The Accommodation Principle

The decrease in response of a biological organism to a continuous stimulus over time. Ultimately leading to "Diminishing Returns".

"The best programme is the programme that you are not using right now."

It points to the fact that any programme decreases in effectiveness (the performance gain drops) every time it is used.

Consistency is essential when it comes to training adaptations. However, it is also important to vary the stimulus over long periods of time to continue to progress and adapt.

The General Adaptation Principle

The General Adaptation Principle or GAS Principle (Selye, 1946) states there must be a period of low-intensity training or complete rest following periods of high-intensity training.

Alarm stage: application of intense training stress (overload). Resistance stage: systems adapt to resist stress more efficiently. Exhaustion stage: persistent application of stress will exhaust our reserves. Without adequate rest and recovery, symptoms of overtraining will arise.

The Progressive Overload Principle

A training adaptation only takes place if the magnitude of the training load is above the habitual level.

You have to give the body a reason to change. As a result, training intensity and volume must be monitored to ensure an adequate stimulus is applied.

There are a variety of ways to implement progressive overload including the following: increase weight, change tempo, more reps, more sets, increased velocity at the same weight, reduce rest and improved technique.

The Specificity Principle

The specificity principle relates to the degree of metabolic or mechanical symmetry between exercise modality and sports movement and is often referred to as dynamic correspondence.

Relevance - the degree to which an exercise or training mode contributes towards long-term performance improvement.

SAID Principle "Specific adaptations to imposed demands".

Things to consider: mechanics, energetics and coordination.