What is GAS?

I know what your thinking. Gas. Everyone has it, nobody wants it, and it’s the easiest way to clear a room full of enemies. 

But today we’re talking about a different kind of gas. A super powered gas that if applied will exponentially increase your gains: general adaptation syndrome.

What is general adaptation syndrome?

The theory of general adaptation syndrome was developed in 1946 by Dr. Hans Seyle. It describes the bodies reactions to continued “non-specific” stress. 

The term non-specific means unusual or new/foreign. A specific stress would be  like saying one single known stressor (anthrax bacillus) caused one specific disease (anthrax). At the time of his article the popular belief was that specific stressors did in fact cause specific diseases.

Dr. Seyle basically pumped the breaks with a steady dose of non-invasive animal experiments. Through subjecting animals to many different types of nonspecific stress (flashing lights, heat, cold, etc.) he showed that a combination of stressors all created a single reaction type. 

In other words, your body reacts in predictable ways to all sorts of problems thrown at it by responding in stages. 

Alarm, resistance, exhaustion

Dr. Seyle defined three phases the body progresses through in response to stress: alarm, resistance, and exhaustion. 

The alarm phase describes how the body is exposed to the total of all foreign stimuli. This phase can be unique. For example, think of a young kid going on a roller coaster for the first time with his old man. 

Both  kid and dad are experiencing the same foreign stimuli: gravitational pull and decent preceded by the climb and the drop. But as you already guessed, they react differently. The old man has been around the block. He knows what to expect, and the drop will not catch him off guard. The young man is experiencing this for the first time, and may end up crying all the way down. 

Same stimulus, different response. Stimulus can result in positive stressors that bring joy. Even perceived negative stress can be a good thing if it leads to physical, mental, or spiritual growth.

During the resistance phase, the body reacts to foreign stimulus until it reaches a point of adaptation over prolonged periods of exposure. Resistance training brings about hypertrophy or muscle growth adaptations. Heavy weights cause the body to adapt and develop methods to overcome them.

A key point Dr. Seyle made is that these adaptations to a certain type of agent come at the expense to other agents. This makes sense when you think about it. For example, let’s say you’re training for strength. You can now squat 315 lbs. 

Congratulations. You get the gold star. Turns out on the first day of training camp coach wants you to run 3 miles. You’ve gotten really good in one area, but at the expense of aerobic conditioning and metabolic adaptations (which depending upon your sport may not be a big deal).

The truth is you can’t train for everything, but you can train in an environment that closely mimics your sport and brings about the required adaptations for improved performance. 

During the exhaustion phase, very prolonged exposure to stimuli bring about overload. In sports we call this overtraining or over reaching. Often when an athlete is continually exposed to heavy stimuli over long periods of time, the body starts to break down and can no longer resist external forces that were once normal.

How does this affect my training?

By now your probably wondering what all this has to do with your training. It’s simple. 

During the first few weeks of a new training program, you enter the alarm phase. New stimulus in the form of external resistance (weight machines, plates, dumbbells, running) are foreign and cause a type of shock to occur in the body.

As you progress, your body enters the resistance phase and adapts to the foreign stimulus. These adaptations may come in the form of increased muscle cross sectional area, hypertrophy, endurance, or agility to name a few. The type of adaptations depend on the number of sets, repetitions, exercise selection, and rest periods used to name a few. 

If you always train in the exact same way, your body will adapt and progress will stop. The key is to set yourself up for success with simple progressions moving between alarm and resistance phases.

Over periods of weeks and months of continuous training it is possible to enter the exhaustion phase. Your body starts to break down and can no longer withstand the continual pressures it once was adapted to. 

That’s why the OPT model and others like it exist. This model of training encourages even trained athletes to take time off each year and enter a stabilization phase where the training load decreases, eccentric time under tension increases, and core strength is the goal.

Sources

Selye, H. (1946). The general adaptation syndrome and the diseases of adaptation. The journal of clinical endocrinology, 6(2), 117-230.