our bodies try to regulate themselves in order to maintain a consistent internal environment (homeostasis). The effect of exercise is often to disrupt homeostasis. For instance, this could be something as simple as an increase in heart rate above normal. If the disturbance in homeostasis is sufficient, then GAS suggests that the body will appraise

a person’s ability to express a high level of force is a key performance variable. However, reaching a maximum level of force production takes time (an oft quoted statistic is that it takes over 0.3s for a muscle to go from relaxed to maximal force production1). In many sports the amount of time that is available to express force is strictly limite

The application of training stresses to create structural changes in the body is a very important part of the training process. Rather my argument here is that many training approaches neglect a consideration of practice and intangible adaptations, or don’t pay sufficient attention to these methods of performance enhancement.

Some training sessions will often need to be performed under some fatigue, even if this is not optimal. Deciding which sessions we need to be fresh for is a key question and should be based on an understanding of the sport and the athlete’s needs

In many training programmes there is an inverse relationship between volume and intensity – that is, if volume is high, intensity is low and vice versa.

Some adaptations are relatively easy to explain based on physiological mechanisms.

Pareto’s Principle is not the exact figures describing the relationship (i.e. is it 80/20, 70/30, 80/30 etc) but rather the spirit of the principle.

GAS based mechanism of adaptation. Similarly, the description of base building has been focussed on higher volume, general training that is performed towards the start of a competitive season.

A logical question would be to ask why volume is progressively overloaded prior to intensity. This order is primarily driven by the demands of competition.