The 7 Laws of Exercise Science

[Deleted member 43589]

The 7 Laws of Exercise Science

In order for an exercise training program to be of any use, it must not violate and or the laws of exercise science. Check you workout and see if it violates any of these rules. If it does you need to change it quickly.

1. The Law of Individual Differences
We are all individually different, from bones, to where muscles connect on the bone and individual fiber types. These differences need to be taken into consideration when planning and exercise program. One size fits all programs never work.

2. The Overcompensation Principle
The body reacts to stress by overcompensating so we continually have to apply a new stress to force the body out of homeostasis and adapt again.

3. The Overload Principle
In order for your body to overcompensate, you must load the body with a stress greater than the amount previously encountered.

4. The Specific Adaptation to Imposed Demands (SAID) Principle
You must tax your body in the same way that you want to improve. If you are involved in a sport for instance that is very explosive then you must train explosively.

5. The Use/Disuse Principle and Law of Reversibility
We must continuously train the skill or we will lose that capacity. But because we have laid a neurological foundation that makes it easier to recover the function after we have lost it.

6. The Specificity Principle
If we want to get better at a particular exercise, we must do that exercise. If you want to have a heavy bench press then you have do do heavy bench presses.

7. The General Adaption Syndrome
A term that describes the physiological changes the body automatically goes through when it responds to stress.

1. Alarm - The alarm reaction stage is the body’s initial response to stress.​

2. Resistance - The resistance stage is when your body tries to repair itself after the initial shock of stress.​

3. Exhaustion - Prolonged or chronic exercise leads to the last stage of exhaustion.​

 

[Phil Goodman]

Good general advice. I know you’ve spent a ton of time training as well as researching and writing on different approaches so wanted to get your thoughts on my current routine. Just switched from working out 3x/week with a PPL to working out 4x/week and just doing Push/Pull while including the relevant leg muscles on the corresponding day.


For all lifts I shoot for 3 sets, hitting 8-12 reps/set. Only exception is pull-ups where I might get up to 15 on my first set or two, then go close to failure on the 3rd regardless of number.


Push

Flat barbell bench press

Seated Arnold Press

Lying tricep extensions(dumbbell)

Incline bench press(usually with dumbbells but sometimes bar)

Front raises and lateral raises(each one gets its own set and reps…so 10 consecutive front then rest, 10 consecutive lateral, repeat)

Rope pushdowns

Pec deck or cable flyes

Machine shoulder press

Machine tricep pushdown

Squats or hack squats

Lying leg press

Calf raises in leg press machine

Leg extensions









Pull


T-bar rows

Preacher curls

Pull ups

Incline dumbbell curls

Back extensions

Rope curls

Face pulls

One arm pull downs

Reverse flyes

Straight leg deadlifts

Leg curls

 

[Deleted member 43589]

Not sure what your goal is but always remember if it is growth, volume is the key. You sure seem to have ample volume on the pull muscles but not as much on the pull movements. I feel the legs could use a little more work even if you added a set or two. Generally most put legs on a separate day because of the energy required to work the legs. With 33 total sets on pull days you are going to need some kind of beverage with amino/carbs. But in all this is a valid workout, you are hitting all of the muscle groups and using enough volume to support growth. Good luck with it!