When it comes to physical progression, you can't go forward if you don't get better at what you're doing. Find out why you have to adapt to what you're doing now so you can do something different later.
Adaptation is one of the most basic instincts in all living creatures. It is the ability to adapt to surroundings and environment that allows a creature to survive. Adaptation can be looked at in many ways – long term,
short term, individual, an entire species, etc.
Adaptation, to give it a simple definition for us humans, is the ability of the body to deal with uncomfortability.
The human body is a naturally very lazy creature. Whether or consciously or unconsciously, our body is always trying to find the easiest way to do things – the “path of least resistance” if you will. Why? Because this is (usually) what will ultimately lead to an easier, safer time and in turn a longer life.
When we want to excel in something, we have to train. Training puts our bodies in a state of uncomfortability, and thus our bodies get into better shape so that training isn't as uncomfortable.
Easy example - you decide that you need to improve your cardiovascular conditioning, so you start doing basic cardio workouts consisting of simple jogging. You start off jogging a mile, and when you're done, you're breathing hard, your heart is pumping fast, and your legs burn. However, after you keep practicing this by repeating such demands on your cardiovascular and cardio-respiratory system, your lungs and heart will adapt so that jogging a mile is no longer such a labored effort.
You've just adapted. And that adapted led to progression (i.e. - you're better now than you were).
However, because you've adapted, you're now in a state of comfortability (per se), so you need to push your body back into uncomfortability to keep your body adapting and progressing. Now, it's time to either increase the distance of your jog, or to increase the speed of how fast you jog that same mile.
You see, the body, being lazy, will continue to adapt, and in turn, will eventually regress.
Let me explain.
When your body adapts, it adapts is a "large" fashion to make the added activity that much easier. But, if once that adaptation is complete, if no further adaptation is necessary, then it will actually reduce the amount of adaptation to the minimum amount necessary.
So, say that we can measure units of cardio capacity. After you start jogging that one mile, you increase that capacity by 10 units. But, after adapting, you never make it any harder. Your body realizes that it really only needed 6 units to withstand the jogging. So, that's where it goes. Sure, the body is better than it was before doing anything, but behind where it'd be if you kept advancing your training.
You have to force your body to keep adapting in order to force it to keep progressing.
Train Hard, Rest Hard, Play Hard.
