weights would change.
If this is the environment under which our muscles evolved, then you can hypothesize that a properly designed resistance training program should have fluctuating resistance over time. Of course, I am not the first to say this as ideas like periodization have been around for decades. But this theory does provide a biological basis for why programs with varying resistance may be more successful than programs based on linear progression.
Earlier this year, I posted my ideas about variable resistance. To summarize, I feel that the body is not designed for linear progression in weights, but instead is suited towards varying resistance within a certain range.
I still believe this is true, but now I have more reasons to do so. As I've mentioned recently, hunter-gatherers engaged in high-intensity activity primarily for the purpose of acquiring game. And certainly, the size of this game fluctuated over time. For example, one day a hunter might acquire game that weighs 50 lbs, the next day 100 lbs, and the next day no game at all. There would be seasonal variation in this as well, as the mix of available game and the weights would change.
If this is the environment under which our muscles evolved, then you can hypothesize that a properly designed resistance training program should have fluctuating resistance over time. Of course, I am not the first to say this as ideas like periodization have been around for decades. But this theory does provide a biological basis for why programs with varying resistance may be more successful than programs based on linear progression.