Heather Hodges

It has been correctly assessed by Mark Rippetoe in his foundational book “Starting Strength” that exercise is the same as getting a tan.  If you want a deeply bronzed body you don’t go lay out 15 minutes a day all summer long. This method of exposure will allow your skin to adapt exactly and specifically to the stress of 15 minutes a day of sun exposure.  Your skin does not know you want it to get really dark, it only knows to get dark enough to prevent burning  with 15 minutes of sun exposure and that’s all.  If you want to get darker you must slowly work up and exceed 15 minutes and expose your skin to the sun at greater intervals.

Exercise is exactly the same.  Your body will adapt to the work load you put on it.  If you go out and run 5 miles a day your body will adapt, but don’t expect to run a marathon with only 5 miles a day.  If you want to increase your strength you can’t just continue doing 3 sets of 10 reps with the same weight day after day and expect to get stronger.  Your body will adapt to the work load and no more.  We must vary the length and load in our training to get stronger and faster.