Rethinking The Outdated Stress & Recovery Workout Model

The old stress and recovery model was a somewhat reliable model for building effective workouts, but it has several issues.
Stress doesn’t always lead to the changes you want.
You can stress your body many different ways, but most of them won’t be effective.
Striving for stress and exhaustion can promote wasteful and unnecessary training.
Recovery is always going to happen, but it doesn’t always lead to the changes you want.
So instead of trying to stress the body, it makes more sense to identify what sort of stimulus you want to achieve in the gym, and then ensuring you allow your body to adapt to the stimulus you create. That way you directly train for the results you want while avoiding wasteful effort.
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[@brucehelppie6119]

i agree with you here, matt. when i was a powerlifter decades ago i almost felt guilty taking long rest periods between sets, but that approach worked. i mostly train calisthenics skills now and the same strategy works there. i've noticed that i'm making more progress lately because i'm not 'crushing it' every workout. i have to kind of remind myself not to do too much during a workout. i also train daily, so that is another consideration. another thing is being 70 years old now...

[@alternalego]

Hey Matt! I like to use the analogy of a 9-5 job where everybody thinks they need to work those 40 hours to get a full pay check, but I bet that if the employer changes the working format to "just complete X amounts of tasks and you can go home and you get a full pay check" everyone would be back at home before 1 pm and no one would want to "stress" themselves any further. Thank you Matt, I really appreciate you!

[@Anna-hf3qi]

You can apply it to school as well (I say this as a teacher...). What's the point of just sitting there waiting for the day to finish just for the sake if it? We should base the things we do more on achieving certain goals...

[@K4R3N]

"you can only train to the level you can RECOVER from."

[@rossbaldwin3900]

Please don't ever stop Matt!

[@TheFabulousBody]

great vid...finally someone with intelligence on here:) Ive been saying this for years...great stuff

[@synitarthrax5618]

Before I became a computer geek for a living, I was a laborer. There is a big difference between siting at a desk ... or retirement ... and physically working hard to make a living. You can eat well and sleep like a baby but in-between, you're still putting yourself under a lot of physical stress. If you have a hard job that requires physical effort how do you balance the Stimulus/Adaptation effect?

[@Thunderthal]

Stonemason here,shortest answer i can give you is experimenting. I started with split workouts which do not work for me,so i am at full body once a week and some cardio in between. Still if i can handle more volume I'd got for it but not for long,these days i look at it more as a fluid state of energy

[@oolala53]

Did you mean while you are at work?

[@AlteredState1123]

Good stuff. Personally, I think the objective should be to do the minimum necessary to achieve your goals. No more and no less. Currently training for a Hyrox, though. So much volume.

[@peterjaimez1619]

Sounds reasonable! Cheers

[@CJ-uf6xl]

Would love to hear your thoughts on us guys who have very physical jobs, but still want to work out?

[@mr.potatohead6138]

Isn't adequate sleep and food basically recovery though...?

[@heitorborges3353]

Reducing stress too

[@UncleDanBand64]

Yep but, that isn't complicated enough for the fitness industry 😂

[@williamtomkiel8215]

as an over 70 guy - "stress" to KEEP strength / power and maybe loose less mass is primal. gsins re trying to look less and less like a gimpy blimpy graybeard. dysmorphia is not a positive attitude

[@intuitivesean443]

I would say 1.6 grams of protein to every kg of body weight and 8 hours of sleep

[@enterusername7746]

I would say 1.5g of protein for every kg of body weigth and 7.5 hours of sleep.

[@RyansSynthwaveGuitar]

I would say 1.55g of protein for every kg of body weight and 7.25 hours of sleep.

[@personaignota]

I mean, the human body wasn't engineered for constant exertion of force, it was made for throwing, pulling, and running long distances. We're literally not capable of withstanding constant stress of weight, while we're the only animal who can run for HOURS pretty easily. So, no, it's not just about good sleep and protein.

[@UpintheairFL]

Hmmmmmmm? Thinking its just semantics or word usage.

[@Pavel_Franta]

man, you are IDEAL candidate for scalp micropigmentation (SMP). Give it a shot, you will look great.